I want to share a USB disk via Airport Extreme as a network disk for our Mac and Windows environment. To read and write on the disk, I've set it up as FAT32 (max 4GB files) and I can connect with it with all computers.

The problem is now, when I add a file / folder.. it's being displayed for 2 seconds and it hides itself (as it doesn't exist).

So, how should I format the USB disk so I can use it as network disk and write / read stuff on it?

  • When you say it "hides itself after two seconds" does the folder exist but is hidden? Does this happen on both Mac and PC? – Allan Feb 1 '17 at 10:55

From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202807

Supported formats: Mac OS Extended (HFS-plus), FAT16, FAT32

If HFS+ formatting is used, AFP and Microsoft SMB/CIFS protocols are used to share the device on the network. If a FAT16/32 format is used, only SMB/CIFS protocols are used and AFP won't be available.

So if you are using FAT32 and connecting to it from Mac and Windows using SMB it should work fine.

  • This information is correct, but it should also work fine to format the disk as HFS+ - in fact the link also says Apple recommends Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for additional resilience in case the drive is disconnected or turned off while in use. – nekomatic Jun 25 '18 at 11:18

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