{"id":96819,"date":"2024-11-06T15:29:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T21:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=96819"},"modified":"2024-11-06T15:29:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T21:29:32","slug":"how-to-erase-and-reformat-external-storage-to-apfs-in-disk-utility-on-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/96819-how-to-erase-and-reformat-external-storage-to-apfs-in-disk-utility-on-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Erase and Reformat External Storage to APFS in Disk Utility on Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

APFS is short for Apple File System. As the name suggests, this is Apple\u2019s proprietary file management architecture. It was released in 2017 to provide each and every Apple device a modern, standard file system and drive format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re using an external SSD with a Mac and want the best experience of sharing that drive between a Mac and your other Apple devices, you\u2019ll want to make sure that drive is formatted to APFS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because APFS was designed with Apple\u2019s modern operating systems and flash storage SSDs in mind. (If you\u2019re going to be connecting your external SSD to a Windows machine or your drive is a spinning drive instead of an SSD, check out this article to see which drive format you should use.)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a drive that is not formatted to APFS, you\u2019ll need to use Disk Utility on your Mac in order to erase and reformat it. Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Disk Utility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
  1. Open Finder then click \u201cGo\u201d in the menu bar of your Mac. Then click \u201cUtilities.\u201d<\/li>
  2. Double Click the Disk Utility icon.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How to format your external SSD to APFS in Disk Utility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    1. Inside Disk Utility ensure you can see the drive you want to erase and reformat in the sidebar. If you can\u2019t click \u201cView\u201d in the menu bar and then click \u201cShow All Devices.\u201d<\/li>
    2. In the sidebar, click the storage device you want to erase, the erase drive icon (it looks like a hard drive with a small X in the bottom left corner.)<\/li>
    3. Click the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose \u201cGUID Partition Map.\u201d<\/li>
    4. Click the Format pop-up menu and choose \u201dAPFS.\u201d If you want the drive to be encrypted, choose \u201cAPFS (Encrypted).\u201d<\/li>
    5. Enter a new name for the drive.<\/li>
    6. Click \u201cErase,\u201d then click \u201cDone.\u201d<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If you\u2019re using an SSD with a Mac, you\u2019ll want to make sure that drive is formatted to APFS. Here\u2019s how to do it with macOS Disk Utility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":96820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7597,4],"class_list":["post-96819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mac-tips","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Erase and Reformat External Storage to APFS in Disk Utility on Mac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re using an SSD with a Mac, you\u2019ll want to make sure that drive is formatted to APFS. 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