so it will be Windows- and Mac-accessible?

Used Mac-OS Journaled. Windows cannot open it… My Mac uses OS 10.13.

What format should the flash drive have?

FAT

Or ex-FAT

FAT will not allow files larger than 4 gigs, if that's gonna be a problem, use exFAT.

But be aware that older versions of Windows don't play with exFAT.

It just works!

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mikebw
But be aware that older versions of Windows don't play with exFAT.

Many "smart" devices that accept USB media also are limited to FAT32 (which I assume is what others are recommending when they say "FAT"). I recently encountered a "smart" TV that is supposed to be able to play media off of a USB flash drive, but the exFAT drive was invisible to it. (This was the default factory formatting for the drive.)

Mac and PC only? ExFAT.
Mac, PC and other devices? FAT32.

I tried Mac-OS Journaled on one for my wife's car to play music and it didn't work correctly. I'm going to have to get my son to format on his Windows computer to FAT32. Tried ExFAT and that didn't work either.

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Grateful11

Grateful11, yeah Fat32 for car media systems. And use Hidden Cleaner on the media before trying it in the car. No need for Winbloz, Disk Utility does Fat32 format just set Partition to MBR.
ExFAT = Mac OS X 10.6.5 and up.

Many current devices like dash cams use FAT32 and record video in small 4GB chunks. This is done in the belief(?) many consumers will use SDHC cards smaller than 32GB. Ironically most of those cheap sub-32GB cards are not durable enough for dash cams, GoPro, nor drones.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 07:29PM by MrNoBody.

FAT32 just to bullet-proof it. Whenever I hand a drive to a client, I live in fear of the "I can't open this!" phone call. Got one of those once, and found out the client was using a vintage Windows box from the dawn of the dinosaurs (3.1 or something...).

And they act like YOU should have "fixed it" before you gave it to them...

Quote
Grateful11
I tried Mac-OS Journaled on one for my wife's car to play music and it didn't work correctly. I'm going to have to get my son to format on his Windows computer to FAT32. Tried ExFAT and that didn't work either.

Absolutely not necessary to go to a Windows machine for this - Disk Utility will do this perfectly on the Mac.