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How do I convert a volume formatted as APFS back to MacOS Extended?

I recently upgraded from MacOS Mojave to Catalina, but need to reconvert a volume formatted as APFS back to MacOS Extended. Any Ideas?

Posted on Oct 21, 2019 1:21 PM

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Posted on Oct 21, 2019 1:28 PM

Reformatting will erase all the information on the disk, so be sure you have a good backup before you begin.

If it's an internal disk you'll need to boot in Recovery Mode and use Disk Utility from there. If it's external you can just use DU from your mounted volume.

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Open Disk Utility and choose the uppermost, unindented icon representing the entire drive and click on Erase. (You may need to go to the "View" menu in the upper left to reveal the entire drive) Then choose the format you want. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 21, 2019 1:28 PM in response to techbertgr

Reformatting will erase all the information on the disk, so be sure you have a good backup before you begin.

If it's an internal disk you'll need to boot in Recovery Mode and use Disk Utility from there. If it's external you can just use DU from your mounted volume.

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Open Disk Utility and choose the uppermost, unindented icon representing the entire drive and click on Erase. (You may need to go to the "View" menu in the upper left to reveal the entire drive) Then choose the format you want. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

How do I convert a volume formatted as APFS back to MacOS Extended?

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