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FAT maximum file size shrunk in High Sierra?

T

Taipan

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 23, 2003
633
541
Hi!
When trying to copy a 2,2GB file to a FAT formatted USB flash drive, I get an error that the file is too large for the volume's file format. But there are already bigger files on that drive that I copied from the same Mac in the same way. It seems that the maximum size I can copy now is at about 2.1GB, while it should be at 4GB.

I can only imagine that the problem was introduced with High Sierra.
Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks!
 
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Reactions: gorskiegangsta and Yukidokie
Same problem here, tried to copy a 2.49gb file to a fat32 2tb external drive. Airdropped the file to the wifes yet to be updated MBP and it worked fine.

I presume its a bug and will be ironed out?
 
Sorry to reopen an old thread, but i've just stumbled across this problem again on Mojave. Trying to copy a 7GB file from my mac to a MS-DOS (FAT32) external drive... And it just won't have it, help?!
 
No, not the same issue as this thread (failing copies of a size that worked before)
fat32 is limited to a maximum file size of 4GB. That's the largest size file that can be copied to your FAT32 external drive.
There's no way to copy a 7GB file directly to a FAT32-formatted volume.
You can:
Convert the drive to Mac format (OS X Extended). That would be a good choice if you never expect to use that external drive on anything other than a Mac.
or
Use Windows to convert the drive to ExFat. You can also do that on your Mac, but you have to erase that drive, then reformat to ExFat file system.
or
Split your 7GB file to files smaller than that limit (better to be 2GB, just to be sure), then rejoin the files after copying, to restore the original.
 
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