com.apple.StorageKit error 118 APFS external drive convert

I had the same issue on one of my external Mac OS Extended (Journaled) HDD.

My resolve was to:

• Unmount Drive via Disk Utility
• Remount Drive via Disk Utility
• Convert to APFS.

All Good.

Unfortunately didn't work for me.

Is the HFS Plus volume encrypted with Core Storage?

Please let us have outputs from the following commands:

diskutil list

diskutil coreStorage list

diskutil apfs list

> … Repairing didn't work, …

Do you mean that repair to the HFS Plus file system, or repair to the Core Storage storage system, is required?

If HFS Plus and Core Storage appear to be OK, then use diskutil(8) instead of Disk Utility to attempt the conversion. You'll get more details.

Im seeing similar behavior when i attempt to convert an external HDD to APFS:

Converting HFS Volume to an APFS Container which exports one APFS Volume

The target is the Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+ volume “macOS Media” on disk4 backed via CoreStorage on disk2s2

Found APFS EFI driver /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi to install into the APFS Container

Saving encryption context

Unmounting disk4

Exiting conversion operations with error code -69888

The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.DiskManagement error -69888.)

Operation failed…

Ideas? Thoughts?

Found a fix. In Disk Utility, Umount the volume.

Then Run Disk First Aid.

Then, with the volume still unmounted, right click on Convert to APFS. My process looked like this:

Converting HFS Volume to an APFS Container which exports one APFS Volume

The target is the Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+ volume “macOS Media” on disk4 backed via CoreStorage on disk2s2

Found APFS EFI driver /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi to install into the APFS Container

Saving encryption context

Unmounting disk4

Starting conversion from HFS to APFS

Performing apfs_hfs_convert -x --verbose=0x400 --efi /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi /dev/disk2s2

Reporting pre-conversion statistics

Reporting post-conversion statistics

Successfully finished conversion from HFS to APFS

Successful conversion in commit mode so will switch type to APFS

Setting type of disk2s2 to APFS

Changing the physical disk partition type in shared mode

Partition modification attempt count was 1

Opening and closing disk2s2 to terminate old content driver

Successfully opened and closed

Expecting the new APFS Container at Physical Store disk2s2

Confirmed existence of new unencrypted APFS Volume disk4s1

Mounting APFS Volume disk4s1

APFS Volume mount attempt result was 0

Exiting conversion operations with error code 0

Operation successful.

Hope it helps!

I had to create the APFS container via diskutil, see https://www.howtogeek.com/272741/how-to-format-a-drive-with-the-apfs-file-system-on-macos-sierra/

I think I solved this... (after an hour of trying different things).

From what I can see High Sierra Disk Utility no longer gives the options of choosing a scheme (GUID vs MBR) when formatting a drive. (I've submitted a request to Apple for them to put it back in). APFS needs a GUID partition.

(See below, it used to look like this before High Sierra, but now the third option is gone)

Screen+Shot+2017-10-09+at+9.18.42+PM.png

I ended up taking my external HDD and plugging it into a Windows 10 computer, using Disk Management to convert to GUID and then tried to convert the drive to APFS. (Note APFS isn't even an option when erasing a disk in MBR format, but when erasing the drive after converting to GUID it gave me the option).

However, I ended up having issues because I couldn't convert the drive to APFS or even to Mac OS Journaled after it was converted to GUID. It gave me errors stating that there is not sufficient free space on the drive. (Even though I had just wiped it clean). "Mediakit reports not enough space to complete operation"

I figured out how to fix the "Mediakit reports not enough space to complete operation"... Follow the instructions from this Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqico9ENA-4

----

Now, this is very embarrassing for Apple, but after some hard work, and a Windows 10 computer I was able to solve the error: com.apple.StorageKit error 118 APFS external drive convert.

I had the same problem but realized I tried to convert only the volume and not the disk itself. When converting the entire disk it worked!

When using the Disc Utility remember to use the view "Show all devices", not "Show only volumes". It is the menu on the upper left. Convert the "disk itself" to APFS, not only the "Volume"; that is the Highest node, the base, in the volume tree for the disk.

If you need to erase the drive you want APFS on you should also format the disk itself, not only the volume. Then you get the option to choose a Scheme when formating. Format to Mac OS Extended FS. GUID Partition Map is a good choice for the scheme for non bootable drives.

If this is still an issue for anyone, I found this in another post.

When erasing the disk, choose "GUID Partition Map" for the Scheme. I had the same issue when the Schene was set to Master Boot Record.

Good luck.

I too was dealing with this error until I did a little more research. My error resulted was when I attempted to convert a new SSD to APFS.

The default configuration for Disk Utility on MacOS High Sierra only shows "Volumes" and not Devices. You need to select "Show All Devices" then you can go into Erase feature for the device and erase it. Then it will convert to APFS.

Once I figured it out, everything formats correctly and I was then able to install a clean copy of MacOS High Sierra.

Thanks jonatan.liljestrand

view show all devices

Select the drive itself

Format as GUID, then the APFS option appears.

I followed this process and the COnvert to APFS failed on each partition on the external drive.

hi

do i have to erase the external ssd to be able to make it work with apfs ?

thank you so much. You saved me smashing up my computer!

In my case, I had to erase my SSD, then convert to APFS then install MacOS High Sierra.