Incompatible disk warning after re-installing Mojave

Question

Level 1

8 points

Incompatible disk warning after re-installing Mojave

Hello, I re-installed Mojave after finding Big Sur too sluggish on my iMac. After startup I always have an "Incompatible Disk. This disk uses features that are not supported on this version of MacOS" warning that does not go away. Running Disk Utility First Aid I see the following :

The volume Macintosh HD was formatted by storagekitd (1677.50.1) and last modified by apfs_kext (1677.120.9).

warning: apfs_sb at apfs_fs_index (4): apfs_features has unrecognized features (10)

error: apfs_sb at apfs_fs_index (4): apfs_incompatible_features has unsupported flags: (0x20)

Volume superblock is invalid.

The volume /dev/disk1s2 could not be verified completely.

Storage system check exit code is 0.

What should I do? I see some recommending to completely erase the disk and then re-install - as this will once again take hours are there any simpler solutions?

thanks

Jan

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.14

Posted on May 31, 2021 1:39 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,098 points

May 31, 2021 6:28 PM in response to stomberg

The reason is you did not erase the whole physical drive before installing Mojave. By not erasing the whole physical drive you have left behind at least two APFS volumes that are not used by Mojave ("Macintosh HD - Data" and "Updates"), but I don't know if this is the only thing causing the error message.

Reply

Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

60,098 points

Jun 3, 2021 4:57 PM in response to stomberg

As @BDAqua says you then need to select the physical drive as I described previously and erase it as GUID partition and APFS (top option).

FYI, it is always recommended to partition and format drives using the tools with the version of the OS you are installing, otherwise you can have issues like you have described since utilities within newer versions of macOS may use features not available to older versions of macOS.

I just had this happen to one of your organization's Macs that I was working on as I inadvertently used a newer version of macOS to erase the drive when I cloned the old OS back to the drive. I received the "Incompatible" disk warning which mentioned some features could not be used by the OS. I erased the whole physical SSD as I described in my last post and it resolved the issue. I know it works and it will resolve this error you are seeing.

I seem to have forgotten to include the exact instructions in my previous post. Beginning with macOS 10.13 Disk Utility now defaults to hiding the physical drive from view by default. So within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Erase the whole physical drive as GUID partition and APFS (top option). Sorry about this omission in my earlier post.

Reply

Answer 3

stomberg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 4, 2021 12:45 AM in response to HWTech

thanks to all for your prompt responses. as this will take several hours and backups I prefer to be certain as to what I do. Here's what disk utility shows me :

Reply

Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

244,943 points

Jun 3, 2021 2:12 PM in response to stomberg

Sounds like you're not selecting the whole drive.

Reply

Answer 5

stomberg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 3, 2021 8:04 AM in response to HWTech

thanks for your reply - I have now erased those drives (-data, -update) but there's still an error message, or at least a notification - this drive has functions not supported (or something similar, sorry I don't have the precise wording this time) - perhaps because it's formatted APFS? I just tried to restart and wipe the drive to go back to earlier file formats (MacOS) but Disk Utility doesn't let me choose anything other than APFS...?

Reply

Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

244,943 points

May 31, 2021 2:16 PM in response to stomberg

I get that too, but have seen no ill effect from it, so I just don't worry about it.

Reply

Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

244,943 points

Jun 4, 2021 10:24 AM in response to stomberg

Have you tried unmounting the drive in Terminal?

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 3, 2021 6:38 PM in response to stomberg

Big Sur has introduced enhanced features to APFS that were not implemented with APFS on Mojave.

Reply

Answer 9

HWTech

Level 9

60,098 points

Jun 4, 2021 6:33 AM in response to stomberg

You will want to select the "Fusion Drive" item to erase as GUID partition and APFS (top option).

Reply

Answer 10

stomberg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 4, 2021 9:31 AM in response to HWTech

when I select Fusion Drive (the highest level) the erase option is greyed out. I can select “container disk 2” and choose APFS but I don’t see a mention of GUID partition?

Reply

Answer 11

BDAqua

Level 10

244,943 points

Jun 4, 2021 9:53 AM in response to stomberg

Is something on that drive in use?

Can you first erase it to ExFAT?

Reply

Answer 12

stomberg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 4, 2021 10:13 AM in response to BDAqua

There shouldn’t be anything in use, I’m using the installation routine (option at startup then disk utility). And no the button is greyed out I cannot erase whatever format I’d like.

Reply

Answer 13

stomberg Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 4, 2021 10:14 AM in response to stomberg

And I’m using an external bootable drive with Mojave installer

Reply

Incompatible disk warning after re-installing Mojave

Similar questions