This volume is not formatted as APFS

Doesn't work... thats is what all the people are talking about.

Only option is full file backup ( i used rsync ) format and fresh install of mojave, restoring ( rsync again ) and then upgrade to Catalina ...takes a few hours but it works.

I encountered this issue on my mid-2014 MBP Retina 15". Over the years, I've upgraded through each OS sequentially, including Mojave.

However, I know exactly how I got to this point. About a week ago, I replaced a failing SSD (wear leveling had reached its limit). Before restoring, I formatted the new SSD as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), not realizing that Mojave was using a new FS.

So, apparently, I face the prospect of reformatting/restoring once again, which is somewhat of a PITA, plus which the restore took half a day because I was restoring from a backup image on my home network's NAS. I'll do that if I have to, if there's no workaround...?

Apple *should* fix this problem, since they allowed it to occur. The problem evidently arose from the initial beta upgrade to High Sierra (or Mojave?) which required the user to manually select an upgrade to the APFS format. I, and apparently many other users, did not do this; I did not understand the ramifications of this at the time. Now we are stuck with Mojave (10.14.3) that cannot be further upgraded without completely erasing and reformatting the drive and copying it back from a backup. Even Disk Utility from Recovery Mode does not allow an upgrade to the APFS format (it is greyed out).

Call me an idiot for getting into this mess -- but Apple should have made this idiot proof!

Just so you know, there seem to be a number of us that upgraded to Mojave by the software update process and the software didn't update to APFS. That's not our fault. That is a glitch by Apple.

Mojave drives are supposed to be APFS, so Catalina is expecting it to be APFS.

I know through testing that it is possible to clone a Mojave partition on top of a HFS+ partition. Perhaps you may have previously done that.

Well, Randy_N, at least I can tell you what NOT to do. I'm just finishing restoring my MacBook from a backup (I use TimeMachine with WDMyCloud) because I followed what was meant to be "a safe option" to convert into APFS. I run my computer in Recovery Mode, unmounted primary drive, converted the filesystem into APFS and it worked. The filesystem is now APFS but I had to either reinstall the system or restore it from backup, which I did. After almost 4h my computer will be like new :)

Victor_8888 wrote:

Hi there, How to solve this issue ?I created a partition and formatted in APFS, but it still don't work, please help.

I really want to upgrade to the latest version of mac os

What version of macOS are you trying to install and which method are you using to install macOS? What was the most recent version of macOS which was installed on your computer? What is the exact model of your computer?

What error are you receiving when trying to install macOS?

If you have a Mac with a third party PCIe based SSD installed, then you may not be able to install macOS since the installer may be unable to perform a required system firmware update while the third party SSD is installed. Temporarily installing an original Apple PCIe SSD may allow you to work around the issue.

I have multiple MacBook Pros in my family and an older Mac Mini. None had this issue with Mojave not being on an APFS volume, except for the one MacBook Pro that had been to Apple for repair (keyboard and replaced logic board). The one that had been repaired came back from Apple with Mac Journaled partitioning, not APFS.

Apple can't fix how you wound up with Mojave on a HFS+ partition, since the normal installation of Mojave automatically changes HFS+ to APFS.

Hi,

I had success by calling Apple Support and they walked me through the back-up and reformatting. Took about 15 minutes and that took care of the issue. Another great job by Apple Support!

True. I've got 2 identical MacBooks Pro, both with MacOS Mojave, one has APFS, the other one Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system...

If I wanted compatibility problems, system crashes and other impediments, I would use Windows :)

Please Apple, come up with a solution to this issue, as I don't want to get back to "know all about computers and software" state. For many years I've been comfortable with "it's so easy, I don't have to do anything" state and I'd like to keep it that way.

Why do you think this sneer is necessary to find a solution? I seem to have the same problem yet I always ran the upgrades the way apple provided them. I am running Mojave 10.14.4 at the moment and if you were right I should not have this problem. On top of that if automatic conversion was possible in Mojave, why not do it in Catalina as well?

After several hours of Apple Support Chat two days ago, one of the support reps finally told me that the reason I couldn't reformat my drive (Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB) to APFS was because it wasn't a Macintosh drive. Really? I've invested a great deal of time in trying to upgrade to Catalina, having several Support interactions with multiple Apple Support personnel, only to find out, oh, btw, it won't work because it isn't our drive? I haven't found this anywhere as an official position, so all I have to go on is this one Tech. No idea if it is correct or not.

My process was... while my original Macintosh HDD was internal in my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro, I upgraded to Mojave. I then cloned that drive to the new Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SSD drive, then installed the SSD as the internal drive. It ran Mojave just fine having been cloned onto the drive. But now it won't upgrade because it wasn't formatted to APFS, and at the time there was no info to state that it needed to be in APFS format. When I tried erasing the Samsung drive to reformat as APFS, there was no option to select APFS... and the reason I've been given is that it isn't a Macintosh drive.

Presumably I could reinstall the Macintosh HDD and upgrade to Catalina then start the process all over again, but that seems absurd. My question to the Apple Support tech was, "So does this mean I'll never be able to update my software again?" And the answer was "Yes".

I was also told that I should have checked to see if the new hardware was compatible. Hardware I purchased 5 months ago compatible with software that hadn't yet been released and that Apple still doesn't want to admit won't install on anything other than their hardware? The Tech did do a quick search and was able to verify that there was no published Apple info stating that there was any incompatibility issue.

I paid $100 for the Samsung drive. Currently, going to a 1 TB SSD upgrade on the new MacBook Pros from a 256 GB SSD costs $400. Yep, I can see why they want to keep this on their hardware only. Of course with the newer models, upgrading hardware isn't even an option.

I love my MacBook and never want to have to go back to another type of machine... but this sort of philosophy that punishes customers for being loyal to Apple is getting old.

For ME, anyway, this converted my disk into something that wouldn't boot anymore, and couldn't be read or repaired. I had to spend the next 13 hours restoring from a Time Machine drive, just to get back to where I started. Sigh.

I agree that Apple might have done more but seems not to bother so if you want to upgrade your system the best option, if the proposed quick fixes don't work, is doing the steps me and openthreads did. It is a bit of work but after it's done you've got a smooth system running Catalina.