Mojave crashes, reported error/warning

[stubbsonic]

With my mid-2012 retina MBP running Mojave, I've been having occasional but relatively harmless system freezes/hangs. After a forced restart, my work is preserved somehow.

I recently did a a brief test of Pro Tools First, which was a bust so I uninstalled it manually. Since then it seems my system hangs a bit more often.

Disk First Aid now shows:

"error: btn: invalid key order (o) oid xxxxx /xid xxxxxxx snapshot is invalid"

Drive Genius shows this:

"Warning: inode_val: object (oid xxxxxxx): invalid internal_flags (xxxxxxx).."

Neither utility can repair this

I obviously don't know if this disk error is related to my system hangs. If it might be, I wonder if I am due for another fresh install (of everything),
or if reinstalling the MacOS in place will sort it.

Any thoughs?

[bayswater]

PT is pretty intrusive. By "manually", do you mean just deleting the app, or following the procedures listed in various sites get rid of all the junk it puts all over your drive?

[stubbsonic]

What I did was pretty extensive (based on instructions from Avid, and running Avid Link uninstaller) and manually finding various bits & bobs all over the shop.

I don't really understand this "damage," but it's not the first time Disk First Aid or Drive Genius have proven to be useless.

Before I roll up my sleeves for the big clean install, I'll do a CCC clone.

[bayswater]

How about trying a new User account first?

[stubbsonic]

The issue is a disk error that can't be fixed with First Aid or Drive Genius. My worry (based largely on ignorance, perhaps) is that this problem might cause other problems if I don't do a re-format and clean install. I had to do it in 2015, so perhaps I'm due. At any rate, it can be a "cleansing time" to reflect on things I never use and clean up the shop a bit. I'll confess I'm a not-very-prolific "accumulator".

[mikehalloran]

HDD or SSD?

[stubbsonic]

500 GB SSD (the one that shipped from Apple with this model). Formatted as APFS volume. 220 GB free, "Owners Enabled". Trim Support shows "Yes" in the system profile. Partition type GPT (GUID Partition Table) The "Container" shows 200 GB free (the bar graph appears in red, oddly).

Let me know if there are other details that would be helpful.

THANK YOU!

[mikehalloran]

500 GB SSD (the one that shipped from Apple with this model). Formatted as APFS volume. 220 GB free, "Owners Enabled". Trim Support shows "Yes" in the system profile. Partition type GPT (GUID Partition Table) The "Container" shows 200 GB free (the bar graph appears in red, oddly).

Let me know if there are other details that would be helpful.

THANK YOU!

It's a SATA III blade that's over 8 years old. The 2012 iMac and MBP Retina used that design for one year before going to the AHCI blades in mid 2013. The two are not interchangeable.

Fortunately, OWC still carries these (till present stock is exhausted, at least).
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc ... /2012-2013

Although it might be a good idea to replace an 8 year old SSD, that is probably not your problem.


I would reinstall Mojave through Internet Recovery. You'll boot into the Repair Partition by holding the Command r keys on start. Select Reinstall MacOS. This will download and reinstall the latest version of Mojave. Will this fix anything? Maybe—I've had a lot of success with this in Mojave and Catalina. This should clear old snapshots so make sure you have a recent Time Machine backup before doing this. It should not affect your data, otherwise.

Ir you cannot boot into the Repair Partition, let me know.

Afterwards, I'd Reset the Launch Services and do a Safe Boot.

[stubbsonic]

It's a SATA III blade that's over 8 years old. The 2012 iMac and MBP Retina used that design for one year before going to the AHCI blades in mid 2013. The two are not interchangeable.

Fortunately, OWC still carries these (till present stock is exhausted, at least).
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc ... /2012-2013

Although it might be a good idea to replace an 8 year old SSD, that is probably not your problem.

I was wondering if the drive might be starting to fail. It's good to know that 8 years is a good time to look at replacement. Any thoughts on whether to get the kit vs the drive only?

I would reinstall Mojave through Internet Recovery.

Ok. I was able to boot in Recovery, so I think the installation should work. I have a running Time Machine Backup, but might also do a clone to be extra safe.

Afterwards, I'd Reset the Launch Services and do a Safe Boot.

Will do.

[mikehalloran]

The kit? For $50, you get an enclosure for your old drive that you do not need—you have Time Machine and a clone. The tools are $6–10 on Amazon. I’m pretty sure they’re the same as needed on a 2015 but I’ll check.

Time machine is fine. Every time it runs, it creates a new snapshot. A reinstall will not overwrite your data but always better to be safe than sorry.

[stubbsonic]

The kit? For $50, you get an enclosure for your old drive that you do not need—you have Time Machine and a clone. The tools are $6–10 on Amazon. I’m pretty sure they’re the same as needed on a 2015 but I’ll check.

Time machine is fine. Every time it runs, it creates a new snapshot. A reinstall will not overwrite your data but always better to be safe than sorry.

Yea, and I don't think I'd want to use an SSD at the end of its life as an external drive anyway. I suppose if I'm lacking any tools, it'll be cheaper to get them a la carte anyway.

Thanks for the help, Mike.

[stubbsonic]

I couldn’t find any easy instructions for resetting launch services. It said somewhere that onyx included that process in its functions.

[stubbsonic]

I got an error when trying to reinstall Mojave from recovery boot. It said it could not install the system because of an error. It still took a while to do whatever it did.

I downloaded Onyx just to use the Rebuild Launch Services, which it did.

Not sure if I should try to initialize the internal drive and restore from Time Machine, or just slog along and wait until the replacement drive arrives. I'm thinking I'll up the size to 1TB, I don't think I'd have any trouble using that much space-- I'd probably put some external libraries back on the internal drive.

[stubbsonic]

I ordered a new SSD, should arrive in a few days. I now see that the life span of an SSD is 10 years max and the average age at failure is less, so this is a good time to take care of it.

My MBP stays plugged in, so perhaps I'll squeeze more battery life since I've got relatively few cycles.

I think I'll do another clean install, since I may be re-organizing a bit. It'll be interesting to see if the random crashes go away.

[mikehalloran]

Reset Launch Services

1. Open Terminal and run these commands (copy and paste):
2. sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network
3. killall Dock
4. sudo mdutil -E /
5. Restart your Mac


There are some Macs where this doesn't work. For those, there's a different set for User Level but it's not as thorough — I believe that's the one that Onyx uses. I can look it up if necessary.

Onyx is wrapper for many Terminal Commands and does nothing more. It uses a lot of routines to "find and resolve" non-problems. Unfortunately, many of those commands should not be used by those with less than expert level knowledge as they can really screw up a system. I tell my clients that I never use it (true) but am happy to undo whatever damage it causes @ $75 an hour including drive time.