Mac OS – Create a new APFS volume for backup

Mac OS – Create a new APFS volume for backup

Problem

A customer using Mac OS wishes to create a new APFS volume on a drive for the purpose of backup.


Applies to 

  1. macOS on (Mac & Macbook)

Application

Adding a new APFS volume to existing external storage can be neat way of adding a suitable drive location to store files separate from your main drive.  Another application might be for Time Machine which requirees a whole drive volume to itself to store the backup snapshots.  If your purpose in creating a new volume is to store any kind of backup please use an external USB or Thunderbolt drive rather than internal storage to properly secure your data.  


Resolution

Please observe the requirements below before proceeding:
  1. An APFS volume can only be created on a disk formatted as an APFS container.  Most Macs from approximaely 2018 onwards will ship pre-formatted with an APFS container.
  2. A New APFS volume does not create new space, instead the new APFS volume commpacity will expand up to the total free space on the physical driver, in so doing you may see the capacity of the main APFS volume decrease accordingly.  One may set up quotas for maxmimum size of APFS volumes to manage capcity. 
  3. To complete these instructions the Mac should be running Mac OS version 10.13 otherwise known as High Sierra or later.


  1. Click to open Finder then select in the menu bar Go > Applications > Utilities, then launch Disk Utility.
  2. In Disk Utility click the name of the drive you wish to create a new volume.
  3. Then click Edit > Add APFS Volume from the menu bar or click the Add Volume button (+) in the Disk Utility toolbar.  If these options do not show it may be because the drive is not formatted as APFS and therefore cannot accept another APFS format volume.
  4. Type a name for the new volume and click Add button.
  5. In the menu bar click File > Quit when finished, you are ready to copy files or set up a Time Machine backup.

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