FAT32 File Size Limit: FAT32 vs. exFAT/NTFS in Max File Size

You fail to copy certain files to your external hard drive on your Mac or Windows PC and see the error "File is too large for the volume's format" on Mac or "The file is too large for the destination file system" on Windows computer.

After confirming that the file format of the external drive is FAT32, the question arises in your mind "What is the FAT32 max file size?" The answer is 4GB.

So, how do you get around the FAT32 4GB file size limit? This post is here to help you transfer files larger than 4GB to FAT32 with or without formatting, and it also makes a comparison between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS in max file size.

What is the GB limit for FAT32?

The FAT32's largest file size is around 4GB. In theory, the max possible size for a file being stored on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte, or called 4,294,967,295 (232 − 1) bytes. The 4GB minus 1-byte limit is a consequence of the 4-byte file length entry in the directory table.

So, if you are not allowed to store files with a size over 4GB on a FAT32 hard drive.

How to bypass the 4GB limit on FAT32?

If you need to transfer some files with a file size larger than 4GB to your FAT32 external hard drive or USB flash drive, you can reformat the FAT32 drive to a file system with over 4GB file size limit, including APFS, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), exFAT or NTFS.

Here are the steps of the FAT32 file size limit workaround:

Step 1: Move all files from the FAT32 external drive to your Mac or PC.

Step 2: Format the FAT32 drive to a file system without a 4GB maximum file size limit.

On a Mac:

On a Windows computer:

Step 3: Move files from your Mac or PC back to your external drive.

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How to transfer files larger than 4GB to FAT32 without formatting?

If you think that it is time-consuming and troublesome to format and move files around the FAT32 drive, you can directly convert FAT32 to NTFS in Windows. This way helps transfer files larger than 4GB to FAT32 without formatting.

FAT32 vs. exFAT vs. NTFS in max file size

FAT32 is the 32-bit version of the FAT file system that was developed to overcome the volume size limit and max file size limit of FAT16 (2GB). While exFAT is the modern replacement and enhancement of FAT32, its max file size is about 128 PB.

NTFS is the proprietary and the main file system for Windows whose maximum single file size is 16 EB (16 × 10246 or 264 bytes) minus 1 KB.

In a word, NTFS and exFAT support far larger single files than FAT32.

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