You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Copy Time Machine Backup to new external drive

Several previous posts have discussed this issue but it's not clear yet if it's possible to have the new drive on a different format. In practice, Apple recommends the use of APFS, my backups started on Mac OS extended in late 2019. I understand that Time Machine would now work better using APFS. Is it possible to copy the backup file from a Mac OS extended disk to a an APFS disk?


If not, what are the drawbacks of Formatting the new disk with Mac OS extended and just keep using this format?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Dec 11, 2021 3:33 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 11, 2021 4:13 PM

With Monterey Time Machine will be formatted to APFS regardless what you specify. I would get another disk and use with Monterey and just keep your old one just in case it is needed.

Similar questions

1 reply

Copy Time Machine Backup to new external drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.