Apples new file system APFS

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FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#210509 30-Mar-2017 15:36

RogerMellie wrote here

Hats off to Apple's iOS team for accomplishing introducing a new file system so smoothly.

My iPhone 7 update went very smoothly and yes my phone is more snappy, screen a tad brighter and I believe I have a touch more Gb's of space.

I just hope APFS for macOS goes just as smoothly.

So with the release of APFS in iOS I thought now might be a good time to start discussing Apples new file system APFS, especially what effect it will have on Apples desktop & laptop range running macOS.

I presume APFS will be released with macOS 10.13.0, announced in June 2017 at the WWDC and released at the conference in our spring this year- maybe??

A good short article here: 10 Things You Should Know About APFS; Apple’s New File System.

Of course 3rd party backup software (e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner) will have to be rewritten virtually from scratch.

This maybe why present Time Capsules are rumoured to be discontinued in the near future. I personally think they will continue with the entire range, only because it is the easiest mum & pop backup and home networking system out there. The new hardware will pack in the latest in wireless technology (hardware & software) and also pack multiple SSD's all running on a background of APFS.

Security will be a hell of lot tighter and with Apple buying up security software companies like Little Flocker which detects ransomeware & spyware, we all hope the new file system will keep crim's at bay longer.

Of course the new file system is designed for todays technology (SSD's etc), so like your iDevice's, should run faster and be very snappy. OS updates will be quicker as things are more compartmentalised. Also don't forget the demise of the 32bit file system TOTALLY.

So will Apple pull this off with macOS as well as they have with iOS10.3, I certainly hope so - here's to a long beta testing phase.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Behodar

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#1750762 30-Mar-2017 16:04

Note that APFS is already available for testing in 10.12 - you need to use Terminal to create a volume but can access it through Finder once it's set up.

The current version is case-sensitive so there could be some interesting compatibility issues there! iOS has always used a case-sensitive version of HFS but on the desktop it's a different story.

matisyahu

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#1765023 16-Apr-2017 14:45

Behodar:

Note that APFS is already available for testing in 10.12 - you need to use Terminal to create a volume but can access it through Finder once it's set up.

The current version is case-sensitive so there could be some interesting compatibility issues there! iOS has always used a case-sensitive version of HFS but on the desktop it's a different story.

As of 10.12.4 you can format it to be case insensitive but by default it formats as case sensitive so it'll be interesting to see what happens and whether clean installs which require a formatting go to case sensitive but converted file systems remain case insensitive.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

toyonut

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#1765121 16-Apr-2017 19:44

FineWine:

screen a tad brighter

That is the mark of a great file system

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

lxsw20

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#1765214 16-Apr-2017 23:46

My guess is that time machine will move to cloud based. You already have the option of storing most of your profile in iCloud.

richms

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#1765221 17-Apr-2017 02:55

lxsw20:

My guess is that time machine will move to cloud based. You already have the option of storing most of your profile in iCloud.

They will have to still have a local backup solution for people in Australia on their generous 1 or 2 megabit upstream plans.

Richard rich.ms

FineWine

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#1765227 17-Apr-2017 08:37

richms:
lxsw20:

My guess is that time machine will move to cloud based. You already have the option of storing most of your profile in iCloud.

They will have to still have a local backup solution for people in Australia on their generous 1 or 2 megabit upstream plans.

Yes they will have to start being competitive to the likes of Dropbox.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

lxsw20

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#1765229 17-Apr-2017 08:42

They already have iCloud drive.

alasta

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#1765230 17-Apr-2017 08:46

I don't really think cloud backup solutions are practical for those of us who don't have fibre because you would have a massive amount of data to transfer the first time you run a cloud backup, and again if you ever need to do a restore.

matisyahu

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#1769001 22-Apr-2017 19:09

lxsw20:

My guess is that time machine will move to cloud based. You already have the option of storing most of your profile in iCloud.

I doubt it - they've got snapshot capabilities baked right into APFS so on a good side it'll mean that Apple will move away from the hacked up approach they've used to get things working on HFS+ in favour of hopefully a smoother more native experience because it'll be baked into the actual file system itself.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"