Support

About Us

How to disable and re-enable filesystem journaling on Mac

Please Note: The FixMeStick for Mac no longer requires users to disable/re-enable journaling. If your Mac indicates that it needs journaling disabled, please perform a Factory Upgrade to make sure that your FixMeStick for Mac is as up to date as possible. 

 

By default, new Macs come with file system journaling on. File system journaling is a feature that helps protect the file system against power outages or hardware component failures. FixMeStick cannot clean a computer with journaling on. In order to clean the file system, journaling needs to be temporarily turned off while FixMeStick runs. You can turn file system journaling back on once the FixMeStick finishes cleaning your computer

Turning off filesystem journaling is easy. Here’s how to do it: 

Step 1. Locate and press the Command + Space keys on your keyboard:

Step 2. The Spotlight Search bar will appear:  

Step 3. Type "Disk Utility" into the search bar and then click on the Disk Utility icon:

Step 4. The Disk Utility window will open. Click on the volume name for the drive on which you wish to disable journaling. By default the volume name is “Macintosh HD,” but it might be different on your machine:

 Step 5. Locate the ALT/OPTION key on your keyboard:

Step 6. While holding down the ALT/OPTION key, click on the “File” menu at the top left of your desktop. Then select "Disable Journaling." 

Journaling will now be disabled on your Mac, and you can now run a complete scan with your FixMeStick. 

After running a scan should I re-enable journaling? 

Yes, we recommend that you do this as journaling helps protect the data on your drive.

To re-enable journaling, follow the above instructions again, but simply click the “Enable Journaling” button in the Disk Utility window after Step 4, rather than proceeding to Step 5:

Mac OS X El Capitan

On the newest Mac OS X El Capitan, the option to disable journaling is unavailable. You will still be to run a scan on El Capitan, but you won't be able to clean your Mac. We are sorry about this and our engineers are currently working on a solution. 

 

Have more questions? Submit a request
Powered by Zendesk