· The Reperoo team
How to format your SSD or hard drive as exFAT
exFAT works on iPhone, Mac and Windows and handles files over 4 GB. Here's how to set your drive up in a couple of minutes.
Your iPhone can write to USB-C drives, but the format matters. exFAT is the one to pick: iPhones, Macs and Windows PCs can all read and write it, and unlike FAT32 it handles files over 4 GB, which a few minutes of 4K video quickly reaches.
Check your drive first
On a Mac, open Disk Utility, select the drive and read the format under its name. On Windows, right-click the drive in File Explorer, choose Properties and read File system.
If it says exFAT, you're done: skip to the end. If it says NTFS, your iPhone can only read it, so format it as below. FAT32 works, but files over 4 GB won't copy.
Formatting erases everything on the drive. Copy anything you want to keep off it first.
On a Mac
- Plug in the drive and open Disk Utility.
- Choose View → Show All Devices, then select the drive itself in the sidebar.
- Click Erase.
- Set Format to ExFAT and Scheme to GUID Partition Map.
- Click Erase and wait for it to finish.
On Windows
- Plug in the drive and open File Explorer.
- Right-click the drive and choose Format.
- Set File system to exFAT and leave the allocation unit size at its default.
- Click Start.
Then, once Reperoo is out
When Reperoo launches, plug the drive into your iPhone, tap Connect and pick a folder on it. Reperoo shows the free space straight away, and you're ready to copy.