APFS on external drive missing from Disk Utility When I use Disk Utility app in macOS Mojave to format an external drive, I do not see the new Apple File System (APFS) offered as a choice of format.

Does it matter that my external drive is a Toshiba Canvio® Advance Portable External Hard Drive plugged into a MacBook Pro Retina (late 2013) via USB-3 cable? I know APFS is optimized for solid-state storage, so does Disk Utility not offer it for a spinning-metal disk drive?

➥ Why is APFS not offered by Disk Utility?
Disk Utility will only offer APFS if Partition Map is "GUID Partition Map".



If the Partition Map is "Master Boot Record" APFS is not an option (and neither is encrypted HFS).