MacOS – Is it safe to remove APFS containers

apfsdisk-utilityhigh sierramacos

I have upgraded my Mac to High Sierra. So I was just looking at the features when I saw APFS container in Disk Utility. I googled it and found out that it is used for multiple logical drives but I thought I don't require it so is it safe to delete the containers?

PS. I would also like to know the other features of APFS containers.

Output of diskutil apfs list:

APFS Container (1 found)
|
+-< Container disk1 2EE47F12-9699-433D-AECF-167CB27FDDF0
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk1
    Capacity Ceiling (Size):      121123069952 B (121.1 GB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   39590055936 B (39.6 GB) (32.7% used)
    Capacity Available:           81533014016 B (81.5 GB) (67.3% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk0s2 7E9192B8-7976-4CBF-AE7C-C7B9D5E49F65
    |   -----------------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk0s2
    |   Size:                       121123069952 B (121.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s1 578EF44C-A052-3F3F-BBE4-B254D82C57F2
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s1 (No specific role)
    |   Name:                      Macintosh HD (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               /
    |   Capacity Consumed:         37848293376 B (37.8 GB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s2 2DC1D14B-7E91-4F17-83CE-40E5435303FE
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s2 (Preboot)
    |   Name:                      Preboot (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         21651456 B (21.7 MB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s3 3C4A7A25-7E07-48EC-B942-4DA9007D1538
    |   ---------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s3 (Recovery)
    |   Name:                      Recovery (Case-insensitive)
    |   Mount Point:               Not Mounted
    |   Capacity Consumed:         519995392 B (520.0 MB)
    |   Encrypted:                 No
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s4 57093D4B-CDF1-4286-BC5C-6ED2DB620DD1
        ---------------------------------------------------
        APFS Volume Disk (Role):   disk1s4 (VM)
        Name:                      VM (Case-insensitive)
        Mount Point:               /private/var/vm
        Capacity Consumed:         1073762304 B (1.1 GB)
        Encrypted:                 No

Best Answer

It's not safe to remove your container - but it shouldn't work anyway.

The container disk1 with the physical base disk0s2 contains your boot partition (disk1s1), the recovery partition (disk1s3), a partition with the virtual memory file(s) (disk1s4) and the preboot partition (disk1s2).

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