Important: Time Machine supports APFS when running macOS Big Sur.

Depending on your existing file system and partition scheme, you can also convert the disk or partition to APFS without losing formatting. Don’t get too carried away with the other options if you don’t prefer an encrypted or case-sensitive filesystem. When erasing a disk or partition, just select APFS. However, if you plan to use an external drive with an old Mac running macOS 10.11 Capitan or earlier, converting or formatting the drive will make it unreadable.ĭisk Utility supports the following APFS formatting options: If you update macOS 10.12 Sierra to a newer version, the conversion will happen automatically.īut if you still have a disk or partition (internal or external) in HFS + or another format (exFAT for example), you can convert it to APFS using the Disk Utility app on macOS.ĪPFS is focused on solid state drives, but you can convert or format both fusion and mechanical hard drives without any problem. If you bought a Mac with macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later preinstalled, internal storage uses the APFS file system by default. If you want to format or convert an APFS disk or partition, the following instructions should help you.

Compared to the older HFS + (or Mac OS Extended) file system, APFS offers important advantages, particularly for solid state drives.įor example, APFS has blazing fast copy / write speeds, efficiently manages storage, and is less prone to data corruption. Apple introduced APFS (Apple File System) in macOS 10.12.4 Sierra and fully implemented it as the default file system in macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

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