external USB drive choosing File system

File System <--> Operating System   built-in behaviour

FS                Windows        MacOS        Linux

FAT32               RW              RW               RW            # file sizes < 4GB, plain FS no permission, etc.

NTFS                RW                R                 RW            # proprietary FS

exFAT               RW              RW                RW           # proprietary FS, bigger sector size than FAT32

APFS                  -                 RW                R?            # by Mac

ext4                     -                 F*               RW

samba                RW              RW               RW            # or other network services

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*F - Forgot, not care.   :D

Encrypted drives by Linux or MacOS, another story, of course.

NTFS is Microsoft's proprietary file system.  If errors, those partitions cannot be repaired by Linux nor MacOS.  In Windows, try right-click the drive icon, properties > tools > check disk.  DO NOT save browser pages (html and _files might have invalid file names) from non-windows OS to NTFS!

exFAT is widely accepted.  It can handle larger file size over 4GB such as movies, with the tradeoff having a bit bigger overhead.  Otherwise, FAT32 is still a good choice works most of the time.

One thing to keep in mind for FAT32 is not supporting user permissions.  For externally backing up most files is not a problem, until you want to clone a git repo - all file permissions mess up, the git status will tell you all files modified, to 777.

For SSD-like such as micro SD cards,  use FAT32 up to 32GB;  exFAT for bigger capacity.  Quite standard.