How to format a USB flash drive to make it Mac and Windows compatible?

Matthieu Gagnot June 14, 2019 at 2:240 p.m. If you often switch from Mac to Windows, you have probably noticed USB key compatibility issues. Some disk formats only work on one of the two operating systems: NTFS on Windows, HFS+ on Mac... To cut short compatibility problems, it is advisable to format your USB key in exFAT : by following this tutorial, your key will be readable and writable on both Mac and Windows.

How to format a USB key in exFAT

First, save the files on the USB key to a another disk (on the computer for example). Indeed, all the contents of the key will be deleted at the time of formatting.

Press the Cmd + Space keys at the same time to open Spotlight.
Enter Disk Utility and launch the utility .
Click on the volume to format in the left column.
Click on the Erase button.
In the Format setting, select ExFAT.
Click Erase.
Wait until Disk Utility finishes formatting the USB drive.

The exFAT format has the advantage of having no file size limitation. However, it is not recognized by all multimedia devices such as boxes, game consoles, smart TVs... If you need a USB key compatible with these devices, better worth formatting your USB key in FAT32.Find other tutorials on Mac:

How to format a USB drive to make it compatible with Mac and Windows?