Flash Drive will not format to APFS

[Mikeo512]

* I want to make a temporary backup of documents that are now on an MBP (Big Sur).
* They were originally created on another Mac (High Sierra).
* I have a Dual San Disk flash drive but this needs to be formatted.
* Disk Utility on the Mac (Big Sur) does not offer APFS as a formatting option for this flash drive – only Extended Journaled.
* Is this perhaps because this particular flash drive cannot handle APFS?
* If I allow Disk Utility to format it with Extended Journaled, will the documents still be saved? Or will they get corrupted?
Thanks in advance for comments.
M

 

[ferrarr]

Make sure to use the GUID partition scheme.

 

[MacInWin]

And make sure you are choose the hardware for the partitioning. In Disk Utility, click on "View" on the top bar of the window and "Show All Devices" to get the hardware to display.

 

[Mikeo512]

OK OK - good!
Thanks to both of you.
I arrived at 'Show All Devices'.
And I see the APFS when I go via the GUID partition scheme option.
There are already a couple of files on the San Disk:
SanDiskMemoryZone_AppInstaller.apk
and
SanDiskMemoryZone_QuickStartGuide.pdf
I suppose I may as well leave these on the disk - or not?
As it's a 64GB flash drive, there's plenty of space for what I want to save.
So I guess I can now go ahead a format the disk.
M

 

[MacInWin]

You probably don't need either of those. If you want to keep them, copy them to some other drive before you repartition and reformat. Partitioning and formatting will erase everything on the drive.

 

[Mikeo512]

Thanks to all for the help.
The flash drive has been formatted and the files copied.
M