2012 mac Mini, can't convert SSD to APFS?

[gpspad]

I have a 2012 Mac Mini that I installed a Samsung 860 SSD in the lower bay. Its running Mojave. The drive is formatted as journaled, and I can't seem to install the latest Mojave update to it.

i suspect its because the SSD is not setup as APFS, I opened diskutil to convert it, but the convert to APFS is greyed out.

I also tried installing the latest Mojave as a new install, and it won't let me select the journaled ssd drive, it is also greyed out.

Any way around this?

 

[treekram]

Make sure that you have select the volume (one indent in), not the disk.

If that's not the problem, see if the Partition Map is "GUID Partition Map". According to what I've seen on the Internet, you can't convert a "Master Boot Record" partition mapped disk.

I've also seen on the Internet that the convert option doesn't work in instances where it did before. I don't know if this is the case, but I do have a SSD where the convert option isn't available - it's a Evo 850 which is a Sierra boot disk in a USB enclosure and there's nothing unusual about it. It is GUID unencrypted and it only has the EFI, HFS and the Recovery partitions with the expected sizes. So the convert option is sometimes unavailable for standard disks.

You should be able to erase the disk (not the volume unless you have other volumes you want to keep) as APFS. Obviously, you'd need to backup your disk, re-install Mojave and then migrate from the backup. I see that there are articles on the web where you can do the conversion in Recovery but they seem pretty confusing to me.

 

[treekram]

I installed Mojave 10.14.4 over the existing Sierra install on my Evo 850 (was going to convert it anyway) and it converted to APFS so you can try installing 10.14.4 on your SSD. If you don't have a backup, it's a good idea to do so before doing this. I don't that this saves time vs. the erase option as the install seems to take longer than an install on a empty disk, likely because of the conversion.

I also had another SSD with a bootable Mountain Lion OS on it and it also did not allow a Disk Utility Edit->Convert to APFS whereas it would for an encrypted HFS+ non-boot SSD (both USB).

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:
You could try this.
You will need:
a. An external drive of sufficient size to hold the contents of your internal drive
b. CarbonCopyCloner (which is FREE to download and use for 30 days, so doing this will cost you nothing).

Now, do this:
1. Connect the external drive
2. Open Disk Utility, ERASE the external drive to APFS. Close DU.
3. Open CCC, and clone the contents of the internal drive to the external. Be patient, this will take some time, when done. CCC has the ability to clone from HFS+ to APFS.
4. Power down, ALL THE WAY OFF
5. Press the power on button and IMMEDIATELY hold down the option key and keep holding it down until the startup manager appears.
6. You should see an icon for the external drive. Select it with the pointer and hit return.
7. The Mac should boot from the external drive.
8. When you get to the finder, open Disk Utility and ERASE the entire internal drive to APFS
9. Now, reopen CCC and RE-clone the contents of the external drive BACK TO the internal drive. Again, it will take some time.
10. When done, power down, disconnect the external drive.
11. Reboot and AGAIN repeat the "option-key" trick in step 5 above.
12. Do you get a good boot? If so, open the startup disk pref pane and re-designate the internal to be the boot drive.

-----

Software update doesn't work right using Mojave on a drive formatted to HFS+.

It -IS- possible to get it updated, but doing so involves having a SECOND drive (in APFS) with a copy of Mojave on it.

You can then update the second drive, and "clone it over" to the HFS+ drive.
You'll then have and updated version of Mojave, still running under HFS+.

I don't use APFS, so that's what I do.

 

[chabig]

i suspect its because the SSD is not setup as APFS

That's correct.

I opened diskutil to convert it, but the convert to APFS is greyed out.

I don't think Disk Utility can convert the boot drive.

So do what Fishrrman suggested.

 

[gpspad]

Thanks for the info, I guess Ill have to add that to my to do list.

Biggest pain is I run the mini headless and have to drag an old monitor and keyboard out to convert it.