

In this tech tip, I’ll show you how to revert back to HFS+. What if you accidentally format a drive in the APFS format and then realize you can’t use Time Machine or FileVault 2? I recently ran into this dilemma when I formatted an external drive in the APFS format and it was unusable by Time Machine. For example, APFS is incompatible with Apple’s Time Machine backup application and FileVault 2 (which is used to encrypt full drives), and cannot be used to format Fusion drives - those drives that use a combination of a solid-state drive and conventional hard disk drive. However, there are still some instances where HFS+ needs to be used.

Check out this new article to see how to revert an APFS drive to HFS+ easily.Īpple’s new APFS (Apple File System) format is the default format for storage under macOS 10.14 Mojave, replacing the dependable and long-lived HFS+ format.

Changes to macOS and Disk Utility in macOS 10.15 Catalina now make this older method obsolete.
