Hi, thanks for the reply. The first command ran OK, after the second the screen froze and only the mouse is moving. Are you sure it was the right command? I'm just wondering if it should have been disk1s1 and not disk0s2. Do you have an idea?

@Stan disk1s1 is no APFS container,but an APFS volume inside the container disk0s2! Disk1 is a synthesized disk based on disk0s2 containing all required APFS volumes: preboot, recovery, vm and the main system.

I see about the containers. I'm able to boot my mac now, but the space didn't come back. I update my original post with some more information, if you have time to have a look.

@Stan I already read it ;-)

@Stan Please check the various disk and file systems: diskutil verifyDisk disk0, diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2 and finally diskutil verifyVolume disk1s1!

So diskutil verifyDisk disk0 ran with no complaints. Then I ran diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2 and the screen froze again except the mouse, just like after diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0. Actually the output looked the same for both commands before the computer froze, probably resizeContainer runs a verifyVolume first. In any case, after a while the screen went off, and since I woke it up it's been in this booting screen with my user name and a progress bar that doesn't seem to be moving (just like before). It's been in this state for more than 1h now.

Thanks for taking your time

The mac is still in the same loading screen with the progress bar not moving

@Stan Try to boot to Internet Recovery Mode (alt-cmd-R) and open Terminal (menubar>Utilities). Get the device identifiers with diskutil list. Repeat all verify steps with the proper device identifiers except the last one! To execute the last one you have to unlock 9AFD4588-AA1A-3413-9335-6C8DA8EA3973 (probably disk2s1 - but it may also be disk14s1 or disk15s1)

Is the key combination supposed to work from the loading screen I'm stuck at now? I just tried and nothing happened

@Stan No, it only works in the (very) early boot stage

OK, so I just force-shutdown by the power button and then do the keys?

@Stan No, better wait until it boots properly

ok thanks

@Stan BTW what kind of partition/volume did you delete previously (occupying the 50 GB)

@Stan Do you have a Time Machine backup?

I did have a windows install a while ago

it's quite possible that it did occupy 50gb

@Stan Did you remove Windows with the Boot Camp Assistant or "manually"?

it's also possible that i do have a time machine back up, but i don't think i've ever used it

as far as i remember i used bootcamp

@Stan OK, after logging in successfully (fingers crossed) try to backup your Mac first

will do!

@Stan Only a small external disk is required since the system occupies ~65 GB only. Do you have some external disk (formatted to HFS+)?

I think i have an ntfs-formatted one, but probable no hfs+ one

@Stan Hmm, I don't remember whether you can resize an NTFS volume in macOS with on-board tools - I have to test this in a VM first (will take ~10 minutes)

@Stan Apparently you can't resize NTFS volumes without 3rd-party tools. It's not possible to use an NTFS drive as Time Machine backup volume: no write access!

@Stan Did you hard-reset the Mac?

i did use the power button in the end

but it boots into the os normally, so nothing's broken

is this why there are all these diskN?

@Stan I recommend to boot normally & create a backup first. Then reboot to Internet Recovery Mode and check diskutil verifyDisk disk0, diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2 and finally diskutil verifyVolume disk2s1.

To check disk2s1 properly you have to unlock it

disk1 is a base system "downloaded" from Apple

disk3-disk20 are temporary disks in RAM to store prefs etc created by the base system

so disk0 is OK

@Stan Yes

disk2s1 doesn't work properly, maybe because it needs to be unlocked

can i do the unlocking in the terminal?

Enter "diskutil ap list" to get the UUID of disk2s1

Then - if the disk2s1 is locked - enter diskutil ap unlockVolume 9AFD4588-AA1A-3413-9335-6C8DA8EA3973

and enter a user password

9AFD4588-AA1A-3413-9335-6C8DA8EA3973 is the UUID of disk2s1 - simply copy & paste it from the shell

yes it worked

now i'm running diskutil verifyVolume disk2s1 on it

yes

so both disk2s1 and disk0s2 report to be OK now

Yes, everything seems OK

You may now try to resize disk0s2 again. But as written previously: I recommend to backup the Mac first...

diskutil ap resizeContainer disk0s2 0 - You may try diskutil ap resizeContainer disk0s2 100g first

Or: diskutil ap resizeContainer disk0s2 119g

OK, I'll see what I can do about the backup, it's probably a good idea at this point

before exiting the recovery mode and booting normally, do i need to lock the unlocked partition again?

or is this done automatically?

No

Yes it will be locked while shutting down

cheers

I'll report back when i've figured out how/where to back up

it might be tomorrow

but i just wanted to say a big thank you for taking your time to help out

If you have a Windows PC you can resize the NTFS volume and create a second volume on the same external disk

surely that should work with an external ntfs drive as well?

The second volume can be re-formatted to HFS with your Mac

shrinking the existing NTFS volume by 100 GB will be sufficient

Allem Anschein nach können wir uns auch auf deutsch unterhalten ;-)

da hat jemand mein Profil angeschaut :))

ich habe in der zwischenzeit eine NHS+ partition auf meiner externen platte aufgesetzt und das backup läuft gerade

In deinem Profil ist kein Ort vermerkt aber das Verhältnis von Fragen zu Antworten bei german.SE deutet darauf hin....

das habe ich mir schon gedacht

das backup sagt es wird 4h dauern

Ich hab's aber erst gerade eben untersucht

moment, jetzt sind's schon 3

aber ich vermute schon, dass beim bootcamp etwas falsch gelaufen ist

Eigentlich sollte das in ca. 30 Minuten geschehen...

60 GB/30 MB/s = 2000 Sekunden

aus irgendeinem grund hat die time machine gerade einfach aufgehoert

und sagt next backup today in einer halben stunde

Hat das Backup-Volume ein grünes Icon?

Ansonsten kannst Du das Backup auch manuell starten

Von wo aus bootest Du denn?

Yo sieht gut aus...

ich habe das symbolleisten icon fuer die time machine aktiviert und da gab's die option "start backup"

jetzt laeuft's wieder

In der Shell: tmutil startbackup - geht aber auch über das Menulet oder in den Systemeinstellungen

visuell schaut's eher nach 1-2GB/s

na ja, mal schauen

ich muss jetzt auch leider weg

OK

ich schreibe sobald es was neues gibt!

vielleicht funktioniert das vergroessern der partition auf anhieb

Schick mir morgen einfach eine Message

genau

OK bon nuit

gute nacht