So far the evidence given has shown the reliability of APFS, but a revelation has shown that APFS has a flaw that can lead to data loss. APFS is designed to be a reactive system devised to perform frequent tasks on an instant basis, such as duplicating a file and calculating the size of the contents of a folder. This new file system ensures maximum information protection as it provides integrated encryption, Anti-lock protection and simplified data backup.
Failure discovered in APFS
The APFS problem was revealed by Mike Bombich, the creator of Carbon Copy Cloner, one of the most well-known applications in the macOS universe for backing up to macOS, which detailed how he discovered the crash and what damages might occur. Mike Bombich explained that the crash was discovered when he was developing his application and that it only affects drives formatted with Apple’s new file system. This comes up on sparse disk images, which are virtual volumes of macOS, designed to handle backups and installation of applications, but which Apple OS treats as if they were external disks.
The APFS problem in macOS High Sierra
The error is simple to be provoked and manifests itself as follows:-
A user creates a 50GB sparse disk image formatted in APFS, which stores their data on a 50GB network share; The user copies data to the network share using 40 GB of space; The APFS disk image file is not updated, and continues to display 50 GB of free space; The user attempts to copy a 20 GB file to the disk image; The copy operation proceeds as planned. The user will still be able to access and open the file after the copy operation, and the checksum is identical to the original file; The user restarts the computer; The copied file becomes corrupted since 10 GB of data disappear.
Is it a problem that can affect many users?
Having APFS been applied with the installation of macOS High Sierra, this problem should be on all machines with this version of the Apple operating system. However, as Mike Bombich reveals, this failure does not affect normal APFS volumes, such as boot-up and other SSDs, and should not impact most users. The problem is even with the disks normally used for backups, accessible by network, and where users deposit their data. The creator of Carbon Copy Cloner has warned that his application will no longer support these “sparse” disk images formatted for APFS until the tech giant Apple solves this problem. So, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
