With iOS 10.3, users were sometimes seeing massive amounts of freed space as a result of the new file system, and the same appears to be the case. Copying fewer, larger files, the gains aren't as pronounced, saving only seconds per file. When we reformatted the drive to APFS, the same copy took three minutes and 22 seconds. Using the MacBook Pro and a Mushkin Ventura Ultra USB 3.0 SSD formatted with HFS, a 30 GB folder of 1250 MP3 files of varying sizes took four minutes and 51 seconds.

However, APFS to APFS copies across different drives removes some of the overhead associated with HFS, and can lead to some faster copies.Īcross a wired or wireless network, there is essentially no statistically significant change. Copying files to or from an APFS drive is limited by the slowest link in the chain, be it the HFS drive, or the connection method. When the user alters the cloned file, only the changed blocks are saved to the drive.ĪPFS is fully compatible with HFS-formatted disks. The new file system 'clones' files, as opposed to a bit-by-bit copy when on the same drive. Following High Sierra installation, boot times dropped to 64 percent of that in Sierra, taking only 27 seconds.Ĭopying files is a little different on APFS drives. A boot from a fully shut down state normally took about 42 seconds.

The results on the SATA-3 SSD in the Mac mini were more dramatic. Following installation, the boot time from 'cold iron' was cut to 18 seconds - 75 percent of the previous time.ĪPFS has been in the works for several years, and available to macOS testers for data drives since the 2016 WWDC - so this isn't technically a new product. Prior to installation, the PCI-E SSD on the MacBook Pro booted in about 24 seconds from a shut-down machine. With High Sierra, that limitation has been lifted. The MacBook Pro needed a re-install of High Sierra after the machine's EFI partition was corrupted for reasons unknown - but it hasn't happened since.ĪPFS was previously restricted to non-boot devices. Prior to installation, both machines were running 10.12 Sierra. In this first look at APFS implementation in High Sierra, AppleInsider examines the most obvious changes to users - boot times, file copies, and storage efficiency.įor the APFS testing, we are using a 2015 i7 Retina MacBook Pro, and a 2012 quad-core i7 Mac mini with SSD. There are a lot of 'under the hood' changes in APFS, many of which will not be immediately apparent to users.

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