Time Machine cannot use APFS

[macagain]

Looks like Time Machine will not back up to an APFS volume. It asks if you want to erase, then reformats as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you reformat it back to APFS again, it then tells you it cannot use this fs.

 

[Cougarcat]

Yes, APFS doesn't support Time Machine or spinning disks yet.

 

[Apple_Robert]

That is true. Time Machine will not back up to an APFS drive. Carbon Copy Cloner will.

 

[xgman]

IT DOESN'T"T SUPPORT TM ON APFS SSD's EITHER! I found this out the hard way and converted my TM SSD and then tried to run a TM backup. oooops.. had to reformat to HFS and loose all my TM backups. Was no other way to do it. I wish I had know or received some sort of warning. I find this very odd that Apple forces APFS on your boot drive but doesn't have enough faith in it to let the TM SSD use it. Doesn't give you much confidence in APFS... ugg

 

[neliason]

APFS doesn’t have hard links and Time Machine depends on hard links. They’ll have to make significant changes to get it to work. I find it odd they released a new file system without getting Time Machine to work on it, but they have.

 

[xgman]

APFS doesn’t have hard links and Time Machine depends on hard links. They’ll have to make significant changes to get it to work. I find it odd they released a new file system without getting Time Machine to work on it, but they have.

I find that inexcusable. I would not have updated if I had know it was that wonky. Really makes you wonder what goes on in the bowels of the OSX development team. Seems rushed for no good reason. Oh well. . done now...

 

[Lioness~]

Good to know.

Haven’t upgrade to HS yet.
Very NOT thought through of  to make a new file system not work through all of their eco-system before it leaves beta. It’s still a beta in my opinion.

 

[Marshall73]

Good to know.

Haven’t upgrade to HS yet.
Very NOT thought through of  to make a new file system not work through all of their eco-system before it leaves beta. It’s still a beta in my opinion.

But it DOES work as long as you don't format your Time Machine drive as APFS. And why would you? as its already HFS+ and working fine.

 

[xgman]

But it DOES work as long as you don't format your Time Machine drive as APFS. And why would you? as its already HFS+ and working fine.

Why would you? Because if it is SSD and Apple says APFS is better, then why wouldn't you? (in theory anyway) Especially since you are forced to convert to APFS for the boot drive if you have an SSD. I agree if you don't have TM on SSD, there would be no reason to convert.

 

[Alrescha]

then why wouldn't you?

Some people might think it unwise to convert to a new file system on both the system disk and the backup at the same time...

A.

 

[xgman]

Some people might think it unwise to convert to a new file system on both the system disk and the backup at the same time...

A.

Oh trust me, I dove right in to the shallow end of this pool with my eyes wide open. ugg

 

[jonnysods]

But it DOES work as long as you don't format your Time Machine drive as APFS. And why would you? as its already HFS+ and working fine.

Wait so it will work if the drive is left alone and I update to High Sierra?

 

[Ebenezum]

Apple didn't include this information in the support documentation for some reason but it is noted in the release notes: http://developer.apple.com/library/...OSX/WhatsNewInOSX/Articles/macOS_10_13_0.html

Personally I would be very nervous to trust backup on a brand new filesystem, its safer to give APFS time to mature...

 

[Hater]

My laptop formatted the main boot drive as APFS and left the secondary time machine drive as HFS, so it's not really an issue at this point.

 

[FCX]

Wait so it will work if the drive is left alone and I update to High Sierra?

Yes.

 

[jonnysods]

Yes.

Beauty thanks!

 

[jbachandouris]

I have the Airport Extreme and my backups have been working just fine. Not sure why yours aren't working.

And no, I did not re-format the Airport Extreme's hard drive.

 

[donlab]

Why would you? Because if it is SSD and Apple says APFS is better, then why wouldn't you? (in theory anyway) Especially since you are forced to convert to APFS for the boot drive if you have an SSD. I agree if you don't have TM on SSD, there would be no reason to convert.

Exceptional use case to use SSD as backup drive.

 

[WolfSnap]

Yes, APFS doesn't support Time Machine or spinning disks yet.

APFS works just fine on spinning disks (external).. Have one attached to my mac right now. Works like a charm.

 

[Cougarcat]

APFS works just fine on spinning disks (external).. Have one attached to my mac right now. Works like a charm.

That’s good, but I personally wouldn’t do it until Apple starts converting startup spinning disks.

 

[redman042]

Wouldn't surprise me if Apple was working on a complete replacement for Time Machine based on APFS. Time Machine always been a bit finicky for me, and I've read horror stories. Though I expect such a thing would be at least a year out.