What is 'Not Mounted' container mean on my MacBook Pro running macOS Sonoma?

Hi.

Macbook Pro 2020

Still running Sonoma.


I do realise I need to off load some stuff, as I'm getting to the max on my HD as it's running slow, which I plan to do.

Could someone have a look at these screen captures for me, and tell me what they think the blue-circled unmounted section is, please?

I have included all the other screen captures to see if it helps you in any way.

Hopefully, I have uploaded them in order.

Thanks for any replies.









[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.7

Posted on Mar 22, 2025 3:10 AM

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Posted on Mar 22, 2025 12:39 PM

That is a system snapshot of macOS. Since macOS 10.15 Catalina, the system files have resided on two APFS volumes......one is the read-only APFS boot volume itself while the other one is a hidden APFS snapshot containing the macOS updated/patched system that will replace the first one once the update patch is applied after rebooting the system.


In macOS 10.15 Catalina, that volume was actually called "Update". In macOS 11.x Big Sur it was renamed to "com.apple.os.update" with later versions of macOS it was renamed once again just to match the name of the main system volume with the "update" portion hidden from view unless you highlight it like you did in your screenshots where it clearly shows "com.apple.os.update-<UUID-of-snapshot>".


Of course the home user folder(s) and your data reside on yet another APFS volume called "Data", or on the older versions of macOS "Macintosh HD - Data".


There are several other hidden APFS volumes for Preboot, VM (aka Virtual Memory...aka swap), and Recover (containing the recovery boot files). M-series Macs contain two other hidden APFS Containers (aka partitions) which contain other hidden APFS volumes used for the system firmware & the earlier stages of booting the M-series Mac).


See this Apple article for some limited details regarding the new drive layouts associated with macOS 10.15+:

Signed system volume security - Apple Support




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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 22, 2025 12:39 PM in response to DoogyDawg

That is a system snapshot of macOS. Since macOS 10.15 Catalina, the system files have resided on two APFS volumes......one is the read-only APFS boot volume itself while the other one is a hidden APFS snapshot containing the macOS updated/patched system that will replace the first one once the update patch is applied after rebooting the system.


In macOS 10.15 Catalina, that volume was actually called "Update". In macOS 11.x Big Sur it was renamed to "com.apple.os.update" with later versions of macOS it was renamed once again just to match the name of the main system volume with the "update" portion hidden from view unless you highlight it like you did in your screenshots where it clearly shows "com.apple.os.update-<UUID-of-snapshot>".


Of course the home user folder(s) and your data reside on yet another APFS volume called "Data", or on the older versions of macOS "Macintosh HD - Data".


There are several other hidden APFS volumes for Preboot, VM (aka Virtual Memory...aka swap), and Recover (containing the recovery boot files). M-series Macs contain two other hidden APFS Containers (aka partitions) which contain other hidden APFS volumes used for the system firmware & the earlier stages of booting the M-series Mac).


See this Apple article for some limited details regarding the new drive layouts associated with macOS 10.15+:

Signed system volume security - Apple Support




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Mar 22, 2025 3:25 AM in response to DoogyDawg

In my setup on an Apple Silicon Computer


The Not mounted container is probably the Recovery Volume




#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER


   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +494.4 GB   disk3


                                 Physical Store disk0s2


   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            11.2 GB    disk3s1


   2:              APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.2 GB    disk3s1s1


   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 7.0 GB     disk3s2


   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk3s3


   5:                APFS Volume Data                    30.0 GB    disk3s5


   6:                APFS Volume VM                      20.5 KB    disk3s6



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What is 'Not Mounted' container mean on my MacBook Pro running macOS Sonoma?

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