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When attempting to update to Catalina, my message reads "OSX not formatted as APFS. Now what?

When attempting to update to Catalina, my message reads "OSX not formatted as APFS. Now what?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 27, 2020 12:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 27, 2020 12:11 PM

Hello FabFlamingo,


Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you're not able to upgrade to macOS Catalina because your hard drive is not formatted for APFS.


This process usually occurs automatically during upgrade. Since you're running macOS Mojave, I recommend that you reinstall Mojave before attempting to upgrade to Catalina: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery


If the issue persists, you should backup your data: How to back up your Mac

Erase the Hard Drive and reformat it to APFS before reinstalling Catalina: How to erase a disk for Mac

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 27, 2020 12:11 PM in response to FabFlamingo

Hello FabFlamingo,


Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you're not able to upgrade to macOS Catalina because your hard drive is not formatted for APFS.


This process usually occurs automatically during upgrade. Since you're running macOS Mojave, I recommend that you reinstall Mojave before attempting to upgrade to Catalina: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery


If the issue persists, you should backup your data: How to back up your Mac

Erase the Hard Drive and reformat it to APFS before reinstalling Catalina: How to erase a disk for Mac

When attempting to update to Catalina, my message reads "OSX not formatted as APFS. Now what?

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