Remove macOS from a APFS container

apfsdisk-utilitymojavepartition

I'm interested in taking a look as macOS Mojave but am not willing to install it on my main production machine. However, I do not have another Mac to hand so have found myself upon this guide from Apple, walking you through the steps to install macOS Mojave on a seperate APFS volume on your normal Mac, easing many of the risks associated with running Beta software.

Whilst the guide makes it quite clear how to install Mojave on this new APFS volume, my question is: when I am done with macOS Mojave, how exactly would I remove this separate APFS volume and give it back to my normal installation of macOS High Sierra? Is this something easily done from Disk Utility or is is a slightly more complicated process involving the use of Terminal?

Thank you in advance for any help,
Kind regards, Rocco

Best Answer

This answer is a continuation of my answer to the question: APFS - Is it possible to install 2 macOS versions inside one APFS container?

You can use Disk Utility under High Sierra to remove the APFS volume containing Mojava. However, removing Mojave also requires steps where commands are issued in a Terminal application window. Below are the steps I used to remove the Mojava.

Open the Disk Utility application.
Get the file system UUID of the Mojave 1 volume . Right click the icon labeled Mojava 1 in the Disk Utility application and select Get Info. In my case, the file system UUID is 0FF6C520-6C07-40ED-9AED-FD6E28A6E406.
Use Disk Utility to remove the APFS volume containing Mojava. Right click on the icon labeled Mojava 1 in the Disk Utility application and select Delete APFS Volume....
Boot to macOS Recovery.
Open a Terminal application window.
Enter the command below to disable System Integrity Protect (SIP) on next restart.
```
sudo  csrutil  disable
```
Boot back to High Sierra.
Open a Terminal application Window.

Enter the commands below to remove Mojava from APFS Volume Preboot.

diskutil  mount  disk2s2
cd /Volumes/Preboot
rm  -Rf  0FF6C520-6C07-40ED-9AED-FD6E28A6E406
cd  ~
diskutil  unmount  disk2s2

Enter the commands below to remove Mojava from APFS Volume My Recovery.

diskutil  mount  disk2s3
cd  "/Volumes/My Recovery"
rm  -Rf  0FF6C520-6C07-40ED-9AED-FD6E28A6E406
cd  ~
diskutil  unmount  disk2s3

Reset the SIP settings, by entering the command given below.
```
sudo  csrutil  clear
```
Restart the Mac

Related Solutions

APFS container over multiple physical disks

There is no official documented way to add another physical storage to an existing APFS container.

I tried several possibly "undocumented" apfsVerbs like addPhysical, addPhysicalStorage or addStorage without success.

The feature may still be implemented later, since creating APFS FusionLCs is possible already:

diskutil ap createContainer [-main] device [-secondary] [device]

Example:

$ diskutil ap createContainer disk1s2 disk2s2    
Creating container with disk1s2 disk2s2
Started APFS operation on disk1s2 Data
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Unmounting Volumes
Switching disk1s2 to APFS
Switching disk2s2 to APFS
Creating APFS Container
FusionLC autodetect: LC Fusion
Created new APFS Container disk4
Disk from APFS operation: disk4
Finished APFS operation on disk1s2 Data

$ diskutil ap addVolume disk4 APFS Data
Exporting new unencrypted APFS Volume "Data" from APFS Container Reference disk4
Started APFS operation on disk4
Preparing to add APFS Volume to APFS Container disk4
Creating APFS Volume
Created new APFS Volume disk4s1
Mounting APFS Volume
Setting volume permissions
Disk from APFS operation: disk4s1
Finished APFS operation on disk4

Can’t resize APFS Container: Not enough free space in Container due to APFS limits or tidemarks

This is the key part of the error message:

(perhaps caused by APFS Snapshot usage by Time Machine)

You must remove the local snapshots. First, list them:

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

You may wish / need to delete local snapshots one by one from taking the date from the listing above:

$ tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2018-07-14-211120

You can also thin them based on the amount of space you wish to reclaim by asking for a lot of space back:

$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 9999999999999

Then, you can resize your APFS partition:

$ sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 750g

Best Answer

Related Solutions

APFS container over multiple physical disks

Can’t resize APFS Container: Not enough free space in Container due to APFS limits or tidemarks

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