The whole outcome changes when you’re doing versioned backups. If your sole purpose is to archive the data, you don’t need APFS. Do you have a preference for certain backup apps or use Time Machine?.Are you using External Hard Drive or SSD?.Do you want to use the external drive to share with a Windows PC or Linux?.Do you want to use the external drive for data archival or backups? And do you want to use the same drive on other Macs, then note the macOS version and model.It also doesn't require complicated ACLs and file attribution systems like NTFS.īut before you convert from HFS+ to APFS, consider the following factors: exFAT has no realistic file or partition size limits. exFAT is the preferred file format for flash storage drives that you share between Windows and Mac. Microsoft designed this to provide similar compatibility to FAT32 without the pesky limitations. Manufacturers like Seagate lets you read and write data interchangeably on Windows and Mac without formatting the external drive. You can only access drives formatted with HFS+ on Windows through third-party apps.Even if you’re using SSD as a Time Machine drive, it’s not compatible with APFS. For Time Machine backups, use MacOS Extended (Journaled) if it’s a mechanical hard drive or if you’re using macOS Catalina or earlier.If you have older Macs (pre–2016), particularly those too old to update to a recent version of macOS, choosing HFS+ will enable you to use your external drive with those machines.

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