APFS (Encrypted): Uses the APFS format and encrypts the volume.

Choose this option if you don’t need an encrypted or case-sensitive format. In a support document, Apple says that you should choose one of the following APFS formats for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later. This makes sense as that’s likely the tool you’ll use when formatting, diagnosing, etc., any Mac drives. ° You can share the Time Machine container with volumes that aren’t being used for backups.Īpple recommends that you work with file formats that work with the company’s Disk Utility. This probably only affects a handful of people, but you’ve been warned. ° Big Sur APFS-based Time Machine backups can’t be used in Catalina or earlier releases. Macworld notes that, because of the structural differences, you can’t just copy from HFS+ to APFS, either. That erases all the Time Machine backups. However-and this is the big “gotcha”-if you want to shift a drive from HFS+ to APFS, you have to reformat the drive. You can set up a drive from scratch with HFS+ to create new Time Machine volumes as well. Why? There’s no way to convert an HFS+ Time Machine volume to one that uses APFS without erasing it.Īs noted by Macworld, before you format a Time Machine drive to APFS, you should note that your old HFS+ based Time Machine volumes remain valid and readable in Big Sur. If you have existing HFS volumes, you won’t see them after you update, so you shouldn’t update any such volumes. With macOS Big Sur, you’ll need a drive formatted with APSF (Apple File System) to use Time Machine for backing up your files ( and you really should be backing up your files). (By the way, a Fusion Drive was a storage option on some iMac and Mac mini computers that combined a hard drive and flash storage in a single volume.)

And no new Macs ship with a Fusion Drive. Older Macs that use Fusion Drives or regular hard disk drives (HHDs) will not be converted.Īpple has promised APFS support for Fusion Drives, but, as best I can tell, this hasn’t happened yet. If you install APFS on any Mac that uses a solid-state drive (SSD) as a built-in boot drive, it will automatically convert to APFS and you will not have a choice.

Fusion Drives and hard disk drives (HDDs) aren’t converted. You can’t opt-out of the transition to APFS. When you install macOS High Sierra and later on the built-in solid-state drive (SSD) of a Mac, that drive is automatically converted to APFS.

APFS features strong encryption, space sharing, snapshots, fast directory sizing, and improved file system fundamentals. I’m guessing this will hold true when macOS Monterey is released. About APFSĪPFS is the default file system in macOS High Sierra and later for Macs with all-flash storage.

Chances are your volume was HFS+, or some other incompatible format. If you’ve updated to Big Sur and notice that you no longer see one of your Time Machine volumes, it didn’t disappear.

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