While preparing a company-issued MacBook running macOS Ventura, you need to format a new external SSD that will serve as a Time Machine destination, provide native full-volume encryption, and be optimized for flash-based storage. Which filesystem should you choose in Disk Utility to satisfy these requirements?
Apple File System (APFS) is the default filesystem for macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later and was designed to take advantage of solid-state media. It offers space-efficient snapshots and multi-key full-volume encryption. Beginning with macOS Big Sur, Time Machine automatically reformats new backup disks to APFS and lists APFS (or APFS Encrypted) as the preferred format, although existing and manually created HFS+ volumes are still supported. exFAT and NTFS lack APFS features such as snapshots and integrated encryption, and macOS provides only read-only support for NTFS, so Time Machine cannot use it without third-party drivers.
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Why is APFS better suited for SSDs compared to HFS+?
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What is full-volume encryption in APFS, and how does it work?
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Why can exFAT and NTFS not be used for Time Machine backups on macOS?