Will I encounter issues reformatting ExFAT 32 to APFS

[spikey_dave]

Lightroom Version

11.1

Operating System

1. macOS 12 Monterey

Dear Forum

I use an iMAC with latest OS and Lightroom Classic.
I only have a very limited 256 gb SSD hard drive on the iMAC

I am currently using two external Samsung T5 SSD drives both formatted in ExFAT
One of the SSDs (blue) has my uncatalogued photos which I am migrating to the other SSD (black) using Lightroom. This second SSD (black) will have the photos well organised and catalogued.

As others on the forum have suggested I would like to reformat the external hard drives to APFS as this is more efficient with my iMAC. (I come from a mixed PC/MAC scenario)

Once I have migrated all my photos onto the second SSD (black) my plan is to Format the other one (blue) to APFS and then copy files across. My question is will I encounter issues with Lightroom?

Currently my main Lightroom Catalogue is stored on the iMAC hard drive (and automatically backed up in the cloud).
My Lightroom Catalogue backup is on the SSD (black)

Thanks for any help.

PS. I have all my photos backed up on a mechanical drive while I do all this.

Dave

 

[Johan Elzenga]

No, you will not encounter any issues with Lightroom if you do that. MacOS takes care of all that Lightroom needs when accessing a disk.

 

[clee01l]

One difference between ExFAT and APFS is increased security and only MacOS can read and write to the file system. If you don’t change the name of the volume, Lightroom will be able to find your previously catalogued images just as before.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Califdan]

Of course, in your mixed Mac/PC environment, you won't be able to use the APFS frive on your Windows machine which may or may not be an issue in your set up.

 

[Zenon]

All three of my powered ED's are APFS. No issues with LrC 11.1 and Monterey. I don't use PC.