Easy Methods to Fix “APFS Volume Superblock is invalid” Error

Even though Disk Utility can help in resolving the minor errors on Mac, there are still some relatively serious errors that can’t be resolved using that utility. When you check the drive with Disk Utility, one of the error messages that you may get is "APFS volume superblock is invalid".

If you want to understand what “APFS Volume superblock is invalid” error, this means, you should first know what is superblock!

So a Superblock is a record of some basic characteristics of the file system, including its size, block size, empty and filled blocks and their respective counts, the disk block map, and usage information. When you access any file on a drive, you need have access to the drive's superblock. If a drive's superblock is corrupted or damaged, the drive can't be mounted and files on it can't be accessed.

Methods to fix/repair "APFS volume superblock is invalid" error

When the superblock of APFS volume is invalid, files on the volume can't be accessed anymore. For the security of your files, you should firstly recover data, and then find a way to repair APFS disk.

#1.  Recover data from APFS volume whose superblock is invalid with Remo Recover for Mac Software

Remo Recover for Mac is a free & professional APFS data recovery software that can recover data from APFS volume when its superblock is invalid, recover deleted/lost files from APFS drive, recover data from formatted APFS hard drive, recover data from un-mountable APFS drive, recover data from unreadable APFS hard drive, recover data from corrupted APFS drive, recover lost data from encrypted APFS volume, recover deleted/lost APFS partition, etc.

Apart from all these, Remo Recover Mac Data Recovery can also recover deleted/lost files from HFSX volume, FAT32, HFS+ drives, recover data from formatted, un-mountable, unreadable, corrupted Mac hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drive, SD card, pen drive, etc. Moreover, the tool is also compatible with various macOS such as Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, etc.

Step by step procedure to recover data from APFS volume whose superblock is invalid

Just read carefully the instructions given below to achieve the task of recovering data from APFS volume:

  • Download and install the software on any versions of Mac OSX
  • Attach the APFS volume disk to the software installed machine and run the tool
  • Select “Recover Drives” from the main screen
  • In the consecutive screen choose "Volume Recovery" option and then choose the drive
  • The software then starts scanning the drive and lists all Volumes found, select the appropriate Volume
  • After the scanning process, you can then view the recovered files either using "Data View" or "File Type View" options
  • Preview the recovered files to evaluate the recovery results using "Preview" option and then save the scanned session using "Save Recovery Session" option
  • Once you purchase the software, resume the recovery process using "Open Recovery Session" option
  • Now, just select the files you want to recover and save them at any location of your choice

#2: Fix "APFS volume superblock is invalid" error by reformatting

  • Launch Disk Utility
  • Select the APFS drive which has "APFS volume superblock is invalid" error on the left part of the window
  • Click Erase on the top of the Disk Utility window
  • Complete related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase button

After data recovery completed, you can reformat the APFS partition without hesitation. Just follow the above-mentioned guide in order to easily fix the error “APFS Volume superblock is invalid”.

Now coming to the software used to recover data, i.e. Remo Recover, it offers several outstanding user-friendly features like Find, Save Recovery Session, Preview and much more that makes the software effective. In order to check out the product competency before purchasing, the user can download free trial version of it. Your data remain secure during recovery process as it is the only read-only program. If in case you are facing any difficulty regarding Remo product, the professional experts give assistance at any point in time.

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John Harris

Senior Editor, Content Analyst and a fan of exceptional customer service. John develops and publishes instructional and informational content regarding partition management, Windows hot-fixes, data management and computer troubleshooting.

As a tenured data recovery specialist, John shares exceptional insights and blog posts about data loss and data recovery across any storage device. With 8+ years’ experience in writing for Data Recovery for both Mac OS and Windows OS computers, he is an avid learner who always wants to polish and simplify the data recovery process. John passes his free time playing Chess and reading Science Fiction novels.

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One comment

  1. Thank you! This helped! I needed to force quit a process before I could get it all to be deleted, not sure why it didn’t work before.

    Just needed to click on the greyed out disk, and do erase.

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