Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

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

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

59 replies

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

59,973 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.

jc_nyc

Level 1

4 points

Feb 23, 2018 2:05 PM in response to emarias2002

Ahah! Found the easiest of all workarounds! Use the terminal! Thank goodness for linux!

cp mybigfile.mov /Volumes/UNTITLED

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

59,973 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

Apr 8, 2018 7:43 AM in response to emarias2002

This appears to be fixed now on 10.13.4.

Apr 8, 2018 7:52 PM in response to emarias2002

This is still broken... running 10.13.3. Had to fire up parallels to copy a 3GB file to a FAT32 formatted USB stick.

Apr 9, 2018 1:03 AM in response to Adam Urban

Also if you do not want to update to 10.13.4 You can use any other file manager like Forklift or else to copy. It might be easier than using the terminal or compressing and decompressing.

Apr 9, 2018 5:02 AM in response to boblishman

Sorry, I missed your reply before I posted. Just updated to 10.13.4 and indeed can confirm this issue has finally been fixed. Thanks all.

High Sierra Destroys FAT32