Apple is Upgrading Millions of iOS Devices To a New Modern File System Today (theverge.com)

Apple today began rolling out iOS 10.3, the latest point update to its mobile operating system. iOS 10.3 brings with it several new features, chief among which is a new file system -- called the Apple File System (APFS). From a report: It's a file system that was originally announced at WWDC last year, and it's designed with the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and Apple TV in mind. Apple has been using its 31-year-old Hierarchical File System (HFS) for iOS devices so far. It was originally designed for Macs with floppy or hard disks, and not for modern mobile devices with solid state storage. Even its successor, HFS+, still doesn't address the needs of these mobile devices enough. Apple's new APFS is designed to scale across these new types of devices and take advantage of flash or SSD storage. It's also engineered with encryption as a primary feature, and even supports features like snapshots so restoring files on a Mac or even an iOS device might get a lot easier in the future.

Comments

Backup Your Device

[lazarus]

In the spirit of "what could possibly go wrong" this may actually be one of those times you want to back up your device before upgrading.

Don't blame a filesystem for your lack of backup

[zerofoo]

If you lose data due to a corrupt filesystem - it's not the filesystem's fault that you didn't backup your data.

Even if you had the most reliable filesystem in the world - it would, most likely be running on spinning disks or flash media - both fail quite regularly.

Backup your data frequently and test your backups regularly.

Access?

[captaindomon]

And we'll all have access to the file system from the native iOS UI right? Riiiiiiight?

Re:Don't blame a filesystem for your lack of backu

[omnichad]

Even if you don't lose data, you still lose uptime. Backups are only one layer.

Re:Catch?

[BronsCon]

I'm not sure that holds true; I've owned a number of Samsung and Apple devices over the past decade (in fact, I currently own many of both) and, to be quite honest, I'd say I've been watching Samsung's product engineering improve while Apple's has been on a steady decline for the past 6-7 years or so.

We're going to disagree on that point, of course, and that's fine. What you look for in a well-engineered product, and what I look for in the same, are different, because we have different needs and we use our products differently. In that vein, I'll grant Apple a clear win on the iPad, but Samsung takes the win on phones; I use the two classes of device differently, so my needs for one necessarily differ from my needs for the other. I'll also point out that Samsung covers a wider variety of products than Apple so, naturally, their focus will appear more spread out; these various lines are designed, engineered, manufactured, and distributed by distinct groups within Samsung, though, each of which has its own focus. Apple, meanwhile, cannibalizes one team to shift focus to another product line, which is why I observe that their product engineering is on a decline; they've very much focus-shifted toward mobile, and that certainly shows in the improvements the iPad has seen, all the while their computer lineup is all but rotting.

It's sad, really, as I would love to have taken what I just spent on a new PC build and spent it on more recent Mac workstation hardware; but there is no more recent Mac workstation hardware. The Mac Pro is 4 years old and was already a year out of date at launch, and I simply need more processing power than any current Mac system can give me, as well as the ability to run Adobe apps (not as a primary function, mind you, but I do need them running natively). The combination of those realities forced me to make some concessions, such as not running a native UNIX-like environment, as I can't run MacOS on fast-enough hardware and I can't run Adobe apps natively under Linux.

I'm not alone in this, either. Where I used to see new Macs being bought left and right for production environments, I'm seeing PC builds rolling in as their replacements; and for the reasons stated above.

Mind you, Samsung is no better in that regard; but, then, they've never really billed themselves as a company that provides a superior desktop or workstation. Apple, on the other hand, claims just that, while their product engineering fails to deliver on the promise.

And I really am missing the native UNIX-like environment that can also run all of my applications natively. This is not an attack on Apple, I'm not senselessly attacking them or putting them down; I am dissenting, in the hope that, come the time for my next hardware upgrade, my voice will be heard. And I'm not just bitching on Slashdot, I communicate my dissatisfaction to colleagues of mine at Apple, most of whom work on the software side of things and agree with me, as they could do a lot more with the software side of things on more capable hardware. Unfortunately, though they relay the complaints (often before they've even heard them from me, as they have the same complaints), their voices also appear to go unheard.

But, mostly, I was pointing out the irony in calling Samsung "Samdung" when Apple uses many Samsung parts in their own products. This, of course, is amplified by the fact that, historically, when Apple moves away from Samsung parts (e.g. Retina displays), customer satisfaction decreases (e.g. Panasonic pink tint) until Apple brings Samsung back into the fold.

And, here's the rub: Apple fans get to foot the bill when Apple sues Samsung. Samsung isn't raising the cost of Samsung consumer goods to cover the legal bills and settlements; they're raising the prices they charge Apple for parts. Go ahead and laugh your way to the bank every time Apple wins a patent suit against Samsung; you'll need to make an extra withdrawal to cover your next Apple purchase.

Part of me wi