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com.apple.mobileSo formatted my ssd??

so all of my apps quit working last night, tried the usual troubleshooting stuff:


quit and reopen - apps weren't responding so I had to force quit


restart the Mac - got frozen during restart and went completely black


yelled at it - just sat there being inanimate with no emotional responses


this morning I come to turn it back on, and I had to hold the power button down to turn it off because it was still on, and nothing was responding but the internet, and activity monitor didn't have anything crazy going on

but I noticed that where my app icons and thumbnails once were, some of them anyway, now stood big empty question marks

went into recovery mode, started running first aid on all volumes, from the bottom up (volumes, container, disk) got to a certain spot then froze up again while I was in the middle of first aid On a removable volume that is running macos


had to force restart again, this time, after just ripping the external out (couldn't really eject it since the computer wouldn't respond


ran first aid on the main internal drives/volumes, again in ascending order, but this time the log didn't just say "checking x, checking y, checking z, everything appears to be ok, remounting disk"


this time it said:



"Verifying file system.

Performing fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk3s3

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the checkpoint with transaction ID 760491.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking the encryption key structures.

Checking volume /dev/rdisk3s3.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

The volume Macintosh HD was formatted by com.apple.MobileSo (2142.120.7) and last modified by apfs_kext (2142.120.7).

Checking the object map.

Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

Checking the snapshot metadata.

Checking snapshot 1 of 1 (com.apple.os.update-3379F3DC95CFF07D9D49D5CE34EF1CCB1E66EF7D12A3055A5D1A0D2695C12EDE)

Checking the fsroot tree.

Checking the file extent tree.

Checking the extent ref tree.

Verifying volume object map space.

Verifying allocated space.

The volume /dev/rdisk3s3 appears to be OK.

File system check exit code is 0.

Restoring the original state found as mounted.


Operation successful."


I have done this many times with many Macs and never seen where my hd was formatted by anything unless I was formatting a drive to prep for macOS installation


fun fact: everything started running slow the last few days, with apps crashing more than usual (I only use this Mac Studio for music production) so I then enabled the security features on the mac and on iCloud Drive, and that is when things started going screwy, as mentioned above. now I c an get online and my messages app opens again finally, but im still missing some apps - when hovered over, the question marks still come up as the app, but the icon is gone, and im afraid to try and open them without messing something else up


Mac Studio (2022)

Posted on Jul 16, 2023 8:56 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 29, 2023 5:54 PM

Same issue I've been fighting as above. Exact error message on all my devices. Mac HD apfs system volume is being reformatted on my MacBook Air M1, M2, and Mac mini M2 every hard drive has been reformatted by “apple.Mobile.So”

The brand new MacBook M2 was brand new the second one of two because I couldn’t erase and once activated the malware overtakes the system within moments and system processes that this fake Mac HD that’s running will open up hundreds of outside connections interesting thing is all disguised by applications like Malwarebytes, avast, clean my Mac. And will make plist files disabling any antivirus or anything that may detect what’s going on in the background. It’s worth noting there has been no Apple ID inputted, all comes through my SonicWall firewall. The only thing that I’m suspicious of iPhone 15 will not be restored through iTunes and gives me an error code that when looked up indicates the phones OS has been tampered and it is on the same network as all of these computers that are all running a fake OS! It pains me to say is I’ve been a member of the Apple family since the iPhone 4 but Apple just went from the most secure OS to the most insecure OS as of late I’ll be taking all three of these devices in and hopefully getting refund.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 29, 2023 5:54 PM in response to a_r_kitekt

Same issue I've been fighting as above. Exact error message on all my devices. Mac HD apfs system volume is being reformatted on my MacBook Air M1, M2, and Mac mini M2 every hard drive has been reformatted by “apple.Mobile.So”

The brand new MacBook M2 was brand new the second one of two because I couldn’t erase and once activated the malware overtakes the system within moments and system processes that this fake Mac HD that’s running will open up hundreds of outside connections interesting thing is all disguised by applications like Malwarebytes, avast, clean my Mac. And will make plist files disabling any antivirus or anything that may detect what’s going on in the background. It’s worth noting there has been no Apple ID inputted, all comes through my SonicWall firewall. The only thing that I’m suspicious of iPhone 15 will not be restored through iTunes and gives me an error code that when looked up indicates the phones OS has been tampered and it is on the same network as all of these computers that are all running a fake OS! It pains me to say is I’ve been a member of the Apple family since the iPhone 4 but Apple just went from the most secure OS to the most insecure OS as of late I’ll be taking all three of these devices in and hopefully getting refund.

Jul 16, 2023 9:08 AM in response to a_r_kitekt

a_r_kitekt wrote:

so all of my apps quit working last night, tried the usual troubleshooting stuff:

everything started running slow the last few days, with apps crashing more than usual (I only use this Mac Studio for music production) so I then enabled the security features on the mac and on iCloud Drive, and that is when things started going screwy, as mentioned above. now I c an get online and my messages app opens again finally, but im still missing some apps - when hovered over, the question marks still come up as the app, but the icon is gone, and im afraid to try and open them without messing something else up


Sounds like your drive is failing.


I would take it in—


In or out of warranty you can get a free over the counter 'Apple Service Diagnostics' test /assessment

Make an appointment for a "hardware issue"

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple


Outside the USA

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support



Nov 30, 2023 1:53 PM in response to Admiraloftheblack

Admiraloftheblack wrote:

Same issue I've been fighting as above. Exact error message on all my devices. Mac HD apfs system volume is being reformatted on my MacBook Air M1, M2, and Mac mini M2 every hard drive has been reformatted by “apple.Mobile.So”

This is most likely either from Apple's automated process of configuring the original file system or maybe from a remote wipe. It has not been reformatted without your consent since you received the Mac since that would have destroyed all data on the drive.


The brand new MacBook M2 was brand new the second one of two because I couldn’t erase and once activated the malware overtakes the system within moments and system processes that this fake Mac HD that’s running will open up hundreds of outside connections interesting thing is all disguised by applications like Malwarebytes, avast, clean my Mac. And will make plist files disabling any antivirus or anything that may detect what’s going on in the background. It’s worth noting there has been no Apple ID inputted, all comes through my SonicWall firewall. The only thing that I’m suspicious of iPhone 15 will not be restored through iTunes and gives me an error code that when looked up indicates the phones OS has been tampered and it is on the same network as all of these computers that are all running a fake OS! It pains me to say is I’ve been a member of the Apple family since the iPhone 4 but Apple just went from the most secure OS to the most insecure OS as of late I’ll be taking all three of these devices in and hopefully getting refund.

If you want assistance with any of this, then please start your own thread instead of hijacking another thread for something completely different than the OP's original issue/question. It is hard enough to help multiple users in a single thread even when the issue appears similar. It is best & easier for everyone to have individual threads.


Also, please use a bit of formatting since one long paragraph is hard to read. I stopped reading halfway through because I was getting lost & confused. Notice how I have used multiple paragraphs in my response? Or how the OP and @leroydouglas also formatted their posts?

Aug 19, 2023 8:21 PM in response to leroydouglas

I thank you, I truly do, but one question - the drive being an external non-apple ssd, would they still look at it? I believe it's a Samsung name ssd. and its then 980, or 890 or whatever - the one that everyone posted the videos about I didn't see until after the fact - that was a bad batch of drives that failed very early on for a lot of people. I just left teh drive out of the equation and got a different one, and no more trouble. mostly. one app still shows up as a ? until I click on it. thanks a ton, though! you were correct that a drive was failing, for sure! just not an apple one, thank zeus


com.apple.mobileSo formatted my ssd??

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