How to

How to format your USB drive on Mac

Michael Mensah January 14, 2023 2 min read

A USB flash drive is one of the goods that work perfectly with macOS Ventura or earlier; however, it must be made compatible and have enough storage space. So, read on to learn how you can format a USB drive on a Mac.

How to format a USB flash drive with disk utility

Note: Take a backup of your data before beginning the process of erasing the USB flash drive on your Mac.

Connect USB flash drive to Mac.
Launch Spotlight Search (Command+Spacebar).
Type disk into the search box and open Disk Utility.
Select your USB drive → Click Erase.
Write your USB name next to the Name section.
Then select the desired format from the dropdown menu next to Format. The options are as below:

APFS: APFS is a standard Mac file system with features such as robust encryption and others. macOS 10.13 and later are supported.
APFS (Encrypted): A protected format that is supported with macOS 10.13 and later.
APFS (Case-sensitive): It is an APFS format that treats folder names like “TheGhanaTech” and “TheGhanaTech” as two independent entities.
APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted): This format has both case-sensitive and secured format attributes.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled): An encrypted or case-sensitive format that safeguards the hierarchical file system’s integrity. Advised for macOS 10.12 or earlier.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): A case-sensitive format that treats “TheGhanaTechMedia” and “TechMedia” as different entities. Recommended for macOS 10.12 or earlier.
MS-DOS(FAT32) and ExFAT: Though FAT32 and ExFAT work for Mac, these formats are commonly used for Windows. FAT32 is suggested for disk sizes less than 32GB, and ExFAT is suggested for disk sizes more than 32GB.