macOS Storage

Disk Utility First Aid on Mac

Repair common disk and permission issues from macOS or Recovery.

10 min read Beginner Updated 9 Jun 2026

Step-by-step guide

Work through each section in order. Stop when your issue is resolved — you do not need every step for every situation.

Warning

Create a Time Machine backup before major updates, disk operations, or security changes on macOS.

What you will achieve

Repair common disk and permission issues from macOS or Recovery.

1) Run First Aid from normal boot or Recovery

  1. Open Disk Utility and choose View → Show All Devices.
  2. Run First Aid on container, then volume, then startup disk.

2) If startup disk is in use

Boot into Recovery and run First Aid again for a deeper repair attempt.

3) Escalate if errors persist

Persistent APFS corruption may require data backup and erase/reinstall.

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apfs disk utility macos