File Changes Are Slow to Sync

[jalendport]

Describe the bug

Updating files seems to be super slow to sync over to the Docker container on the latest updates. Using a simple volume setup:

  node:
    ...
    volumes:
      - .:/app

I'm particularly noticing it with a Node build process that is trying to do HMR. If I change the files on my machine, it takes minutes for the build process to notice the changes. Sometimes I even have to restart my node container. However, I've verified that it's not a kink in my app/process by going to Finder and through the Orbstack mount and finding the same file(s) and opening them directly in my code editor. If I do that, the HMR works instantaneously as expected. So appears to just be some slowdown in sending file changes over to the Docker container. I wanna say I experienced this way back on an earlier version a year or so back, so this may be a regression of sorts. I do know I wasn't having these problems a week ago, so it must have been an introduced in one of the most recent versions.

I am on v1.11.2, per Orbstack > About Orbstack, so not sure why the diagnostics are reporting that as v1.11.1 🤔

To Reproduce

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Diagnostic report (REQUIRED)

OrbStack info:
Version: 1.11.1
Commit: fd17b50974206c881c68a0cca0e62bf79fd7532d (v1.11.1-44-gfd17b50974)

System info:
macOS: 15.0.1 (24A348)
CPU: arm64, 12 cores
CPU model: Apple M2 Pro
Model: Mac14,12
Memory: 32 GiB

Full report: https://orbstack.dev/_admin/diag/orbstack-diagreport_2025-06-04T13-30-33.862607Z.zip

Screenshots and additional context (optional)

No response

[jalendport]

Fwiw, I think this may have been the issue I mentioned experiencing a year back (and what I'm now experiencing as a seeming regression): #1287

[sandrodz]

@jalendport I am experiencing the same thing. Did you figure it out?

If I wait enough change will be eventually reflected.

[kdrag0n]

Should be fixed in v2.0. Please comment to reopen if not.

[hqx]

I just had the same problem, local changes were not reflected in the container, until restart of the container

docker-compose setup, very simple website, just a few php-files
OrbStack 2.0.5 / MacOS 15.7.2 / MacBook Pro with a M3 Pro chip

[platform-kit]

I'm experiencing this on Orbstack 2.0.5 / Macbook Pro with M2 Max / OSX Sonoma (14.5)

Really frustrating. Enough to make me look for alternatives to Orbstack.

[andresgutgon]

Changes from a Volume are propagated to container

Doing this on my docker-compose.yaml works:

  web:
    volumes:
      - my_app_src:/my_app

volumes:
  my_app_src:

Then edit files ~/OrbStack/docker/volumes/my_app_src

The problem is that syncing from .:/my_app is not updating file stats

You can see that if you do

docker compose run web bash
stat /my_app/some-file/hello.tsx
 Size: 3828            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 26h/38d Inode: 69435039    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2026-01-01 16:33:03.179083133 +0000
Modify: 2026-01-04 17:32:26.253692352 +0000
Change: 2026-01-04 17:32:26.255327099 +0000
 Birth: 2026-01-04 17:14:13.319889541 +0000

Change will change when editing from ~/OrbStack/docker/volumes/my_app_src but not from your source code

Not ideal

Working on ~/OrbStack/docker/volumes is possible and file system update instantly, but is not ideal, honestly.

Hacky solution

Put the real source code in OrbStack volume

Steps

Backup your code

mv /Users/your_name/my_app \
   /Users/your_name/my_app.hostcopy

Symlink your normal path to the OrbStack volume

ln -s \
  /Users/your_name/OrbStack/docker/volumes/my_app_src \
  /Users/your_name/my_app

Set in .env the name

To make docker compose up work from Users/your_name/my_app
Put in that folder a .env and this inside

COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=my_app

Doing this when I change something in my host machine (my Mac OSX) the file changes are propagated to the container and from there via Websockets from ViteJS dev server to my browsers so HMR (Hot Module Reload) works again

Again
Not-IDEAL : /

[marc-w]

Let's hope Apple puts the pedal down on containers and compose, and we will be free.

[andresgutgon]

Let's hope Apple puts the pedal down on containers and compose, and we will be free.

What do you mean? Is Apple working on native container support?

[marc-w]

@andresgutgon Yes:

Apple repo:

https://github.com/apple/containerization

Compose support thread:

apple/container#194

If you dig into the details, you will see that the memory footprint is 25% or less of Docker, nominally 50% of OrbStack. #MilageMayVary

[andresgutgon]

This looks fantastic. Not stable yet no?

[andresgutgon]

So to be clear. Having changes from the host machine in Docker is not working at all in OrbStack 2.x version no?

This is explained in the docs
https://docs.orbstack.dev/docker/file-sharing

But looks like binding is an option when is not really if you want some kind of fileystem code reload working.

Is this being checked somewhere other than this issue? Looks like a big issue imo