Just right click on the drive in ‘Disk Utility’ and select ‘Erase’. However, if you don’t want to use the APFS system, you can always change it back to ‘HFS+’ or any other file system of your choice using ‘Disk Utility’. It will be mounted as any other drive in ‘Finder’.Ĭan you convert APFS back to another file system? In this command, replace ‘disk#’ with the correct disk identifier noted in step 1 and replace ‘APFSname’ by a new name for the driveĪfter following these steps, your drive will be formatted using ‘APFS’ file system.

Type ‘diskutil apfs addVolume disk# APFS ’.Selecting a wrong drive may format that drive and cause unintentional data loss. Replace ‘disk#’ with the correct identifier for your drive. This command will create a new APFS container. Type ‘diskutil apfs createContainer /dev/disk#’.Have a look at the size of the drives to help you identify the drive you wish to format This command lists all the drives associated with your Mac. In ‘Applications’, select ‘ Terminal’ to open the Terminal window.To open the ‘Terminal’, go to ‘ Finder’ and select ‘ Applications’.To do this, you will need to use the ‘Terminal’ and follow the steps below. You can format an external hard drive, USB flash drive or a secondary hard drive using APFS on Sierra. Steps to format a drive with APFS in Sierra Now that we have understood the uses and disadvantages of APFS, let us learn how to format a drive with APFS file system in Sierra. This may be confusing and difficult to use. It means the words ‘WORK’ and ‘work’ are treated as different files. This is a case-sensitive version of APFS. It can be used only with external hard drives, USB flash etc. This version of APFS cannot be used with start-up volumes.

However, if you are using an encrypted APFS, it may be difficult to mount and access files on it. If you are using an unencrypted APFS storage device such as external hard drive or USB flash, you may be able to mount and access the drive from Sierra systems. The drives are required to be in the HFS+ format to be able to support time machine backups. Some of the drawbacks are discussed below.ĪPFS file system cannot be used with Time Machine backup drives. Since APFS is developed for High Sierra and later, there are some drawbacks of using this file system with Sierra.

It is made compatible across all devices for Mac OS, iOS, watch OS and TV OS. It is designed with a primary focus on encryption and also to provide better performance. APFS is a new file system developed for Mac OS High Sierra and later.

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