WARNING: Formatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting.

Check step 2 to confirm Disk Utility is Showing All Devices NOTE: If you don’t see Scheme, then make sure that all devices are showing and the non-indented entry is selected. Select the non-indented entry, you will see Media in the nameĬlick the button labelled Erase in the menu which will bring up this window.Click View in the upper left and select Show All Devices.To open Disk Utility - Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility Note: If you would prefer a video tutorial of these steps instead, please click the thumbnail below. IMPORTANT: Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Click here to see other formatting options for your operating system.Looking for a different formatting option? When using between macOS and Windows, drives should always be formatted on macOS because not all Windows allocation unit sizes (cluster sizes) are supported by macOS which will prevent the drive from mounting.ExFAT drives must be safely ejected to prevent corruption because ExFAT is not a journaled file system.Starting with Big Sur, APFS is now the default for Time Machine.ExFAT is not compatible with Time Machine.It is important to keep the following in mind when formatting to ExFAT: Not seeing your version of macOS? Click here to see other versions of macOS and different formatting options.Not sure which version you are using? Click here to determine your version of macOS.You can also open a Finder window, select Applications in the sidebar, and head to Utilities > Disk Utility. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type Disk Utility, and press Enter to launch the app. IMPORTANT: This article applies to the following macOS version: To format a drive on a Mac, you’ll need the built-in Disk Utility application.

Macos format external drive