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I am not able to mount System Volume (root) using APFS. I only see my Data Volume.

$ mkdir /tmp/snapshotbackup_root
$ mount_apfs -s com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-29-174444.local / /tmp/snapshotbackup_root
$ df -h /tmp/snapshotbackup_root
Filesystem                                                   Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-30-121116.local@/dev/disk1s3  223Gi   97Gi  115Gi    46% 1904164 2340358076    0%   /private/tmp/snapshotbackup_root

As you can see, it only mounts /dev/disk1s3, I am unable to mount the System Volume which is /dev/disk1s1.

$ mount_apfs -s com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-29-174444.local@/dev/disk1s1 / /tmp/snapshotbackup_root
mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: No such file or directory

Time Machine can mount it as seen below

$ df -h "/Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro 840 G3/2019-10-29-174444/OSX"*
Filesystem                                                   Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-29-174444.local@/dev/disk1s1  223Gi   10Gi  115Gi     9%  481433 2341780807    0%   /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro 840 G3/2019-10-29-174444/OSX
com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-29-174444.local@/dev/disk1s3  223Gi   96Gi  115Gi    46% 1899738 2340362502    0%   /Volumes/com.apple.TimeMachine.localsnapshots/Backups.backupdb/MacBook Pro 840 G3/2019-10-29-174444/OSX – data
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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mount_apfs -s com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-10-29-174444.local /dev/disk1s1 /tmp/snapshotbackup_root
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  • Why does this work?
    – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style
    Commented Oct 31, 2019 at 22:12
  • The command seems to be expecting the device name /dev/disk1s1, not /
    – andrew.n
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 18:27
  • Note: I had to use /dev/disk1s2 instead of /dev/disk1s1. This is likely a semi-recent change. I got this by running diskutil list and looking for the disk identifier on Macintosh HD - Data.
    – Chris
    Commented Dec 2, 2022 at 22:31

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