Is there a reliable open-source way to read and write non-encrypted APFS drives on Linux?
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MellowPine42
I'm looking for a free and open-source application that can read and write non-encrypted APFS volumes from Linux. My main computer runs CachyOS with KDE and Btrfs, and I also use a MacBook and Mac mini. I have a 1TB NVMe SSD in an ASUS ROG Strix Arion Lite enclosure that I'd like to use with both Linux and macOS. It currently uses exFAT, but I'm considering APFS and would prefer a graphical tool, although a command-line package would also work. Is there a dependable option for this?
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APFS is the standard filesystem used by current macOS systems, so I was hoping there was a Linux tool that could handle it reliably. I’ll probably keep the drive as exFAT unless the experimental support becomes more trustworthy.
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There doesn’t appear to be a dependable open-source solution for read/write APFS support on Linux. APFS is proprietary, and the available Linux implementations are largely reverse-engineered and may not be safe for important data or everyday use.
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There is a project called linux-apfs-rw that may be worth investigating, but it should be treated as experimental. Make backups before testing it, since write support could corrupt the filesystem or data.
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If you don’t specifically need APFS features, HFS+ may be another possibility because Linux support has existed for longer. Otherwise, exFAT is still the most practical cross-platform choice, even though it lacks features such as journaling and has other limitations.
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CopperLynx88: That’s probably the safest approach for a shared drive. APFS support on Linux is not mature enough to rely on without solid backups.