Time Machine only shows 'case-sensitive' after formatting backup drive, fails and asks it to be renamed, leading to other problems
I always thought any *nix-based system like OS X would be case-sensitive, although (just tested to make sure!) on Big Sur I cannot create 'FILE1' and 'file1' in the same folder, so it appears case-insensitive.
However, after it has formatted my backup drive, Time Machine only has a "case sensitive" option? The drive is shown at the top (as the external drive icon and title, not selectable, with only "Remove Disk" as an option) with the same Time Machine icon and same drive name beneath it, marked 'Case-sensitive'—I presume this is the usual interface and default choice?
After the first attempt, however, Time Machine fails (red question mark to right) and asks me to rename "one of the disks" (when there's only one connected) to a long string: "APPLE SSD APO512M Media - Data" although renaming it simply causes Time Machine to show two identically-named disks
However, after renaming to the string above and relaunching Time Machine, my renamed disk appeared twice (again) and on choosing the second case-sensitive (and only possible) option in the list of external disks the backup went ahead. Why the two identically-named disks, with one marked "case-sensitive"? After the first renaming from "backup| to the above, Time Machine showed the following:
But "Backup" changed to the long name as soon as I selected "choose" for the second disk (with the long name) in the list.
I do a lot of web development on Linux servers, so I'm used to case-sensitivity, and I don't use any Adobe products (I understand they clash with case-sensitive drives) so what issues might I encounter with my separate but very similar backups from two non-M1 laptops running Big Sur or later?
diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 500.0 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk1
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 563.2 MB disk1s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 313.4 MB disk1s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 622.8 MB disk1s3
4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4
5: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 114.7 GB disk1s5
6: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Media 15.3 GB disk1s7
7: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.3 GB disk1s7s1
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *5.0 TB disk2
1: Microsoft Reserved 134.2 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 5.0 TB disk2s2
Without the external drive:
% diskutil list internal
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 500.0 GB disk0s2
/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: APFS Container Scheme - +500.0 GB disk1
Physical Store disk0s2
1: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 562.8 MB disk1s1
2: APFS Volume Preboot 313.4 MB disk1s2
3: APFS Volume Recovery 622.8 MB disk1s3
4: APFS Volume VM 1.1 GB disk1s4
5: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 126.9 GB disk1s5
6: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Media 15.3 GB disk1s7
7: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 15.3 GB disk1s7s1
Running diskutil ap listgroups after removing the extra (case insensitive) disc via the Time Machine interface:
diskutil ap listgroups
APFS Containers (2 found)
|
+-- Container disk1 817F6958-3C62-4EDB-A445-A960AF3396E8
| |
| +-> Volume Group B696A136-89E9-4997-9E61-0061EC256CB0
| =================================================
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s5 (Data)
| Name: APPLE SSD APO512M Media - Data
| Volume UUID: B696A136-89E9-4997-9E61-0061EC256CB0
| Capacity Consumed: 119796424704 B (119.8 GB)
| -------------------------------------------------
| APFS Volume Disk (Role): disk1s7 (System)
| Name: APPLE SSD APO512M Media
| Volume UUID: 684AFD14-2E4E-4CDC-AD01-F8FC648F692A
| Capacity Consumed: 15332147200 B (15.3 GB)
|
+-- Container disk3 D68F4756-2B56-47E9-8E3A-AF8F0F132ADD
|
+-> No Volume Groups among 1 Volume
daveeveritt@Daves-MacBook-Air ~ %
Finally, what I see (I added comments about what each contains on Jean_JD's answer). I have no idea yet what my Time Machine backups contain:
I think the problem is a that you have two volumes named "APPLE SSD APO512M Media - Data" It's the message given by Time Machine.
I think this one is to delete :
1: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 563.2 MB disk1s1
You can verify by this command :
diskutil ap listgroups
The system group would be constitued by this two volumes :
5: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Me... 114.7 GB disk1s5
6: APFS Volume APPLE SSD APO512M Media 15.3 GB disk1s7
Data for disk1s5
System for disk1s7
If ok you can delete the excess volume :
diskutil ap deletevolume disk1s1
And after your Time Machine save should no longer be a problem
Do you see two "Data" partitions on Macintosh HD ?. If yes, this is causing the problem. Cheers.
(Dave): posting screenshot here, see comment:
