How to Format a USB on Mac

Have you ever wondered how to format a USB on Mac®? Fear not! Formatting USB drives on a Mac is actually a simple process. Many USB (often called flash drives) are plug-and-play for Mac these days. However, there are still a few USB drives that need formatting in order to work with your Mac OS. If you need to format a USB on Windows, the process is slightly different, but we can help with that too.

Macs come factory loaded with a very handy program called Disk Utility. This program does many things, ranging from verifying a disk’s integrity and repairing it to formatting drives.

You will see the main window with a list of available storage devices on the left and various disk management options on the right. At the bottom of the main window are storage device details, including disk description, connection type, USB serial number, total capacity, write status, S.M.A.R.T. status, and partition map scheme.

Prior to erasing anything, you have to give the drive a name.

Once you name the drive, select "ExFAT" for the format, and select “GUID Partition Map” for the scheme (unless your applications require another scheme for compatibility).

If another confirmation pop up appears, select "Erase" again

Once the process is complete, click "Done."

Congratulations! You should be able to transfer files to the newly formatted flash drive. External SSDs such as the Crucial X10 Pro are another way to clear space on a Mac or transfer files from one Mac to another, often offering more capacity and faster transfer speeds.