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APFS for idiots?

P

Peter Franks

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
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Question about file format since HFS?

Just like to know if you update to any of the Sierra/High Sierra OS, what are the negatives.

What won't work from old files, that did before, and how is it a benefit, if at all?

Will all my back-ups be incompatible, or does it not work like that, Time Machine or CCC?

Thanks!
 
Any experience of the change?
[doublepost=1531839834][/doublepost]Ah scrub that cross over post then... No minuses then?
 
The only negatives are that APFS doesnt work on spinning disks (flash drives only), and wont be recognised on Sierra or below. Having your boot drive formatted for APFS, you probably wont notice a difference other than copying duplicate files will suddenly be instantaneous and not taking up any more space.
 
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northernmunky said:
The only negatives are that APFS doesnt work on spinning disks (flash drives only), and wont be recognised on Sierra or below. Having your boot drive formatted for APFS, you probably wont notice a difference other than copying duplicate files will suddenly be instantaneous and not taking up any more space.
Click to expand...

Ah OK thanks, so if I plug in an old external, non SSD, but an old HDD that has files and pics on from a few years back, can the OS not read the files I need that are on it?

Fishrrman said:
Frankly, I'd stick wth HFS+ for now... ;)
Click to expand...

Oh go on, tell me! What will it ruin?
 
Peter Franks said:
Ah OK thanks, so if I plug in an old external, non SSD, but an old HDD that has files and pics on from a few years back, can the OS not read the files I need that are on it?
Click to expand...

No, that will be fine, if its an old drive formatted to (for example) HFS+ then all modern macOS will read it.
Its just APFS will not work below Sierra because APFS wasn't invented yet when that OS ws released. So it will only work High Sierra and above.
 
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Thank you, so basically, it's the other way round that would cause the problems?

Have a couple of old externals that were out of the box formatted, and are pre 2011, and weren't HFS formatted but have been read OK since 2011 on my MBP. If they're not HFS but something else, MSDOS or whatever, would they still be readable?
 
Peter Franks said:
Thank you, so basically, it's the other way round that would cause the problems?

Have a couple of old externals that were out of the box formatted, and are pre 2011, and weren't HFS formatted but have been read OK since 2011 on my MBP. If they're not HFS but something else, MSDOS or whatever, would they still be readable?
Click to expand...

FAT32 - fine on all OS's
NTFS - macOS can read but not write (this is due to Microsoft not wanting license it to Apple), you'll need a 3rd party tool like Paragon NTFS for Mac
NFS+ (macOS Extended) & exFAT - Fine on all macOS versions
APFS - macOS High Sierra and above ONLY.
 
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northernmunky said:
FAT32 - fine on all OS's
NTFS - macOS can read but not write (this is due to Microsoft not wanting license it to Apple), you'll need a 3rd party tool like Paragon NTFS for Mac
NFS+ (macOS Extended) & exFAT - Fine on all macOS versions
APFS - macOS High Sierra and above ONLY.
Click to expand...

Thanks, so basically it'll be fine, it's the other way that the APFS won't work on the earlier.

One last (probably)stupid question:
If I'm on APFS/High Sierra or Mojave, and I have created a Word File, Photoshop file, Jpegs, Video, It can't be sent to anyone who isn't on APFS to open, or does APFS not have anything to do with those files and folders and it will open OK and it's more of a system thing?
 
Audit13 said:
I'm using APFS on my late 2013 13" Pro and early 2015 Air. I have not encountered any problems with either unit. Both were upgraded from Sierra/HFS+ to High Sierra/APFS.
Click to expand...

Meant to ask you if they're both SSD in them, and is start up longer?

Been reading up a bit tonight, never a good thing...

.. I know some people have reported it fine on their HDD, but others are 'assuming', rightly or wrongly, probably because of Apple's history that it's yet another way to get people to buy new Macs with SSD (that you can't remove) so they can slow it down for people like me who have fitted an SSD in my older MBP, forcing consumers to once again to buy a new Mac with Apple's supported SSD that is non-removable.
 
Peter Franks said:
Meant to ask you if they're both SSD in them, and is start up longer?

Been reading up a bit tonight, never a good thing...

.. I know some people have reported it fine on their HDD, but others are 'assuming', rightly or wrongly, probably because of Apple's history that it's yet another way to get people to buy new Macs with SSD (that you can't remove) so they can slow it down for people like me who have fitted an SSD in my older MBP, forcing consumers to once again to buy a new Mac with Apple's supported SSD that is non-removable.
Click to expand...
Neither the air or retina MacBooks use mechanical drives.

Neither machine seems to boot any slower.
 
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Peter Franks said:
Meant to ask you if they're both SSD in them, and is start up longer?

Been reading up a bit tonight, never a good thing...

.. I know some people have reported it fine on their HDD, but others are 'assuming', rightly or wrongly, probably because of Apple's history that it's yet another way to get people to buy new Macs with SSD (that you can't remove) so they can slow it down for people like me who have fitted an SSD in my older MBP, forcing consumers to once again to buy a new Mac with Apple's supported SSD that is non-removable.
Click to expand...

They're just stupid conspiracy theories. Ignore them.
 
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I have no inside information, but I'd assume that Apple doesn't support APFS on spinners because they haven't optimized the filesystem persistent data for layout on spinning disks. (Either haven't bothered, or architecturally hard; I don't know enough about APFS to know which.) On SSD, layout doesn't really matter.

I can't imagine that there is a fundamental reason APFS couldn't work on hard drives; blocks are blocks, and APFS certainly isn't bypassing the SSD controller. So it's probably a performance issue, or even a "we can't be bothered to test it" issue.
 
kschendel said:
I have no inside information, but I'd assume that Apple doesn't support APFS on spinners because they haven't optimized the filesystem persistent data for layout on spinning disks. (Either haven't bothered, or architecturally hard; I don't know enough about APFS to know which.) On SSD, layout doesn't really matter.

I can't imagine that there is a fundamental reason APFS couldn't work on hard drives; blocks are blocks, and APFS certainly isn't bypassing the SSD controller. So it's probably a performance issue, or even a "we can't be bothered to test it" issue.
Click to expand...

I did try APFS on a spinning disk and ended up with crashes when copying files across. I ended up formatting back to macOS Extended and the problems went away.
 
northernmunky said:
I did try APFS on a spinning disk and ended up with crashes when copying files across. I ended up formatting back to macOS Extended and the problems went away.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you can upgrade to HS and still go back to HFS+ or you mean you had to reformat drive back to previous OS?
 
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