[rspeed]

> There is not really a UX flow apart from telling the user to recover the file from backup.

There absolutely is, since that could be performed automatically. Inform the user about the corruption, rename the corrupted file, then restore the most recent backup in its place.

[vbezhenar]

That's assuming that there's backup and OS knows about it. Huge majority of people don't have any backups or their backups are not automatic, so OS can't restore the file.

[acdha]

To the extent that this is true in the modern era of cloud services, it's irresponsibly abetted by so many programs silently ignoring errors rather than reporting them.

In Apple's case, they have complete control over iCloud and could offer this easily for any file which is stored there. They could also add some sort of metadata API so services like CrashPlan, Backblaze, etc. could register the presence of other copies in a generic manner. Third party services could also integrate background scrubs into their existing application.

In each case, the first time that dialog appeared you'd likely have a customer for life from anyone who's gone through the hassle of losing a personal memory, important document, etc. or make a panicked search for other/older copies.

[rspeed]

If there isn't a backup, it should at least notify the user of the error. But the OS would know about backups, since it has a built-in backup system.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple adds a cloud-based backup for macOS once APFS is the default filesystem, since change sets would be extremely efficient.