Unable to convert my Macintosh HD to APFS

[Alex1955]

Unable to convert my Mac HD Type SATA Internal Physical Volume Mac OS Extended Journaled to APFS
Have unmounted it then ran disc repair then did a convert to APFS and it failed(I'm logged in as Administrator)
Its a Mac mini (late 2014)
Here is the following message.

Converting “Macintosh HD” to APFS

Converting HFS Volume to an APFS Container which will export one APFS Volume
Exiting conversion operations with error code -69546
Only the Installer may convert a macOS system volume to APFS.

Operation failed…

Any advise is welcomed

 

[iamasmith]

APFS defaults on if you have a Fusion drive or an SSD but off if you have a HDD and I was bitten badly by thinking it was the future and junking my Time Machine disk to make it APFS only to find that Time Machine would not allow you to use an APFS disk.

I really wouldn't be doing this unless the OS installation is suggesting it and I suggest you think twice about it.

 

[Alex1955]

The New OS Catalina needs to have this done I can get my old iMac desktop(version 10.14.6 late 2013) to convert to APFS but for some reason my iMac mini won't keeps failing trying to understand why.

 

[chscag]

Have you tried to install Catalina? The error is telling you that only the installer can convert the drive to APFS. It should do that during the Catalina install. What I don't understand is why isn't your drive already converted since you're running Mojave?

 

[Alex1955]

Mojave does convert drives to APFS if it is a SSD drive not a standard drive, this occurred when trying to install Catalina saying it isn’t a APFS drive this occurred when it came up to select a drive to install Catalina on it wouldn’t select my Mac HD but it did select my backup external drive that I use to backup my hard drive.

 

[Alex1955]

Have you tried to install Catalina? The error is telling you that only the installer can convert the drive to APFS. It should do that during the Catalina install. What I don't understand is why isn't your drive already converted since you're running Mojave?

I have tried to install Catalina on the HD by booting off a external HD didn’t work came back with same error message

 

[Riwam]

I have tried to install Catalina on the HD by booting off a external HD didn’t work came back with same error message

Are you sure that APFS will be better for your computer than HFS+ ?
Catalina only works with APFS so in that case there is no choice but besides that situation are you convinced that the new file system will have noticeable advantages in your Mac and not having it is a problem needing to be solved?
I am in no way arguing, just asking... since I myself undertook great efforts to get a running Mojave while keeping my HFS+, something which allowed me to continue to use some applications I appreciate very much like for instance Disk Warrior.

 

[Alex1955]

Are you sure that APFS will be better for your computer than HFS+ ?
Catalina only works with APFS so in that case there is no choice but besides that situation are you convinced that the new file system will have noticeable advantages in your Mac and not having it is a problem needing to be solved?
I am in no way arguing, just asking... since I myself undertook great efforts to get a running Mojave while keeping my HFS+, something which allowed me to continue to use some applications I appreciate very much like for instance Disk Warrior.

My iMac converted to Catalina ok but my iMac Mini which is a later model is having these issues and if I'm unable to convert the iMac Mini from Mojave to Catalina that's ok I only use it to run iTunes for my AppleTV it accesses my NAS drives which I have ripped Movies and TV Series from purchased DVD's, so its realy now a intellectual expertise to find out why, I don't like faults with no reason to why this is occurring.

Alex

 

[TheSkywalker77]

When I upgraded my old MacBook Pro to Catalina it switched to APFS just fine. (that computer had an HDD).

Have you tried speaking to Apple Support about this? Maybe they'd be more help.

 

[chrfr]

Mojave does convert drives to APFS if it is a SSD drive not a standard drive, this occurred when trying to install Catalina saying it isn’t a APFS drive this occurred when it came up to select a drive to install Catalina on it wouldn’t select my Mac HD but it did select my backup external drive that I use to backup my hard drive.

Mojave converts all drives to APFS at installation time by default. If you've got Mojave on an HFS+ disk, you'd have had to clone it from another disk.
To get Catalina installed you may have to clone the startup disk to another disk, then format your disk with the Catalina installer, then migrate your data back.

 

[mj_]

I have tried to install Catalina on the HD by booting off a external HD didn’t work came back with same error message

How exactly did you try to install Cataline by booting off an external drive? That's completely unnecessary - download the installer and run it. It should take care of everything for you.

 

[fuzzyman]

Hi Alex, have you solved this problem?
I encountered the same problem on my MacMini with an internal Mojave HFS + SSD: I can not convert it to APFS.

1. Backed up from TimeMachine to an external drive (creates cbackup only with HFS + !!! ???)
2. Erased and formatted SSD in APFS
3. Recover using TimeMachine and get SSD in HFS + again

Probably need to install Catalina on an SSD and then restore data from a Time Machine backup?
Any ideas?