Apple launched the APFS (Apple Submitting System) file system protocol in macOS Sierra. It’s now the required format for macOS, nevertheless it took some time to transition from the previous implementation of the HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus) format. Even through the transition, Apple saved the legacy normal HFS+ viable for backward compatibility. (It’s known as “Mac OS Prolonged format (Journaled)” in Disk Utility.) Macs working variations of macOS as current as Sonoma can nonetheless learn HFS+ formatted volumes, even in the event you can’t boot a Mac from an HFS+ quantity beginning with macOS 10.14 Mojave.
Apple additionally let HFS+ linger for Time Machine backups. It took a number of releases of APFS-enabled macOS earlier than Apple tailored APFS to embody a particular Time Machine backup quantity sort. (That occurred in macOS 10.13 Huge Sur.)
The corporate offered no transition for present Time Machine archives, nevertheless. When you can reformat a typical arduous disk drive (HDD) or SSD that was arrange with HFS+ to make use of APFS as an alternative, the reformat is damaging. You possibly can’t improve a Time Machine quantity, nor are you able to copy a Time Machine backup with its archive format intact from an HFS+ quantity to an APFS quantity and proceed backing as much as it.
How you can change a Time Machine drive from HFS+ to APFS
In the event you’ve been utilizing Time Machine with an HFS+ drive (one thing nonetheless allowed with Sonoma), how do you transition to APFS, realizing that Apple will doubtless eradicate Time Machine on HFS+ in some future launch of macOS? (Apple usually offers no less than two years’ warning, typically longer, for main modifications that contain filesystems and or safety features.)
The 2 methods you have got are:
- Begin with a clear slate: Reformat your HFS+ drive with the APFS filesystem, erasing all its knowledge, and instantly carry out a full Time Machine backup.
- Retire your HFS+ drive: Since most of us can’t afford the costly, giant SSDs, you may leverage the benefit of low cost arduous drives. Preserve your present HFS+ Time Machine quantity in amber, by no means altering it, and buy a brand new drive, format it as APFS, and begin a recent Time Machine backup with it. (If you’d like extra safety, you may get two HDDs and arrange a RAID 1 mirror, which writes all knowledge to each drives concurrently.)
A powerful warning: All the time have a pair layers of backups. I carry out a nightly clone of my startup drive to an exterior quantity, maintain Time Machine working constantly, and in addition again up my paperwork to a safe on-line storage firm. Be sure you have no less than one full backup earlier than you make any vital change, however two are best.
The “clear slate” technique above has the benefit of value and ease. However you lose all earlier variations of any file and any deleted recordsdata that haven’t but been purged. The “retire and exchange” strategy offers you a deep bench and an additional degree of safety for so long as that older drive stays in working situation and Apple doesn’t abandon HFS+. Even after Apple strikes on, you’d have the ability to mount and entry an HFS+ Time Machine quantity on a Mac with an older model of macOS, in fact.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Eric.
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