Enable exFAT on macOS 11.2 and Ubuntu 20.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we will set up enable exFAT compatibility on macOS 11.2 and Ubuntu 20.04.
There are 2 advantages of the exFAT (Extensible File Allocation Table) filesystem: (1) it allows storage of files greater than four gigabytes, and (2) it is compatible across Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you want to move large files to and from all of these operating systems, exFAT is a solution.
Unfortunately, neither macOS 11.2 nor Ubuntu 20.04 include exFAT compatibility by default. We will install the necessary tools manually.
Note: Windows 10 supports exFAT by default, probably because Microsoft created the filesystem.
macOS 11.2 - enable exFAT compatibility
We’ll use osx-fuse to enable exFAT compatibility with macOS Big Sur.
To finish the installation, you will need to restart your computer.
Ubuntu 20.04 - enable exFAT compatibility
We’ll use exfat-utils to enable exFAT compatibility in Ubuntu Focal Fossa.
Conclusion
That’s it. We set up osx-fuse
and exfat-utils
on macOS and Ubuntu respectively. Now we can create exFAT filesystems that will accomodate large files across operating systems.
Sources / Additional Reading
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Using exFAT on OSX by Tomo Saigon, 2016
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exFAT Compatibility in Ubuntu by Ranvir Singh, 2019
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How to Format a USB Disk as exFAT on Linux by Dimitrios, 2020