2018 MBP - possible can reformat to Mac OS journaled instead of APFS

[jenzjen]

Anyone able to get High Sierra on a 2018 MBP using Mac OS journaled (not APFS)

We have our reasons due to older software

@TriBruin has been beyond helpful, tried to force it via Terminal when booting off a USB stick but no dice

 

[maflynn]

In theory I'd say its possible, but until you try it, you'll not know.

 

[jenzjen]

In theory I'd say its possible, but until you try it, you'll not know.

I should be more clear

We've tried 2 ways, neither works

1 - "normal way" boot off USB installer, DU to reformat disk but the install app prevents selecting the reformatted drive saying something like HS can only be installed on APFS volumes

2 - "Tribruin" way - boot off USB installer, try to force install via Terminal commands and a script on the USB installer - Terminal returns a permission denied error

 

[leman]

AFAIK, High Sierra can only be installed in an APFS container. I am not aware of any way around it. And earlier versions won't have drivers for the 2018 MBP hardware. My suggestion is to use a virtual machine with an earlier OS version to run the old software (probably more robust anyway).

 

[jenzjen]

AFAIK, High Sierra can only be installed in an APFS container. I am not aware of any way around it. And earlier versions won't have drivers for the 2018 MBP hardware. My suggestion is to use a virtual machine with an earlier OS version to run the old software (probably more robust anyway).

We're running HS on pre 2018 machines on top of Mac OS journaled but getting it to work on the 2018 is proving tricky so far

 

[maflynn]

AFAIK, High Sierra can only be installed in an APFS container.

I'm running my 2015 iMac on old HFS+. Only when I converted it to APFS did I run into issues (Mojave rendered my entire system inoperable and I had to do a full factory reset)