After using First Aid from Disk Utility on macOS Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura some of you may have found the “fsroot tree is invalid” error.
In macOS, you can get the “fsroot tree is invalid” error message. This message appears when you repair your APFS drive in Disk Utility by using First Aid. It is a serious concern, as you will not be able to access the drive’s data.
What exactly is the “fsroot tree is invalid” error on macOS?
macOS APFS format drive has a directory structure that is similar to an upside-down tree with fsroot tree as the top-level directory. The root directory (fsroot tree) associates all the other user-created directories as subdirectories.
When this root directory is invalid, macOS cannot find its subdirectories; therefore, all the data saved on the storage drive turns inaccessible. The data remains on the storage drive, but macOS has no way to reach it.
How to fix the “fsroot tree is invalid” error on macOS?
Warning: Perform this fix only if you have a full backup of the drive.
A quick and easy way to resolve the error is to erase the APFS drive by using Disk Utility present on macOS Ventura – Mojave, as this is the sheer case of the drive’s file system corruption. By erasing the storage drive, you will make it run properly and can create folder structures as usual.
However, you will lose all the data present on the storage drive after the erase operation is complete.
Alternate and the best fix for the “fsroot tree is invalid” error
First, you should recover the data—by using a third-party utility such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac —from the storage drive that has “fsroot tree is invalid” error. Follow the video instructions for seamless data recovery on macOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave / High Sierra.
Watch this video to recover deleted files on Mac 2023
Once you have recovered the inaccessible data to an external storage location, you can fix the drive by using the method presented in the how to fix section above.
Conclusion
In this blog, we tried to create awareness on the APFS drive error: “fsroot tree is invalid.” The error renders your storage drive useless unless you erase the drive. However, erasing the drive also removes the files and folders stored on the drive.
So, it’s crucial to first recover all the stored data by using a data recovery software for macOS and then erase the drive via Disk Utility. In this way, you will not lose your data permanently.
In case you want to try out the software, free download to check the interface, scan the drive, and preview the recoverable files.
Activate the tool if you wish to save the data. The activated software also comes bundled with Drive Monitor to check the health and performance of a Mac storage drive.
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