Apple promises APFS support for Fusion Drives soon

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APFS
Maybe look for it at WWDC.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple will share news regarding APFS for Mac Fusion Drives “very soon,” claims Apple’s software engineering VP, Craig Federighi.

Short for Apple File System, APFS was introduced with the arrival of macOS High Sierra. It’s optimized for modern Apple devices that increasingly rely on flash storage, but Apple’s Mac Fusion Drives — which combine regular hard disks with a small amount of flash storage — weren’t supported beyond the first few beta versions.

It seems that times could be a’changin’, however, since Federighi told a MacRumors reader by email that, “We intend to address this question very soon.”

Sadly, the email didn’t contain any information or timeline beyond that. It could suggest that this feature may arrive with a software update in the near future. That could include the macOS 10.14 update we’re expecting to see unveiled at Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

The next-generation file system for Apple products was introduced with the launch of iOS 10.3, macOS 10.12.4, tvOS 10.2 and watchOS 3.2 on March 27, 2017. Replacing Apple’s previous HFS+ file system, APFS brought a unified file system complete with the full disk encryption features found in the latest versions of macOS with the data protection feature that encrypts every file individually on iOS.

This year’s WWDC event is set to kick off on June 4. As ever, for those unable to attend in person a live stream of the WWDC 2018 keynote will be available on Apple’s website, the WWDC app, as well as on Apple TV. Hopefully we’ll get some exciting updates there — both about APFS and more.

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