What File System Does Mac Use

And then you're using Deejay Utility to partition your new hard drive when you're presented with a selection of potential file systems. The list is longer than you'd call back, with terms similar "APFS (Case-sensitive)" and "Mac Os Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)" to cull from.

What does all this mean, and which should y'all choose? Basically in that location are three main options:

RELATED: What'due south New in macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Available Now

APFS, or "Apple File Arrangement," is one of the new features in macOS High Sierra. It's optimized for solid state drives (SSDs) and other all-flash storage devices, though information technology will also piece of work on mechanical and hybrid drives.
Mac OS Extended, also known every bit HFS Plus or HFS+, is the file system used on all Macs from 1998 until now. On macOS High Sierra, it'due south used on all mechanical and hybrid drives, and older versions of macOS used it by default for all drives.
ExFAT is the best cross platform option, designed to piece of work on Windows and macOS systems. Use this for an external drive that will plug into both kinds of computers.

Choosing a file system is basically choosing between these 3 options. The other factors, like encryption and case sensitivity, aren't something you should get also hung upwardly on. Let'due south dive into a bit more details nearly the top three choices beneath, and so explain a few of the sub-options.

APFS: All-time for Solid Country and Flash Drives

APFS, or Apple File Arrangement, is the default file system for solid country drives and flash memory in 2017's macOS High Sierra. Commencement released in 2016, it offers all sorts of benefits over Mac Bone Extended, the previous default.

RELATED: APFS Explained: What You Need to Know Well-nigh Apple'south New File System

For one thing, APFS is faster: copying and pasting a binder is basically instantaneous, because the file system basically points to the same data twice. And improvements to metadata hateful information technology's very quick to do things like determine how much space a folder is taking upwards on your drive. At that place are too a number of reliability improvements, making things like corrupted files a lot less common. There are a lot of upsides here. Nosotros're just skimming the surface, so check out our commodity nigh everything you need to know about APFS for more information well-nigh the benefits of APFS.

And then what's the catch? Reverse compatibility. 2016's macOS Sierra was the get-go operating arrangement capable of reading and writing to APFS systems, pregnant whatsoever Mac using an older operating system volition not be able to write to APFS-formatted drives. If in that location's an older Mac you need a drive to work with, APFS is a bad selection for that drive. And forget most reading an APFS drive from Windows: at that place aren't even third-party tools out in that location for that yet.

APFS also isn't compatible with Time Machine at this time, and so you'll accept to format fill-in drives as Mac OS Extended.

Other than that, in that location'southward probably no reason not to utilise APFS at this point, peculiarly on solid state drives and wink memory.

Mac OS Extended: Best for Mechanical Drives, Or Drives Used With Older macOS Versions

Mac Os Extended was the default file arrangement used by every Mac from 1998 until 2017, when APFS replaced information technology. To this twenty-four hour period, it remains the default file organisation for mechanical and hybrid hard drives, both while installing macOS and while formatting external drives. This is in function because the benefits of APFS aren't as clear on mechanical drives.

If you've got a mechanical hard drive, and you intend to use it only with Macs, it's probably best to stick with Mac OS Extended. And whatever drive that needs to piece of work with older Macs, running El Capitan or before, should admittedly exist formatted with Mac OS Extended, because APFS is not compatible with those computers.

APFS too doesn't work with Time Machine, so y'all should format whatsoever drive you want to utilise for backing up your Mac using Mac Bone Extended.

ExFat: All-time for External Drives Shared With Windows Computers

ExFat should basically only exist used on drives that demand to work with both Windows and macOS computers. The format dates back to 2006, and was fabricated by Microsoft to provide some of the cross-platform compatibility of the older FAT32 format without the file and partition size limitations. It's non a particularly optimized file format—it'south far more vulnerable to file fragmentation than APFS or Mac OS Extended, for ane thing, and metadata and other features used past macOS aren't present.

But formatting a bulldoze with ExFAT offers ane huge advantage: both Windows and macOS computers and both read and write to this format. Sure, yous could read a Mac formatted drive on Windows or read a Windows formatted drive on a Mac, simply both solutions either cost money or are unstable. So despite the disadvantages, ExFAT is your best option for cantankerous-platform difficult drives.

RELATED: How to Read a Mac-Formatted Bulldoze on a Windows PC

Case Sensitive: Avoid Unless You Know Why You lot Want It

APFS and Mac Os Extended both offer a "Instance Sensitive" choice, but macOS does non employ this setting by default. And unless y'all really know what you lot're doing, and take a specific reason for wanting it, you shouldn't apply example sensitivity when formatting a drive.

To exist clear, y'all can apply capital messages in file names either mode. Case Sensitivity by and large determines whether the file organization sees capital letters as different. Past default, information technology doesn't, which is why you tin't have a file chosen "Fun.txt" and "fun.txt" in the same folder on a Mac. The file system sees the file names as identical, even if they wait different to you.

Macs used instance sensitivity at the file system by default in the 90s, but this changed around the time of Mac OS X's launch. UNIX-based systems are by and large case sensitive and Mac OS X was the first Mac operating system based on the UNIX standard, so this is a petty unusual. Presumably, a case-sensitive file system was just seen as less user-friendly.

Today, enabling case sensitivity could suspension some Mac apps that expect a case-insensitive file system.

Our recommendation is to avoid case sensitivity for both APFS and Mac OS Extended unless you have a specific reason for wanting it. There'southward non many benefits to turning information technology on, but all kinds of things might break, and dragging files from 1 to the other might hateful data loss.

Encryption Protects Your Files, Just Might Affect Performance

Nosotros've told you how to encrypt your macOS hard drives, only the fastest way to get this washed is enabling encryption when you commencement format the drive. Both APFS and Mac Os Extended offer an Encrypted choice, and if security is a concern, it's a expert idea to utilize this on external drives.

The main downside is that forgetting the encryption key means losing access to your files. Exercise not encrypt a drive unless you tin remember the cardinal, or unless you accept somewhere secure to store it.

The other potential downside to encryption is performance. Reading and writing will exist slower on an encrypted drive, merely we think information technology's generally worth it—especially on portable Macs, like laptops.

Other Options: MS-DOS (Fatty) and Windows NT

Eagle-eyed observers will observe a few more options than what I've outlined above. Here's a quick summary of those.

MS-DOS (Fatty) is an ancient reverse-compatible file format, a forerunner to FAT32. Merely apply this if you admittedly need compatibility with Windows versions older than XP SP2. You almost certainly do non.
Windows NT Filesystem might be offered depending on your setup. This is the main type of drive used by Windows systems, and it's probably a better idea to create such partitions on a Windows system.

We've already told you the difference between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS, so check that list for more than particular about these and other options.

Photo credit: Patrick Lindenberg, Brian Blum, Tinh tế Photograph, Telaneo