PSA: Big Change Coming in macOS 28 – Encrypted HFS+ Volumes Going Away
everyone, just a heads-up about a significant change that appears to be on the horizon for the next major version of macOS.
I've come across information indicating that macOS 28 will no longer support encrypted Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volumes. This means that any external drives, USB sticks, or disk images that are formatted as HFS+ and use FileVault (or the legacy disk encryption) will not be mountable or accessible in the new OS.
What you need to know:
- The Cutoff: Support for these encrypted volumes is being dropped entirely in macOS 28.
- What's Affected: Any drive formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)".
- The Action Required: You will need to migrate your data before upgrading.
What should you do?
If you have any encrypted HFS+ drives, your best bet is to decrypt them first (by turning off encryption in Disk Utility) and then reformat them as APFS (Encrypted). Alternatively, you could back up the data elsewhere, reformat the drive to APFS Encrypted, and copy the data back.
This is a pretty big shift, so I wanted to get the word out early. It gives everyone plenty of time to sort out their external storage before the upgrade.
Has anyone else heard similar confirmation? Or does anyone have a good workflow for migrating a large encrypted HFS+ archive without needing a second drive of the same size?
Let's discuss!