I have a new M1 MBP with Big Sur 11.1 and an old late 2009 iMac with High Sierra 10.13.6.
I have a 256GB USB thumbdrive formatted with the original MS-DOS FAT 32.
I plugged in the USB thumdrive to the M1 MBP (BS 11.1) and opened Disk Utility. In "View" I have selected "Show All Devices", and found the USB thumbdrive - I selected the "Master Boot Record" and hit Erase to format - in the options THERE WAS NO APFS option. I then selected the USB thumbdrive "MS-DOS volume" and again tried to "Erase" to format and again THERE WAS NO APFS option.
I then did the same thing with my late 2009 iMac High Sierra 10.13.6 and plugged in the USB thumbdrive and the same operations appeared, again, THERE WAS NO APFS option.
What in the world??
I need to do this because I want to use an encrypted thumbdrive with my iPad Air 3 iPadOS 14.3. From what I've read, if you have an external volume that's formatted in APFS then you can encrypt it and it will be recognized by the iPad with iPadOS 14 and you can open it etc. See here f.ex.:
https://www.imore.com/apple-adds-encrypted-drive-support-files-ios-14-and-ipados-14
Well, that's another load of baloney insofar as I can see - how can you format an USB thumbdrive in APFS if that option doesn't exist in Big Sur 11.1? Is this another Big Sur lacking feature or bug? Either way, it's disappointing. Or am I missing something?
Thank you for your help!
I have a 256GB USB thumbdrive formatted with the original MS-DOS FAT 32.
I plugged in the USB thumdrive to the M1 MBP (BS 11.1) and opened Disk Utility. In "View" I have selected "Show All Devices", and found the USB thumbdrive - I selected the "Master Boot Record" and hit Erase to format - in the options THERE WAS NO APFS option. I then selected the USB thumbdrive "MS-DOS volume" and again tried to "Erase" to format and again THERE WAS NO APFS option.
I then did the same thing with my late 2009 iMac High Sierra 10.13.6 and plugged in the USB thumbdrive and the same operations appeared, again, THERE WAS NO APFS option.
What in the world??
I need to do this because I want to use an encrypted thumbdrive with my iPad Air 3 iPadOS 14.3. From what I've read, if you have an external volume that's formatted in APFS then you can encrypt it and it will be recognized by the iPad with iPadOS 14 and you can open it etc. See here f.ex.:
https://www.imore.com/apple-adds-encrypted-drive-support-files-ios-14-and-ipados-14
Well, that's another load of baloney insofar as I can see - how can you format an USB thumbdrive in APFS if that option doesn't exist in Big Sur 11.1? Is this another Big Sur lacking feature or bug? Either way, it's disappointing. Or am I missing something?
Thank you for your help!
