emarias2002 Author

Level 1

43 points

High Sierra Destroys FAT32

So I upgraded two of my computers on the day High Sierra was released. Then, today, I upgrade a third computer to High Sierra. It's a Mac Mini. I didn't have enough space on the Mac Mini, so I copied some of my movies to a FAT32 formatted external hard drive to free up some space. Then I installed it.

My primary computer is a MacBook Pro with Retina display, released in 2013. Just today, all of a sudden I noticed that I could not copy a 2 GB file to my external hard drive (it's a 2 TB drive, with about 800 GB of free space). I noticed that this same thing happened on the other computer I had upgraded on High Sierra's release - an iMac.

When I had regular Sierra installed, I had no problems copying files between 1 GB and 4 GB to the hard drive (I am aware of the limitations of FAT32. All of the files I am attempting to copy are well below 4 GB).

I have an old Windows laptop that has no problems copying 2 GB files to the hard drive, so it's not the drive's format. I cannot reformat the hard drive. I had no problems using it before High Sierra, so I shouldnt have to. I am not concerned with spelling or punctuation at this time, as i'm close to having a nervous breakdown right nwo. Reformatting the drive is out of the questions, as I have too much important data on it.

Posted on Oct 1, 2017 6:14 PM

Top-ranking reply

emarias2002 Author

Level 1

43 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2017 6:43 PM

I'm glad they're aware of the problem. For now, my only solution is to use a third party file manager. The one I'm using is Commander One, and it copied the files with no problems.

An interesting thing happened - I was able to use Unarchiver to extract the large file onto the hard drive.

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59 replies

Jan 28, 2018 1:52 PM in response to adharlee

Good luck with your Dell.

Jan 28, 2018 2:02 PM in response to adharlee

You could always give it as a gift or donate it to a worthy cause.

adharlee

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2018 2:13 PM in response to CountryGirl56

it was a gift for me 😉

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jan 28, 2018 2:16 PM in response to adharlee

If the fact that currently Macs offer poor support for ancient file systems makes you want to jump ship so be it.

Jan 28, 2018 2:20 PM in response to adharlee

adharlee wrote:

it was a gift for me 😉

Even a better reason to give it to someone deserving. It wouldn't cost you anything.

Jan 28, 2018 2:28 PM in response to adharlee

For one, lightning connectors are smaller. Apple is certainly not alone in adopting USB-C.

enjoy.

czadam

Level 1

4 points

Feb 24, 2018 1:24 AM in response to jc_nyc

Exactly, as I mentioned before! I'm glad someone written back that it works for him too! 😉

adharlee

Level 1

8 points

Feb 24, 2018 1:53 AM in response to jc_nyc

what we have to do for a simple task talk about work arounds thanks 😉

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Mar 5, 2018 9:16 AM in response to majortom1967

I doubt that it was intentional, but the longer it lasts the likelihood of it not being an error evaporates.

Mar 14, 2018 9:42 PM in response to manzanita65

Buying a Windows PC would also solve the issue. Lol

Mar 15, 2018 12:17 AM in response to kylefromkenai

Can I ask ... Did you fill in a feedback .... Here? https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

adharlee

Level 1

8 points

Jan 28, 2018 2:11 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

this is my point..... i wouldn't ever give Dell/Windows a second thought but i did that says something..... but with the amount of issues i heard surrounding the 2016 MacBook pro speakers blowing out ,keyboard issues, hinges issues etc

are they really worth double the price of Window machines in the quality department even though they have issues i would have thought Apple's products would have been less with better QC. when paying £2700 seriously there not just software bugs either...

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,656 points

Apr 8, 2018 11:11 PM in response to Adam Urban

As mentioned above it is now fixed in 10.13.4, if you want to update.

But if you don't there is no need to boot into Parallels, you can copy files via Terminal

enter cp <drag the file you want to copy into the Terminal window> <drag the destination USB into the Terminal window> press enter

Apr 9, 2018 3:06 AM in response to emarias2002

Apple's update to High Sierra 10.13.4 finally fixes this issue by correctly recognizing the 4GB file size limitation of fat32 instead of the reduced size of 2GB created by High Sierra. I haven't found any mention of it within the update description so I have to assume they didn't want to attract anymore attention to this obvious fumble.

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High Sierra Destroys FAT32