Right-click the drive icon in the Finder sidebar (or on the desktop) and select Get Info. You will see the drive's file system shown on the right “Format”. Formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. To format a drive on a Mac, you'll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Part 1: How To Format Flash Drive On Mac. Here are the steps that you need to follow. Do these steps and you will then be able to format your flash drive on your Mac. Step 1: Go ahead and plug in your flash drive in the USB port on your Mac. Step 2: After that, go ahead and launch the Finder and click on your flash drive detected by your Mac. Set Format to ExFAT. Set Scheme to GUID Partition Map. WARNING: Formatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Click the Erase button, Disk Utility will start formatting the drive. Once complete, click Done.

For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format USB flash drive to FAT32, including Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for FAT32 format. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Otherwise, you can use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted USB drive.

Are you looking for a secure way to format USB to FAT32 on Mac? You are at the right place. Follow here, you can find two methods that will assist you in doing so on your storage device. And if you lost data during the formatting, reliable Mac file recovery software is ready to help anytime:

How to Format a USB Flash Drive with Mac to FAT32

Computer users who use a USB might have the demand for formatting it to the FAT32 file system. Compare with the other commonly used NTFS file system on a flash drive, FAT32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems.

It's a universal format that is compatible with Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, Linux, and DOS systems. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the FAT32 file system. For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format a USB flash drive to FAT32, namely Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Below are the detailed steps of the FAT32 format with both methods.

Method 1. Format FAT32 on Mac [Disk Utility]

To format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility will erase all data on the flash drive, so before you doing so, please do remember to check whether you have saved useful data to another secure device in advance.

To format the USB drive to FAT32, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2. Go to Applications >Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.

Step 3. Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.

Step 4. Rename the USB flash drive (optional).

Step 5. Choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click Erase.

Wait for the process to complete, then you'll get an empty new USB flash drive with FAT32 as the file system. You can use it for saving data again.

Method 2. Format FAT32 on Mac [Terminal Command Line]

The command-line behavior does the same way to erase data with the Disk Utility. Again, create a backup before taking this action.

To format FAT32 on Mac with Terminal, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2. Hit cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal, and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type: diskutil list and find out which disk is your USB drive.

Step 4. Type: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.

• sudo gives you user right.
• Diskutil calls disk utility program.
• eraseDisk commands to format.
• FAT32 sets the file system.
• MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.
• /dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.

Wait for the process to complete. After this, you can type 'diskutil list' in the command again to check if the formatting has been successful.

Exfat Format Download

Bonus Tip: How to Recover Data from Formatted USB

Exfat File Format

Formatting the USB would erase the data on it completely, so please make sure that you have a backup. If you don't, you can count on data recovery software to retrieve the lost data.

How To Format Exfat

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has both Windows and Mac versions, so it's a good choice for data recovery, no matter you're using a PC or Mac. For Mac users, it only takes a few clicks for the software to scan and display the formatted data. To guarantee an effective data recovery without spending money to no avail, you can install the Mac data recovery free version for the first trial. You can preview all the found data before the final recovery.

How To Format Usb Exfat

To recover data from a formatted USB flash drive on Mac, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.

Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.

Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.

This is due to FAT32 limitation. Files larger than 4GB can NOT be stored on a FAT32 volume. Formatting the flash drive as exFAT or NTFS will resolve this issue.
WARNING: Backup your data. Formatting will delete all the data in your device.
SOLUTION 1 - Format in exFAT
exFAT file system that allows a single file larger than 4GB to be stored on the device. This file system is also compatible with Mac.

Exfat And Mac

Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.6.6 and higher are compatible with exFAT out of the box. Older operating systems may need a patch installed for exFAT compatibility.
NOTE: exFAT file system is NOT compatible with some host devices such as TV, game systems, older operating systems, car stereos etc.
Formatting a drive in exFAT
1. Double-click on My Computer.
2. Right-click on the flash drive or memory card, then select Format.
3. In the File System list, click exFAT.
4. Click Start.
5. Click OK to start formatting.
Click Here for Instructions to format with Mac

SOLUTION 2 - Format in NTFS
WARNING:
- Formatting the device as NTFS will make it unwriteable on a Mac computer. Most Mac computers can read NTFS, but not write.
- NTFS is a journaled file system, this creates more read/write activities. Therefore, it MAY decrease life expectancy of your device.
- Once the device is formatted as NTFS, you MUST use 'Safely Remove Hardware' to remove your device.
STEP 1 - Optimize the flash drive for performance
1. Plug in the device to the PC.
2. Open The Computer Management Console
a) Windows 8
b) Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
3. On the Left side selectDevice Manager
4.On the right side expandDisk Drives
5. Right-click on the flash drive, then select Properties.
6. Click the Policy tab.
7. Select Optimize for performance, then click OK.
STEP 2 - Format the flash drive
1. Double-click My Computer.
2. Right-click on the flash drive, then select Format.
3. In the File system list, click NTFS.
4. Click Start.
5. Click OK to start formatting.