Mac Drive Could Not Read or Write
Sometimes when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac, you'll observe that information technology'southward set to read simply. This happens because the bulldoze is formatted with Microsoft's NTFS filesystem, which macOS doesn't support by default. Fortunately, it'southward easy to fix so that your external hard drive is no longer read just.
In that location are a number of ways to unlock an external hard drive on a Mac, from reformatting the drive to installing software that allows you to write to NTFS volumes. For more advanced users, there are likewise riskier, more experimental solutions.
Permit'south get started.
1. If Your Bulldoze Is Blank
If yous can't write to an external hard bulldoze on Mac but the drive is bare, you're in luck. You can easily format it to whatever you demand and motion on.
To begin, mountain the disk on your Mac, then open Disk Utility. Now select the drive in the sidebar and click Erase.
The best format option for an external drive depends on what you intend to use it for:
- Fourth dimension Automobile backup: If you plan to employ the drive to back up your Mac with Time Machine, you'll desire to format the drive to APFS for macOS x.13 or after. Fix the Scheme to GUID Partition Map to make the selection prove up. On older systems, choose HFS+, which shows up every bit Mac OS Extended.
- Portable bulldoze: If you're looking to create a portable drive to apply with your Mac and other operating systems like Windows, choose exFAT. If you lot are only working with Macs, APFS is the preferred pick, unless y'all demand to use the drive on a pre-ten.13 system.
- Working with sometime PCs: This is rare, but if y'all'll use the deejay with an old Windows calculator that doesn't back up exFAT, yous may have to cull the older FAT option. In most cases, yous shouldn't utilize this as it limits drive sizes to less than 32GB.
2. If You Demand a I-Time Prepare
Alert! The following steps describe a method of enabling the experimental NTFS back up in macOS. In that location is a very real run a risk that something could go wrong, resulting in a loss of information on the target drive. We recommend you do not rely on this method for writing to important volumes or equally a long-term solution.
Sometimes you may need to write some files to a locked bulldoze just once, and you can practice this with built-in Mac tools. But while macOS can read NTFS drives by default, its write capability hides backside a Final hack. You lot need to follow these instructions for each drive you desire to write to.
Open Terminal and type:
nano etc/fstab Then copy this line into the file, replacing DRIVENAME with the actual name of the bulldoze you desire to access:
Characterization=DRIVENAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse Hit Ctrl + O to salve the file, then Ctrl + X to quit Nano. At present disconnect and reconnect your bulldoze. In one case it has remounted, it will exist bachelor in /Volumes.
Yous can but go in that location in Finder; click Go in the bill of fare bar and select Become to Folder. Enter /Volumes and click Go. You'll come across your drive listed here, and you tin can now re-create files onto it.
iii. A Free Open-Source Solution
Even if y'all're comfy using Terminal, no i wants to edit a preference file every time they deal with a new bulldoze. If you're in Information technology and deal with Windows drives regularly, you lot may need a better option. One of the most popular solutions is an open-source production: macFUSE for macOS.
Download macFUSE to get started. The program is a handler; it doesn't comprise annihilation to mount and read the files themselves. You'll need a couple of actress tools to consummate the task, available in a Mac Homebrew package called NTFS-3G.
Outset, install Homebrew past pasting this line into the Terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/Head/install.sh)" Once y'all run the commands to install Homebrew, and you get a confirmation in Terminal, you need to install the NTFS-3G package. That is another unmarried control:
mash install ntfs-3g Sometimes Terminal doesn't recognize that you take already installed the macFUSE package. If that happens, run this control too:
mash install --cask macfuse You'll then exist prompted to reboot your Mac. Once you've washed that, endeavor re-running the NTFS-3G command.
How to Write to an NTFS Drive With NTFS-3G
NTFS-3G enables your Mac to write to NTFS drives, but it is non automatic. You lot need to run a few extra commands to get it working.
First, find the address of your mounted read-merely drive. You tin get this in the Terminal using the control:
diskutil listing You need to run the following commands each time that yous desire to mount a drive with write permissions. Replace /dev/disk1s1 with the drive address that you lot institute in a higher place:
sudo mkdir /Volumes/NTFS And then:
sudo /usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/NTFS -o local -o allow_other -o auto_xattr -o auto_cache If you don't desire to run these commands each time, there's a fix. Yous can boot your Mac into single-user mode and replace the built-in Mac NTFS tools with NTFS-3G. There are some warnings near security on the project site; y'all can check out the steps to enable information technology on the developer'south GitHub page.
The devs make information technology articulate that this opens up your Mac to potential exploitation, so this step is not for the faint of heart.
four. A Simple, Paid Pick
The solutions we've described above are pretty technical. If you'd rather just click your mouse a few times to get this working, you tin use a paid 3rd-political party app to simplify the entire procedure.
There are some unlike choices, just the longtime favorite is Paragon Software'southward NTFS for Mac. It costs $19.95 per Mac license, though you get a disbelieve for buying a second or third license at the aforementioned time. You can exam bulldoze the software with a 10-24-hour interval trial too, and it'due south fully compatible with Apple silicon.
It's a simple install, which and then provides a menu bar item that shows your NTFS drives. Meliorate still, your NTFS drives now show upward in Finder ordinarily, and you lot tin treat them like any other drive.
Download: Microsoft NTFS for Mac past Paragon Software ($19.95)
Tuxera NTFS for Mac is another programme that's worth looking at. It's built on pinnacle of the open up standard nosotros used above, NTFS-3G. The licensing is a flake simpler, as y'all pay $15 to utilize it on 3 Macs at the same time.
With a 15-twenty-four hour period gratuitous trial, you can put the program through its paces before shelling out any money. Rather than a menu bar item, Tuxera installs as a preference pane. You can format drives from there, but not much else. Like Paragon, you can utilize Finder to work with the bulldoze.
Download: Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Tuxera ($15 for three computers)
Solve Other Mac External Drive Bug
Both paid options offering a painless way to mountain an NTFS read-simply drive on your Mac and make it writable. The open-source and Concluding options are more than piece of work, and you lot shouldn't rely on experimental support full-fourth dimension. Y'all tin too write as much data as you need to and from your drives while trialing both paid options.
Only having a read-only drive is non the merely external disk trouble you tin face on a Mac. Sometimes you tin can mount an external drive and information technology isn't even recognized. Accept a look at our guide on how to become your external drive to show upward on a Mac for tips on how to solve that issue.
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