What is Apple’s APFS?
Future Proofing Your New Devices
About 30 years ago, Apple broke new ground in the personal computer marketplace with the Macintosh. While PCs and even the early Apple II computers featured line-by-line parser inputs for file management, the Macintosh changed all of that by introducing something new: a visual based file system.
However, while much of the attention focused on the front end of the user interaction -- a design that introduced us to icons, drag-and-drop, and other conventions used by operating systems to this very day -- the guts of the system have not evolved much over the past thirty years. The Hierarchical File System (HFS) was introduced in 1985 and lasted until the late 1990s, until it was a new iteration was made available, known simply as HFS+.
Shockingly, the original HFS was supported until 2009 (Mac OS X Snow Leopard), when it became a read-only format. Even then, it took until September 2016 for HFS to be completely phased out. Even still, HFS+ is used in Apple's smart products and are run on iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
Meet the New File System Powering Your Apple Devices
In September 2016, Apple finally took a major step away from its legacy system with the new Apple File System (APFS). Not too be confused with Apple File Service (AFS), APFS is available for iOS 10.3, macOS 10.12.4, tvOS 10.2, and watchOS 3.2. The new system transitions computers and devices from HFS+ into Apple’s unified paradigm.
What are the biggest benefits of APFS?
If you don’t want to get too technical, running APFS across your devices simply brings a modernized design for file management into today’s electronics. Much of this won’t be seen on the surface to the user -- it doesn’t fundamentally change things like drag-and-drop interfaces. Under the hood, though, APFS make things smoother and more streamlined. That makes it faster -- faster to sync, faster to move, faster to load files. It also means things are more secure, which is extra important given the way every device is connected these days.
A Unified File System
Right now, files are accessible across platforms via iCloud and by syncing devices. But are all devices ready to efficiently communicate with each other? In the previous system, the answer is no. There were different devices using different interfaces, and while they certainly worked with each other, they weren’t designed to be in step with each other. APFS works across all Apple devices, even Apple TVs. This means that they’re all speaking the same language when it comes to file transfer, so it’s a more seamless, more efficient system.
In Step with Technology
HFS has been around in some form since the 1980s. That means that it has handled data transfer and file management in the era of floppy disks (1980s/early 1990s), CD-ROM (late 1990s/early 2000s), and online file transfer (mid 2000s onward). Today? Most computers still run hard drives, but devices tend to use solid-state technology and built-in Flash drives. Those simply process differently from the old floppy disk era -- there’s no spinning disk, so read/write processes run much differently. APFS was designed to maximize the speed and capabilities of these modern drives.
Future Proofed
Technology evolves quick -- there’s a reason why Moore’s Law has proven to be an accurate predictor of the power of computer processors. The foundation of HFS lasted thirty years, with many patchwork digital band-aids and add-ons along the way. APFS? It’s built as future-proof as possible without being designed by a time traveler.
The biggest change in this is the support of 64-bit inode numbers, which is an upgrade over HFS+’s 32-bit IDs. Remember that bits use a binary system, so 64-bit is not merely double 32-bit but exponentially more (2^64 values vs. 2^32 values, for you math-literate folks). Inode numbers contain metadata, security permissions, and much more, allowing much more space for details about names. In an era where files are no longer written to locations on a disk, the more level of detail, the more efficient the system.
Instant Movement
Remember the old days when you moved one folder to a different location? You’d drag and drop, then watch the bubble icon think its way through the process -- and if there were a lot of files involved, the wait would be proportionally just as long. APFS gets rid of that wait. That may seem impossible, but it’s not magic. Apple didn’t invent a system that lifts heavier loads, it’s simply smarter. Since files are not physically copied from one sector on a spinning disk to another anymore, it’s simply about file organization. Thus, moving a folder with gigabytes of files can be done instantly because of what APFS is doing in the background: simply updating the metadata for folder organization.
Better Security
APFS is built around the idea of security and privacy. For the latter, the increased levels of metadata and permissions through the 64-bit inode support makes a big difference. For the former, security comes in the form of encryption. In the latest versions of OS X, the operating system encrypts every file individually. Under APFS, this is now universal. For example, on macOS, each file can be protected by no encryption, single-key encryption, or multi-key encryption. Keys are available per-file, and sensitive metadata is handled in a separate key. This integrated encryption protocol is similar to the previous foundation laid by OS X, but simply faster and stronger, along with being universally compatible across all Apple devices.
Simpler Management
Under old hard drive management systems, creating partitions was a fairly technical process that had to be handled by someone who had a good idea of what they were doing. This is due to the way HFS and traditional file systems treated files, including the idea that moving and separating files necessitated physical actions on the disk. APFS introduces a new feature called Space Sharing. Through Space Sharing, creating partitions is simple on the device, and they even share the same space. Space Sharing now breaks down these levels into containers holding volumes, and much of this is achievable through back-end rewriting of locations in metadata.
Faster Speeds
Storage and file management looks different today than it did twenty years ago, even ten years ago. Because so many devices run files through solid-state drives and data transfer via network connections, the ability to process things more efficiently is possible, as is optimization through the modern standard of storage. Latency is defined as the time it takes for one piece of data to process to another location for processing. Because of the way APFS is structured, Apple’s developers were able to create a prioritization level within the system. This means that visible files (such as in active apps) are prioritized over files involved with background activity. By designing an ebb-and-flow of prioritization, the same amount of work gets done but the user-visible stuff is made available faster and easier.
Other Features of APFS
APFS also other features that maximize efficiency, including:
- Accuracy: APFS uses nanosecond timestamps, compared to second timestamps seen in HFS+.
- Space: Under APFS, storage utilizes sparse files for further space saving -- a feature previously unavailable in HFS+.
- Stability: APFS comes with a copy-on-wrote scheme for metadata to prevent systemic issues during crashes.
- Speed: APFS uses a method called Snapshots, which acts as an index of pointers to data. This method increases the time to locate and access files thanks to the relatively small size of the Snapshot file.
Limitations of APFS
The biggest limitation with APFS stems from backwards compatibility. You simply won't be able to use APFS in a number of instances: legacy systems (OS X 10.11 or earlier), on startup disks, or with Fusion Drives. Of course, there's a workaround for this -- simply export files into a third-party intermediary such as cloud storage or a thumb drive, then import it into your APFS device. This may only really be a major nuisance if you have heavy volumes of data stored in these legacy platforms. Otherwise, it's something that can resolved with an afternoon of to tinkering.
Upgrading to APFS
APFS comes with operating system upgrades, so there's a good chance that your device has automatically upgraded to it ready. Otherwise, you'll have to manually install an operating system upgrade based on the following releases:
- Apple Watch: watchOS 3.2
- iPad/iPhone: iOS 10.3
- Mac: macOS 10.12.4
- Apple TV: tvOS 10.2
What Will APFS Bring in The Future?
All of the improvements mentioned above provide immediate improvements to your background organization and logistics. However, what does this mean for the future? As a consumer, it probably won't impact you that much. However, developers will have to work with a net of APIs -- these will be based in APFS and offer developers tools and means to take advantage of the platform, allowing them to optimize their design to work with this and provide the best user experience possible.
At Monowear, while we are always looking ahead at all things Apple, our primary concern is still the physical product. So even if you've upgraded to an APFS-supported operating system, you'll still have to protect your Apple Watch or iPhone from falling. Thus, once you've installed those upgrades, we invite you to look at some elegant watch bands for your Apple Watch or cases for your iPhone. Because as well as APFS may protect your files, the device still has to brave the elements.
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