But it’s preferable to create separate partitions for your own data and Time Machine backups to avoid conflicts and other problems. After erasing and reformatting as HFS+, you can store other data on the same drive alongside Time Machine backups. If you are willing to switch the drive over, make sure you have all the data on it copied somewhere else. However, Time Machine can’t work with it, and thus macOS gives you an option to erase. Specify a name for your drive and choose the drive format from the Format. It might be perfectly Finder mountable, because it uses APFS, FAT32, or ExFAT. In the Disk Utility window, choose the WD Passport drive from the left-side panel. When you see a prompt that asks you to erase the drive, that’s because it’s not formatted with HFS+.

It’s a weird requirement on Apple’s part after automatically migrating all Macs startup volumes to APFS during recent macOS version updates (10.13 migrated SSDs 10.14 migrated hard drives and Fusion drives). But Time Machine backup drives must use HFS+ for now. Why does that happen?Īs noted in previous columns, Apple supports backing up macOS drives in both the older HFS+ (“Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Disk Utility) and newer APFS formats.

When you attach an external drive to a Mac to use with Time Machine and confirm the prompt that appears asking if you want to use it for that purpose, you may then be prompted to erase the drive.