Info on /System/Volumes/Data/home

App & System Services Core OS
lucaseverini
lucaseverini OP
Created Mar ’22
Replies 3
Boosts 0
Views 4.1k
Participants 3

Hello everybody,

Does someone knowledgeable know why on macOS (11.6.2 Big Sur at list in my case), there is that mounted volume /System/Volumes/Data/home that is usually empty (at least for me) and appears to be a kinda of network volume that (of course for a network volume) doesn't support the fast searchfs functionality ? What's its use?

For some context, here is the list of mounted volumes on my MacBook Pro with two volumes visible on the Desktop, Macintosh HD (/ + /System/Volumes/Data) and Data (/Volumes/Data) :

  1. /dev/disk1s1s1 (apfs): /
  2. devfs (devfs): /dev (doesn't support searchfs)
  3. /dev/disk1s5 (apfs): /System/Volumes/VM
  4. /dev/disk1s3 (apfs): /System/Volumes/Preboot
  5. /dev/disk1s6 (apfs): /System/Volumes/Update
  6. /dev/disk1s2 (apfs): /System/Volumes/Data
  7. /dev/disk1s7 (apfs): /Volumes/Data
  8. map auto_home (autofs): /System/Volumes/Data/home (doesn't support searchfs)

Thank you!

Best regards,

Luca Severini

Replies  3
Boosts  0
Views  4.1k
Participants  3
Apple Staff, DTS Engineer
DTS Engineer OP
Apple
Mar ’22

why on macOS [is] there [a] mounted volume /System/Volumes/Data/home that is usually empty

This is tied to the automount system. That’s not really my area of expertise but you learn more in the automount man page and other pages linked to from that.

Why do you care? My general advice is that you ignore volumes that you’re not interested in. If you need to show a list of volumes to the user, hide any volume with the MNT_DONTBROWSE flag set.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0
grayc4
grayc4 OP
May ’25

That’s not really my area of expertise but you learn more in the automount man page and other pages linked to from that. Why do you care? My general advice is that you ignore volumes that you’re not interested in.

Next time when something isn't your area of expertise, do everyone a favor and just don't say anything..

You can look into this more by running:

  1. cat /etc/auto_master
  2. cat /etc/auto_home

And if you really want to unmount: /System/Volumes/Data/home

  1. Comment out all lines in /etc/auto_home and /etc/auto_master (I believe you will need to use sudo eg. sudo vim /etc/auto-master and then make edits OR you can always just delete the files if you absolutely don't use network mounts etc.)
  2. sudo automount -vc
0
grayc4
grayc4 OP
May ’25

That’s not really my area of expertise but you learn more in the automount man page and other pages linked to from that. Why do you care? My general advice is that you ignore volumes that you’re not interested in.

Next time when something isn't your area of expertise, do everyone a favor and just don't say anything..

OP You can look into this more by running:

  1. cat /etc/auto_master
  2. cat /etc/auto_home

And if you really want to unmount the dir (/System/Volumes/Data/home)

  1. Comment out all lines in 1/etc/auto_home1 and 1/etc/auto_master1 (I believe you will need to use sudo eg. sudo vim /etc/auto_master OR you can always just delete the files if you absolutely don't use network mounts (maybe someone else can chime in if this is ok)
  2. sudo automount -vc to restart the service

The output should say that the dir was successfully unomounted

0
Info on /System/Volumes/Data/home
First post date Last post date
 
 
Q