Useful macOS defaults: Disk Utility

2013-04-22 17:00

com.apple.DiskUtility controls how Disk Utility displays drives and partitions.

After changing these, quit and reopen Disk Utility.

Show all devices

By default, Disk Utility shows a simplified view that hides the physical disk structure. To see all devices, containers, and volumes:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility SidebarShowAllDevices -bool true

This is one of the most useful Disk Utility tweaks. The simplified view hides important details like the APFS container, the EFI partition, and the recovery partition. The full view shows the physical disk, its containers, and all volumes inside them.

To go back to the simplified view:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility SidebarShowAllDevices -bool false

You can also toggle this in Disk Utility through View, then Show All Devices.

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool true

This adds a Debug menu. Use it with care. Some debug options can modify disks.

Show advanced image options

When creating disk images, show all available options:

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options -bool true

Read all current Disk Utility settings

defaults read com.apple.DiskUtility

Notes

The "Show All Devices" setting is the single most useful Disk Utility default. Without it, you cannot see the full structure of your disks, which makes troubleshooting harder.

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