How use HFS+ for Time Machine, not APFS?

[Doc69]

I just bought a new external HDD for Time Machine and formatted it Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). But after connecting it to Time Machine, it automatically converted to APFS. How can I stop that? I don't want APFS since DiskWarrior can't repair APFS drives.

 

[barbu]

I think that is the default because APFS versioning features greatly enhance the incremental backup process.
This doesn’t really help you but I think that’s why it’s set up this way. Maybe diskwarrior or some other tool will be able to handle these volumes at some point. But I think it’s fair to assume that using the new way will make your backup more reliable.

 

[McScooby]

I think that is the default because APFS versioning features greatly enhance the incremental backup process.
This doesn’t really help you but I think that’s why it’s set up this way. Maybe diskwarrior or some other tool will be able to handle these volumes at some point. But I think it’s fair to assume that using the new way will make your backup more reliable.

I'm not with it just now, but I'm pretty sure that the Time Capsule is still HFS+, so there must be a way?

 

[lsh]

I found your thread as I was trying to solve a different problem. I’m on Big Sur.
My ‘18 MBP died and had to have a new system board. The hard drive was wiped or replaced.
I can’t restore from TM - Disk Utility says I have a file error 8. I had recently backed it up 2 weeks before it died too. Luckily, my data is all cloud, but my settings, Hazel rules, etc all are currently lost.

From this thread, I’ll try Disk Warrior to fix - so far other utilities didn’t seem to work - after a long time, I come back and my MBP is rebooted.

Assuming I can get it working, Is there a way to migrate existing TM files from HFS+ to APFS?

 

[jz0309]

I just bought a new external HDD for Time Machine and formatted it Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). But after connecting it to Time Machine, it automatically converted to APFS. How can I stop that? I don't want APFS since DiskWarrior can't repair APFS drives.

you can't, that's the way Big Sur handles TM now, whichever way you format it, TM will format it to APFS case-sensitive.