You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Volume not compatible with this update

I want to install Big Sur on an external drive to boot from it. I formated the drive with the GUID partition map scheme but when I try to install Big Sur, I select the drive and it says the volume is not compatible with this upgrade. The external drive is a LaCie Rugged 500GB Thunderbolt USB-C.


Any clues?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 4:23 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 5:05 AM

GUID partition scheme is not enough. It requires being Formatted as APFS and not HFS ( Journaled ). Verify and if required re-format the external drive accordingly and try again

1 reply

Volume not compatible with this update

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.