Apple will be cutting support for encrypted Mac OS Extended drives from macOS 28 onwards, but HFS+ will still function — for now. Here’s what you can do about it.

As time rolls on, technologies used to power operating systems like macOS are deprecated in favor of newer versions. While most users will embrace the newer ways of working, users of older installations can sometimes do with a nudge in the right direction.

On Tuesday, Apple’s support pages were updated with a warning affecting Mac users with encrypted MacOS Extended drives, also known as encrypted HFS+ drives. Apple confirmed that support for encrypted Mac OS Extended drives will end in macOS 28, and won’t be supported at all in the future.

While the support page doesn’t explain why Apple is making the change, it does advise that users should do something about it. Specifically, to check their volume’s format and encryption, to see if they need to fix the problem.

This is something that Apple has been warning about since macOS 26, if you happen to be using an affected drive.

To be clear, this is an issue affecting Mac OS Extended disks that are encrypted. Unencrypted HFS+ or MacOS Extended format volumes will continue to work just fine. The writing is on the wall, though.

How to check your drives to see if they are HFS+ and encrypted

Aside from the warning in macOS 26, you can also check if a drive is affected by using Disk Utility.

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Under View in the Menu Bar, select Show Only Volumes.
3. Select the name of the volume in the sidebar.
4. Check the details under the name of the volume on the right. If both “Mac OS Extended” and “Encrypted” are visible, then your drive is affected.

Be aware that only drives that are encrypted and using Mac OS Extended are at issue. If you have one but not the other, the drive is fine.

Solutions: Reformatting and Decryption

To get the drive supported in macOS 28, you will have to modify the drive’s formatting, one way or another. You have two real options: reformat it or decrypt it.

Reformatting

Reformatting deletes all data from the drive, and then formats it. This is a good way to ensure the data is readable in the future, since you can use either APFS or APFS (Encrypted).

Make sure you have sufficient backups of the stored data if you go down this route.

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Select the name of the volume in the sidebar. Then click the drive icon with an X on it.
3. On the Scheme pop-up, choose a GUID Partition Map.
4. Click Format, then select a file system. Apple recommends either APFS or APFS (Encrypted).
5. Enter a name, then click Erase and Done.

Decryption

If you want to retain the data without deleting it, you can remove the encryption, converting it into non-encrypted Mac OS Extended or HFS+. Afterwards, you can convert the volume to APFS without erasing it.

Apple warns that this won’t work for encrypted Time Machine backup disks.

1. Connect the drive and enter your encryption password to unlock the volume.
2. Control-click the drive’s icon on the desktop, then select Decrypt.
3. Enter the encryption password again.

You will be left with the drive intact, but with the encryption removed.

At this point, you can use Disk Utility to convert the volume to APFS, keeping the data intact.

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Under View in the Menu Bar, select Show Only Volumes
3. Select the name of the volume in the side bar.
4. Select the Edit menu in the Menu, then Convert to APFS. Click Convert to confirm.
5. After conversion ends, exit Disk Utility.
6. If you want to encrypt the new APFS volume, control-click the drive icon on the desktop, then choose Encrypt. Follow the onscreen instructions.

An Apple format history lesson

Mac OS Extended was introduced as a replacement of HFS, the Hierarchical FIle System, in 1998 as part of Mac OS 8.1. This is why Mac OS Extended is referred to as HFS+.

Since introduction, Apple bolted on multiple changes, including the ever handy file system journaling. However, you can only bolt so many updates to a core technology before the cracks start to show. At some point, it’s better to simply start again from a base point, incorporating everything you added in the previous version to be the default in the new one.

Apple File System (APFS) was introduced in 2016, with it becoming the default drive format in 2017. It improved on Mac OS Extended, as well as adding new features, and it continues to be used until this day.

While today’s news chiefly affects users of encrypted Mac OS Extended volumes, this should serve as a reminder to unencrypted volume users that they should consider moving to APFS sooner rather than later.

At some point, Apple will come for you too.