This is one of the best TH-cam tutorials I have ever seen. Clear communication, each step explained as to why and how, and anticipates alternative steps depending on your situation.
Love the way you get right into a topic, state it in simple terms, and then end the video promptly (rather than vloggers who want to tell their life stories along with a plethora of if's and's or but's)
Same, as the options were Journaled, ExFAT, Windows etc in the drop list, but once choose the scheme from Master Boot to GUID the 'Convert to APFS' came up, made 2 500gb partitions 1 for my saved stuff, and 1 for Time Machine, though maybe went too big on the 500gb partition for time machine lol, am sure can reduce it.
For maximum compatibility with Windows and Linux systems (especially legacy versions like Windows 7), if I format a drive with exFAT, I always use the MBR partition scheme. Windows tends to be picky when using GUID, and sometimes throws strange errors or doesn't even show the drive in File Explorer.
Once again, I learned something I didn't know. I've always pre-formatted Time Machine drives. I had no idea TM would do that on its own, automatically. Amazing. Thanks, Gary.
THANKS A MILLION GARY!!! I've tried 3 different SSDs in my Mac docking station and you're the first person who's told me that they're not being read because they haven't been formatted. In the absence of any other instruction, I assumed they would be Plug and play. My new disc is now working fine.
Hi Gary, thank you so much for this easy to follow video. I'd like to add my experience of not seeing APFS in the first instance of trying to reformat an external drive in case others experience it too. When I plugged in my LaCie etxernal drive (came formatted as exFAT), Disk Utility showed Master Boot Record under Scheme, and only Mac OS Extended and FAT were offered under Format. I had to change the Scheme to GUID before APFS (and its variations) was offered under Format. Once both APFS and GUID are selected, I could reformat the drive correctly.
Very useful. One tip I can add is that if you do wish to encrypt do it at the start because if you later on decide to encrypt a disk it can take days to reformat "on the fly"
This video should be a template for tech/edu youtubers on how to teach a topic! clear, concise, to the point and most importantly: ACCURATE! Well done, you earned a sub+. :)
Thank you very much! I purchased an external drive from Amazon. However, when I tried to install it, I couldn't find it. I had to install Parallels in order to transfer the files, which I didn't want to do. Your video made all the difference.
Just what I needed. Had that problem with my external drive and wasn't able to find anything helpful on their website. Was getting real frustrated when I finally found your video. Thanks a lot!
I could not for the life of me figure out how to transfer files from meh old Mac mini to my brand new Mac mini. Using the Time Machine was the answer, since I didn't have a spare monitor and keyboard. The only thing different about your tutorial from my own experience is that my external disc would not show up in Time Machine as an option until I manually formatted it to APFS in Disc Utility. It did not automatically do it nor gave me the option to do it. But it worked after all! Thanks for your great videos. I've learned lots from you since becoming a Mac person a couple of years ago.-
APFS case sensitive can be helpful, too! What that option allows you to do is to specify filenames with different cases (i.e. upper case and lower case) and the filesystem would keep track of that case sensitivity. This can be useful if you use case sensitivity to differentiate versions of files for instance (i.e. two files have the same name but different letter casing to indicate version).
I really don't get why "case sensitive' existed.. because you can do that anyway even .... do have a "unique" option, just for something you can already do,.. doesn't really do anything difference. Apart from the fact you don't have to manually rename.
You are brilliant, simple and straight forward, no BS at all, unlike some other TH-camrs. Super easy to understand for a Mac dummy like me LOL. Keep up the good work!! 💪💪
Super helpful and precise video! After much time searching for the right answer, I finally got it here. No issues now with Photoshop and Scratch Disk. Thank You!
Gary, it might just be my experience with my personal Macs, but I've found that platter hard drives formatted as APFS don't behave as well as platter hard drives formatted with HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). SSDs? APFS for sure, for lots of reasons. But my experience has been that HFS+ is better for HDDs. (I know, platter drives are so last century. But lots of people still have them, even if many of those are just for archival storage.)
Unfortunately I still need to use platter drives for my massive music library which is over 6TB, and SSDs are still prohibitively expensive in that size range.
Invaluable! Thank you, Gary! Good to know that Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is still ok to use-my photos are stored on an external drive with that format. I see I created it in 2013, which probably explains why it's the old format!
I kept getting an error when I tried this earlier, but you went more in depth than any other tutorial, and I was able to successfully do it. Thank you.
Very, very helpful. My new ADATA HDD was formatted for Windows and Mac Time Machine would not recognize it, though the MacBook Pro did. You made it easy to find how to reformat it. Thank you so much. I am a new subscriber, but have listened to several of your videos. You do a real good job. Kudos!
Thanks for guiding me on how to configure my new 4TB SSD on my new Mac Studio! Excellent instructions and explanation on all the terms and execution! Kudos!
Thanks for the info! I haven't really used the sequencer in Maschine, mostly just for the sounds but I may start, your vid helped me get a better understanding.
Excellent video! Just purchased a 4 TB NVme for my external enclosure - the reminders at the end helped me format safely. Thanks for the peace of mind!
APFS - If you're using macOS High Sierra or newer. 'Mac OS Extended Journaled' for macOS Sierra or earlier. Typically for external drives I use the latter.
Hiya thank you a million. When I tried to connect my new hard drive and set it up with Time Machine, it wouldn’t recognise it was there unless I formatted it. Once I did that I’ve been able to set up my Time Machine. It didn’t have a PFS available to me though, so I put it on the older version that you chatted about. Thank you 1 million times once again for your wonderful video.❤
Gary I’ve heard HFS+ is still a lot better for spinning (disk) drives vs. APFS which is more optimized for SSDs. Apparently APFS is hard on spinning disk drives. Also, important to note that you need to be careful formatting to ExFAT because it’s not journaled. I’d only use that format if you need to transfer data and not as long-term storage. I’ve had a couple ExFAT drives suffer data corruption 😢 Anyway thanks for the great video as always!
-- Also, important to note that you need to be careful formatting to ExFAT because it’s not journaled. I’d only use that format if you need to transfer data and not as long-term storage. I’ve had a couple ExFAT drives suffer data corruption 😢-- THIS, OMG MY OBS RECORDING ARE DELETED, it has all 0KB because of corruption :( BECAREFUL WITH ExFAT; All EXes are bad.
Thanks Gary. I did notice that I don't get the choice for APFS unless I select the GUiD Partition Map first. Otherwise, I just get the Mac Journaled choice.
Good, though I wish you also explained new Mac and old Mac usage such as NAS usage in a Mac only office, and the what are the particular pros/cons of those other options in that situation. And in the Time Machine window the custom options
Just purchased a WD external hard drive, so thank you so much for your video. I like th part of using TimeMachine to set it up. Question , I found a short dongle cable usb C to usb3 specified for 5GBPS gen1usb3, will it work to connect MacBook air 2019 to the external hard drive. Also if I use TimeMachine can I choose what to upload to external drive or does it back up everything. Thank you.
Time Machine backs up everything. You can manually exclude things, but only do that if you really have a good reason and know what you are doing. As for the cable, try it and see.
Great Tutorial, one tip you could have gone into is whether or not to check the disk for errors. Some people might be having trouble with the disk and think reformatting will fix any issues. Otherwise great video.
Gary, once formatted as APFS, can you explain the difference between dividing the storage into partitions vs volumes? What are the pros/cons of doing it each way?
That’s a big big topic. Too long to go into here as a comment. Search and you’ll find some detailed info about the differences. I never use either, as the uses tend to be highly specialized or aren’t really necessary.
This was really helpful. I've been trying to figure out why my SSD would not show up as being recognised in any other device aside from the Mac I had initially set it up on, using APFS format. Tried connecting it to any other device and it never worked until erasing it and reformatting it as ExFAT. Working now on other devices, Mac and Windows. Thanks! :)
Thanks for this! Learning slowly, although I am now needing to revert my external hard drive back a no longer needing Time Machine on the device. What format do I need if I’m only using Mac and how to revert? Help 😅
APFS is an excellent file system which allows variable volume size and that can be very useful and saves space. I would not recommend ex-fat for switching between mac and windows because mac or windows can get confused easily and you lose all your data. I have tried it myself.
@@RedArrow73 I used to but after losing data twice I stopped doing that. I switched between Mac and PC often with exfat formatted hard drive. Suddenly Mac and PC could not read my hard drive anymore!
good luck recovering data from a apfs drive in case of failure. exFAT is still better just because it is actually possible to recover your data from a failed drive.
@@kevinstarofficial you might be right but with the new SSD drives and NVMe the rate of failure is very low. I had seen a lot of old mechanical hard drives crashes at least once a year but in more than 10 years that I have been using SSD and NVMe I have seen none. So I am not gonna use ex-fat just because in 100 years my drive can crash. I have set up my computer to make automatic backups anyway!
Thank you! This guide is perfectly timed for me. I do allot of photography, and my old 2015 iMac is at capacity. I’m having it cleaned, upgraded, and updated. I also have a new 24” iMac on order for the living room. When they’re both set up at home I want an SSD for back up, and photo’ storage that I can access on both computers. Also something that I can use for storage when I’m on the road. I usually load photo’s from the SD card into my iPad with a dongle. I don’t know if my current iPad can even be connected to an external drive. (It’s about the same age an my iMac.) But my next one should have that capacity, and I’ll use the SSD for storage from the iPad as well.
Nice videos, now I have learned how to use my macbook in the right way, hope you could also cover how to fix or why the mcbook screen is getting white on the Edge or lower edge,
Thanks for all of the information. I was watching this because I am planning to get a new Mac tomorrow. Do you need to reformat an old external hard drive that you used on a previous Mac or a new one?
Thank you Gary, I appreciate your excellent MacMost channel! I was just searching for this information, magically this post popped up. Timely for me! Thank you!
Wish I could have seen this before hours of frustration of setting anew portable ssd for M4 mini backup! I did come to the conclusion that when I formatted and erased the new SSD, that it formatted AFPS case-sensitive? So I guess that's what Time Machine wanted? What does the Case Sensitive stand for?
Very helpful! Follow up questions: (1) If price is not a factor, would it be better to use external SSD or HDD for Time Machine? (Samsung T7 4TB is now just a little over $200). (2) I have some HDD drives that are A/C powered and some HDD drives that are USB powered. If I choose to use an HDD for Time Machine, is one preferable over the other? Thank you!
HDD. SSD are smaller. Get a big HDD instead. A 12TB HDD can store more data and a much longer history than a 4TB SSD. (And price is ALWAYS a factor. Do you really want to throw money away on something you don't need?) Whether you use AC or USB power is up to you. It will work the same. Some find the USB power neater (fewer cables, more portable) but usually the AC ones are cheaper and come in bigger sizes. I use an AC-powered one for those two reasons.
Thank you so much for great presentation. I copied all files on an external drive to iCloud as you suggested. This is my question: What does the little cloud with a down arrow opposite a file name mean in iCloud Drive? I don't know how to upload photo to understand my question!
Thank you so much. I have a t7 shield and it doesn’t have APFS! Will I be able to use Mac extended (journaled) for Time Machine? And then use this drive for a Mac I plan to get in the future? For example to transfer data to a newer MacBook? I currently have a MacBook Pro 2015 on Monterey ( latest version). I’m worried that it will be unreadable by a newer Mac? And exFAT can definitely be used by newer Mac’s too? So sorry for the questions and hope this makes sense!!
APFS isn't something a drive "has." It is a format. If it isn't formatted as APFS now then you can erase and reformat it as APFS in Disk Utility. If you go to use it for Time Machine then it MUST be formatted as APFS or HFS+ (can't remember what Monterey requires). So Time Machine would reformat it when you set it up.
Thanks Gary - very useful info as always. I have an SSD attached to my Mac formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), soon to be transferred to a new Mac. Should I re-format as APFS? Is there a benefit to this?
Great video! When attempting to reformat my Seagate I just purchased, I only had Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled), with MS-DOS and ExFat. Would Mac OS Extended (Journaled) work for my Mac?
Great job! And I know this is 3 years old, but I'm reaching out in case you still check messages on this video! In time machine, the "little" lines (before "today" or "right now" are not available to click on unless I click and hold down "Today," but once I let "today" go, I am unable to click on the little lines I see that are for yesterday. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Since this video appears to be intended for complete Mac noobs, you should have started with a FAT or exFAT drive - as you gave the opening justification for - that needed to be reformatted for use with a Mac and NOT a drive that was already APFS formatted. If you'd done that then the elements in the Disk Utility user interface and the workflow would more closely have matched what new users are going to see when they plug their new exFAT drive into their Mac.
Hi Gary. I am looking to move some photos from an old Mac to an external SSD. But I want to then use a new machine running the latest OSX to access them. What format should I use for the drive so it works with both? I then want to use a second drive as a Time Machine drive to back up my new Mac and the external drive. What format should I use for this? Thanks if you can help.
If the old Mac doesn't support APFS, then you have no choice but to use HFS+ for the transfer. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. Then you can reformat to APFS for Time Machine use after that. Note that SSDs don't make good Time Machine drives because they are usually too small. They are fast (and expensive) which isn't what you need for a backup. Better to have a large, but slower, HDD for Time Machine. FYI.
Great video. Do you have a tutorial to remove time machine from an external drive? I'd like to use my external drive for photo storage. HOW?? Thanks :)
@@macmost Do you have a video on why make a partition ? I am not too sure why and how this is necessary ( if at all ?). Thanks for your great videos and tutorials. A long time follower
I have a 5gb WD ELEMENT EXTERNAL DRIVE that I want to format. I want to partition it to 1gb for Time Machine since my drive on my iMac is 1gb. The other portion I would like to use for other files. What format do I use. Thank you.
Don't do that. Use the whole thing for Time Machine. 1GB is not enough. Remember that Time Machine stores multiple versions of your files. So as you edit a document it will save a history of that document so you can revert to a previous version if you need it. So for a 1GB drive, I would backup to 2 GB minimum, but 5 GB is better. Get another drive if you want to store other files. One reason is to provide as much space to Time Machine as you can. The other is because you can't backup your "other files" to the same drive (it wouldn't really be a backup then). See th-cam.com/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/w-d-xo.html
Another great video! But my question is what if I want to use this for a time machine and also extra folders because it seems like I set it up and use it only for time machine. Now I’m trying to create folders (to save my music and photos) and it will not let me do that.
This is one of the best TH-cam tutorials I have ever seen. Clear communication, each step explained as to why and how, and anticipates alternative steps depending on your situation.
Love the way you get right into a topic, state it in simple terms, and then end the video promptly (rather than vloggers who want to tell their life stories along with a plethora of if's and's or but's)
This was masterfully done. Concise. Told us what we need to hear, nothing more. Rare on TH-cam.
and very helpful to absolute beginners. We are not all tech geeks!
I've spent HOURS trying to fix something you explained in less than 7 mins, plus you taught me a lot. Thank you so much!
Same here. Others were having me download drivers, change startup settings... The answer was already on my mac.
Had to change Scheme first to GUID, then I could change Format to APFS. Another great info filled video!
Thanks! I didn't see APFS initially as an option and came to the comments to see if anyone had the same issue. This helped me find it!
Same, as the options were Journaled, ExFAT, Windows etc in the drop list, but once choose the scheme from Master Boot to GUID the 'Convert to APFS' came up, made 2 500gb partitions 1 for my saved stuff, and 1 for Time Machine, though maybe went too big on the 500gb partition for time machine lol, am sure can reduce it.
For maximum compatibility with Windows and Linux systems (especially legacy versions like Windows 7), if I format a drive with exFAT, I always use the MBR partition scheme. Windows tends to be picky when using GUID, and sometimes throws strange errors or doesn't even show the drive in File Explorer.
Once again, I learned something I didn't know. I've always pre-formatted Time Machine drives. I had no idea TM would do that on its own, automatically. Amazing. Thanks, Gary.
THANKS A MILLION GARY!!! I've tried 3 different SSDs in my Mac docking station and you're the first person who's told me that they're not being read because they haven't been formatted. In the absence of any other instruction, I assumed they would be Plug and play. My new disc is now working fine.
Hi Gary, thank you so much for this easy to follow video. I'd like to add my experience of not seeing APFS in the first instance of trying to reformat an external drive in case others experience it too. When I plugged in my LaCie etxernal drive (came formatted as exFAT), Disk Utility showed Master Boot Record under Scheme, and only Mac OS Extended and FAT were offered under Format. I had to change the Scheme to GUID before APFS (and its variations) was offered under Format. Once both APFS and GUID are selected, I could reformat the drive correctly.
Very useful. One tip I can add is that if you do wish to encrypt do it at the start because if you later on decide to encrypt a disk it can take days to reformat "on the fly"
This video should be a template for tech/edu youtubers on how to teach a topic! clear, concise, to the point and most importantly: ACCURATE! Well done, you earned a sub+. :)
Thank you very much! I purchased an external drive from Amazon. However, when I tried to install it, I couldn't find it. I had to install Parallels in order to transfer the files, which I didn't want to do. Your video made all the difference.
Just what I needed. Had that problem with my external drive and wasn't able to find anything helpful on their website. Was getting real frustrated when I finally found your video. Thanks a lot!
I could not for the life of me figure out how to transfer files from meh old Mac mini to my brand new Mac mini. Using the Time Machine was the answer, since I didn't have a spare monitor and keyboard. The only thing different about your tutorial from my own experience is that my external disc would not show up in Time Machine as an option until I manually formatted it to APFS in Disc Utility. It did not automatically do it nor gave me the option to do it. But it worked after all! Thanks for your great videos. I've learned lots from you since becoming a Mac person a couple of years ago.-
I've been trying to utilize an old 2 TB HDD from my PC to fully back up my Mac and this tutorial was so helpful! Thank you!
APFS case sensitive can be helpful, too! What that option allows you to do is to specify filenames with different cases (i.e. upper case and lower case) and the filesystem would keep track of that case sensitivity. This can be useful if you use case sensitivity to differentiate versions of files for instance (i.e. two files have the same name but different letter casing to indicate version).
Be sure that any applications you might wish to use are compatible with a case-sensitive format. Some are not.
I really don't get why "case sensitive' existed.. because you can do that anyway even .... do have a "unique" option, just for something you can already do,.. doesn't really do anything difference. Apart from the fact you don't have to manually rename.
You are brilliant, simple and straight forward, no BS at all, unlike some other TH-camrs. Super easy to understand for a Mac dummy like me LOL. Keep up the good work!! 💪💪
As always, very useful information, well explained and with all the information you need. Thank You Gary!
Super helpful and precise video! After much time searching for the right answer, I finally got it here. No issues now with Photoshop and Scratch Disk. Thank You!
Gary, it might just be my experience with my personal Macs, but I've found that platter hard drives formatted as APFS don't behave as well as platter hard drives formatted with HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). SSDs? APFS for sure, for lots of reasons. But my experience has been that HFS+ is better for HDDs. (I know, platter drives are so last century. But lots of people still have them, even if many of those are just for archival storage.)
Hi John, Exactly…Even Apple recommends APFS for SSDs and flash storages, but for external spinning HDDs MAC OS Extended Journaled is the best option
Unfortunately I still need to use platter drives for my massive music library which is over 6TB, and SSDs are still prohibitively expensive in that size range.
APFS is not available in the list. This is a new 2023 SSD external drive and my OS is 13.5.1. Help!
I'm also interested in this. Just bought a Samsung ssd T7 and it also dosn't have the APFS option!@@superpoodlehead
Make sure the Scheme field shows “GUID Partition Map”. Then see if APFS becomes available.
Invaluable! Thank you, Gary! Good to know that Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is still ok to use-my photos are stored on an external drive with that format. I see I created it in 2013, which probably explains why it's the old format!
Yes my drives are formatted with mac os too. It’s been so long I didn’t know there is a newer, better format I should be using now
APFS format is not backwards compatible!
@@qwincyq6412
I kept getting an error when I tried this earlier, but you went more in depth than any other tutorial, and I was able to successfully do it. Thank you.
Very, very helpful. My new ADATA HDD was formatted for Windows and Mac Time Machine would not recognize it, though the MacBook Pro did. You made it easy to find how to reformat it. Thank you so much. I am a new subscriber, but have listened to several of your videos. You do a real good job. Kudos!
Thanks for guiding me on how to configure my new 4TB SSD on my new Mac Studio! Excellent instructions and explanation on all the terms and execution! Kudos!
Makes me consider all the old thumb drives I have and what to do with them. Thanks.
I really appreciate your broad knowledge for making Mac eco-system very beautiful for users 😇
You saved me! Thought 90% of the storage on my SD-card was permanently lost. But now I have full capacity again
Thanks for the info! I haven't really used the sequencer in Maschine, mostly just for the sounds but I may start, your vid helped me get a better understanding.
Great stuff, Gary...no one else does it the way you do.
Excellent video! Just purchased a 4 TB NVme for my external enclosure - the reminders at the end helped me format safely. Thanks for the peace of mind!
Your clarity is a gift, thank you.
This totally helped me today on with my new M3 with an external hub /SSD. I was formatting the wrong part of the drive. Thank you so much!!!!
Thank you so much for a concise and well-put-together video. Really helped me get set up with my hard drive. Feel well-informed and ready to go!
APFS - If you're using macOS High Sierra or newer. 'Mac OS Extended Journaled' for macOS Sierra or earlier. Typically for external drives I use the latter.
Thanks for the info man! I just formatea to APFS
Thank you for this. I am not tech savvy so I appreciate videos like this.
Hiya thank you a million. When I tried to connect my new hard drive and set it up with Time Machine, it wouldn’t recognise it was there unless I formatted it. Once I did that I’ve been able to set up my Time Machine. It didn’t have a PFS available to me though, so I put it on the older version that you chatted about. Thank you 1 million times once again for your wonderful video.❤
Thanks! I wish I'd seen this a few months ago when I needed a new Mac hard drive. But this info sure will help for the future.
Thanks! I had a very unique problem with running a program on my computer and this ended up being the key
Super video, concise and clear explanation - exactly what I needed. Thank you so much!!
Good stuff. My external time machine drive is nearly full. How do I transfer the 'old' time machine files to my new bigger drive?
Your channel is the best. Thank you for all your joyful effort.
My go to for all my iMac info. THANKS!
thanks for you help didn't know what to do when i got a new external drive. it wasn't formatted for a mac that was all.
Gary I’ve heard HFS+ is still a lot better for spinning (disk) drives vs. APFS which is more optimized for SSDs. Apparently APFS is hard on spinning disk drives.
Also, important to note that you need to be careful formatting to ExFAT because it’s not journaled. I’d only use that format if you need to transfer data and not as long-term storage. I’ve had a couple ExFAT drives suffer data corruption 😢
Anyway thanks for the great video as always!
APFS is good or SSDs and HDDs.
That is a myth.
@@artysanmobile what is a myth?
I never get a good answer to this question especially for large external HDD that may be using RAID 0 or 1
-- Also, important to note that you need to be careful formatting to ExFAT because it’s not journaled. I’d only use that format if you need to transfer data and not as long-term storage. I’ve had a couple ExFAT drives suffer data corruption 😢--
THIS, OMG MY OBS RECORDING ARE DELETED, it has all 0KB because of corruption :(
BECAREFUL WITH ExFAT; All EXes are bad.
THANK YOU!! this was so helpful, i was scared i was going to have to download dodgy drive readers but this works perfectly!
Thanks Gary. I did notice that I don't get the choice for APFS unless I select the GUiD Partition Map first. Otherwise, I just get the Mac Journaled choice.
Vielen Dank, Dein Video kommt zur richtigen Zeit. Gestern habe ich die externe Festplatte für meinen neuen Mac bekommen.
thanks for a great video. Your delivery is perfect. Straight to the point without a bunch of run on fluff. Thanks for the help!!!
Yes! Great to be shown some "technical" flows to round out how we interact with the Mac. Thanks!
Good, though I wish you also explained new Mac and old Mac usage such as NAS usage in a Mac only office, and the what are the particular pros/cons of those other options in that situation. And in the Time Machine window the custom options
Just purchased a WD external hard drive, so thank you so much for your video. I like th part of using TimeMachine to set it up. Question , I found a short dongle cable usb C to usb3 specified for 5GBPS gen1usb3, will it work to connect MacBook air 2019 to the external hard drive. Also if I use TimeMachine can I choose what to upload to external drive or does it back up everything. Thank you.
Time Machine backs up everything. You can manually exclude things, but only do that if you really have a good reason and know what you are doing. As for the cable, try it and see.
Great Tutorial, one tip you could have gone into is whether or not to check the disk for errors. Some people might be having trouble with the disk and think reformatting will fix any issues. Otherwise great video.
Thank you, I could not find that Utility and this helped me.
A very useful and informative video tutorial today! I always learn something new to me! Thank you, Gary! 👏❤️
Thanks so much! Saved me from buying a replacement drive unnecessarily.
Thank you for all your hard work I use and learn from your videos a lot
Clear, concise, informative. Thanks you so much.
Hope you found it useful and my answer is thank you Gary it was useful for me 😀 👍
Gary, once formatted as APFS, can you explain the difference between dividing the storage into partitions vs volumes? What are the pros/cons of doing it each way?
That’s a big big topic. Too long to go into here as a comment. Search and you’ll find some detailed info about the differences. I never use either, as the uses tend to be highly specialized or aren’t really necessary.
This was really helpful. I've been trying to figure out why my SSD would not show up as being recognised in any other device aside from the Mac I had initially set it up on, using APFS format. Tried connecting it to any other device and it never worked until erasing it and reformatting it as ExFAT. Working now on other devices, Mac and Windows. Thanks! :)
Thanks for this! Learning slowly, although I am now needing to revert my external hard drive back a no longer needing Time Machine on the device. What format do I need if I’m only using Mac and how to revert? Help 😅
APFS is an excellent file system which allows variable volume size and that can be very useful and saves space. I would not recommend ex-fat for switching between mac and windows because mac or windows can get confused easily and you lose all your data. I have tried it myself.
I would.
@@RedArrow73 I used to but after losing data twice I stopped doing that. I switched between Mac and PC often with exfat formatted hard drive. Suddenly Mac and PC could not read my hard drive anymore!
good luck recovering data from a apfs drive in case of failure. exFAT is still better just because it is actually possible to recover your data from a failed drive.
@@kevinstarofficial you might be right but with the new SSD drives and NVMe the rate of failure is very low. I had seen a lot of old mechanical hard drives crashes at least once a year but in more than 10 years that I have been using SSD and NVMe I have seen none. So I am not gonna use ex-fat just because in 100 years my drive can crash. I have set up my computer to make automatic backups anyway!
Thank you! This guide is perfectly timed for me. I do allot of photography, and my old 2015 iMac is at capacity. I’m having it cleaned, upgraded, and updated. I also have a new 24” iMac on order for the living room. When they’re both set up at home I want an SSD for back up, and photo’ storage that I can access on both computers. Also something that I can use for storage when I’m on the road. I usually load photo’s from the SD card into my iPad with a dongle. I don’t know if my current iPad can even be connected to an external drive. (It’s about the same age an my iMac.) But my next one should have that capacity, and I’ll use the SSD for storage from the iPad as well.
A backup SSD is a waste of money.
@@RedArrow73 Now, you tell me.
Great advice! Loved especially how you mentioned Time Machine at the end, that's exactly what I needed. Made it simple. Thank you!
You’re Godsend! Love your video content. Just bought Samsung T7 ssd going to use it for Time Machine for my Mac mini Pro.
SSD? See th-cam.com/video/xH0c3K9r_fg/w-d-xo.html
Thank you SOOOO much! Everything I needed! Cheers ~
You are a G!
Nice videos, now I have learned how to use my macbook in the right way, hope you could also cover how to fix or why the mcbook screen is getting white on the Edge or lower edge,
I don't know what you mean by "white on the edge." Have you tried making an appointment at the Genius Bar?
Thanks for all of the information. I was watching this because I am planning to get a new Mac tomorrow. Do you need to reformat an old external hard drive that you used on a previous Mac or a new one?
No, you shouldn't need to reformat for most uses.
@@macmost Thanks for your help!
Short and Helpful! Just what I needed to know.
Thank you Gary, I appreciate your excellent MacMost channel! I was just searching for this information, magically this post popped up. Timely for me! Thank you!
All the videos I have watched thus far, have been extremely useful.
The video was very helpful! Thank you!!!
Such a solid video! Exactly the info I needed and no fluff. Nice work! 🙌
yes, extremely useful and perfectly clear. thank you for being great and not wasting time. ;)
Wish I could have seen this before hours of frustration of setting anew portable ssd for M4 mini backup! I did come to the conclusion that when I formatted and erased the new SSD, that it formatted AFPS case-sensitive? So I guess that's what Time Machine wanted? What does the Case Sensitive stand for?
Case sensitive literally means that. Case as in uppercase. lowercase. A file that is "MyFile.txt" is different than "myfile.txt".
Should the format you choose change based on the type of Drive you have e.g. Hard Disk vs SSD?
Very helpful! Follow up questions: (1) If price is not a factor, would it be better to use external SSD or HDD for Time Machine? (Samsung T7 4TB is now just a little over $200). (2) I have some HDD drives that are A/C powered and some HDD drives that are USB powered. If I choose to use an HDD for Time Machine, is one preferable over the other? Thank you!
HDD. SSD are smaller. Get a big HDD instead. A 12TB HDD can store more data and a much longer history than a 4TB SSD. (And price is ALWAYS a factor. Do you really want to throw money away on something you don't need?) Whether you use AC or USB power is up to you. It will work the same. Some find the USB power neater (fewer cables, more portable) but usually the AC ones are cheaper and come in bigger sizes. I use an AC-powered one for those two reasons.
@@macmost well thought out. Thanks!
Good, concise video.
One suggestion: Put the “You don’t need to do this for Time Machine…” part at the BEGINNING of the video for dum-dums like me. 😅
The only video you need to watch!!
I came to the channel to learn about macOS, but I ended up learning even more about how to explain a topic to an audience.
Thank you so much for great presentation. I copied all files on an external drive to iCloud as you suggested. This is my question: What does the little cloud with a down arrow opposite a file name mean in iCloud Drive? I don't know how to upload photo to understand my question!
Latest OS Ventura 13.4.1. Apple M1 Pro DO not have APFS under Disk Utility. Any Ideas
See 1:55
Thank you so much. I have a t7 shield and it doesn’t have APFS! Will I be able to use Mac extended (journaled) for Time Machine?
And then use this drive for a Mac I plan to get in the future? For example to transfer data to a newer MacBook? I currently have a MacBook Pro 2015 on Monterey ( latest version). I’m worried that it will be unreadable by a newer Mac? And exFAT can definitely be used by newer Mac’s too? So sorry for the questions and hope this makes sense!!
APFS isn't something a drive "has." It is a format. If it isn't formatted as APFS now then you can erase and reformat it as APFS in Disk Utility. If you go to use it for Time Machine then it MUST be formatted as APFS or HFS+ (can't remember what Monterey requires). So Time Machine would reformat it when you set it up.
Thanks Gary - very useful info as always. I have an SSD attached to my Mac formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), soon to be transferred to a new Mac. Should I re-format as APFS? Is there a benefit to this?
The downside is all of the effort to reformat (remove all files, reformat, put files back). I wouldn't do it just for that reason.
@@macmost Thanks Gary - that will save me some hassle!
Great video! When attempting to reformat my Seagate I just purchased, I only had Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled), with MS-DOS and ExFat. Would Mac OS Extended (Journaled) work for my Mac?
Which Mac and which version of macOS? Are you sure you followed at 1:55 and were selecting the DEVICE?
Great job! And I know this is 3 years old, but I'm reaching out in case you still check messages on this video! In time machine, the "little" lines (before "today" or "right now" are not available to click on unless I click and hold down "Today," but once I let "today" go, I am unable to click on the little lines I see that are for yesterday. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you very much for this detailed video. You made my life eaasier.
Since this video appears to be intended for complete Mac noobs, you should have started with a FAT or exFAT drive - as you gave the opening justification for - that needed to be reformatted for use with a Mac and NOT a drive that was already APFS formatted. If you'd done that then the elements in the Disk Utility user interface and the workflow would more closely have matched what new users are going to see when they plug their new exFAT drive into their Mac.
Hi Gary. I am looking to move some photos from an old Mac to an external SSD. But I want to then use a new machine running the latest OSX to access them. What format should I use for the drive so it works with both? I then want to use a second drive as a Time Machine drive to back up my new Mac and the external drive. What format should I use for this? Thanks if you can help.
If the old Mac doesn't support APFS, then you have no choice but to use HFS+ for the transfer. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. Then you can reformat to APFS for Time Machine use after that. Note that SSDs don't make good Time Machine drives because they are usually too small. They are fast (and expensive) which isn't what you need for a backup. Better to have a large, but slower, HDD for Time Machine. FYI.
This really helped! Thank you so much.
Great video. Do you have a tutorial to remove time machine from an external drive? I'd like to use my external drive for photo storage. HOW?? Thanks :)
Just use Disk Utility to erase the drive.
A very clear and useful video. You’re amazing 🤘🏻
Amazing video and straignt to the point! Thank you!
Thanks Gary for the info. No what about partition of an external drive?
You would do that in Disk Utility, yes. But for what purpose?
@@macmost Do you have a video on why make a partition ? I am not too sure why and how this is necessary ( if at all ?). Thanks for your great videos and tutorials. A long time follower
Thank you for your wonderful explanations of everything.
Thanks for the comprehensive breakdown Sir. Best... Bobby :) :) :)
Just wanted to point out that APFS doesn't show up in the list until GUID Partition Map is selected.
I have a 5gb WD ELEMENT EXTERNAL DRIVE that I want to format. I want to partition it to 1gb for Time Machine since my drive on my iMac is 1gb. The other portion I would like to use for other files. What format do I use. Thank you.
Don't do that. Use the whole thing for Time Machine. 1GB is not enough. Remember that Time Machine stores multiple versions of your files. So as you edit a document it will save a history of that document so you can revert to a previous version if you need it. So for a 1GB drive, I would backup to 2 GB minimum, but 5 GB is better. Get another drive if you want to store other files. One reason is to provide as much space to Time Machine as you can. The other is because you can't backup your "other files" to the same drive (it wouldn't really be a backup then). See th-cam.com/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/w-d-xo.html
Another great video!
But my question is what if I want to use this for a time machine and also extra folders because it seems like I set it up and use it only for time machine. Now I’m trying to create folders (to save my music and photos) and it will not let me do that.
Don't do that. Use it just for Time Machine. See th-cam.com/video/Wmlpup2lIYI/w-d-xo.html