How to Make a Drive Not Read Only
Sometimes when you connect an external hard bulldoze to your Mac, y'all'll find that information technology'due south set to read simply. This happens considering the drive is formatted with Microsoft's NTFS filesystem, which macOS doesn't back up by default. Fortunately, it'south like shooting fish in a barrel to set up and so that your external hard drive is no longer read only.
In that location are a number of means 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 avant-garde users, in that location are also riskier, more experimental solutions.
Let's become started.
1. If Your Drive Is Blank
If you can't write to an external hard drive on Mac but the drive is bare, you're in luck. Yous tin easily format it to any yous need and move on.
To begin, mount the disk on your Mac, then open Disk Utility. Now select the drive in the sidebar and click Erase.
The all-time format option for an external drive depends on what you intend to use information technology for:
- Time Motorcar backup: If you plan to apply the drive to back up your Mac with Fourth dimension Automobile, you'll want to format the drive to APFS for macOS 10.13 or later on. Prepare the Scheme to GUID Segmentation Map to brand the option testify up. On older systems, choose HFS+, which shows up as Mac Os Extended.
- Portable drive: If you're looking to create a portable drive to use with your Mac and other operating systems like Windows, choose exFAT. If you are only working with Macs, APFS is the preferred choice, unless yous need to use the drive on a pre-10.13 system.
- Working with old PCs: This is rare, but if you'll utilise the deejay with an quondam Windows computer that doesn't support exFAT, yous may have to choose the older Fat selection. In nigh cases, you lot shouldn't employ this as it limits drive sizes to less than 32GB.
2. If Yous Need a One-Fourth dimension Fix
Warning! The post-obit steps depict a method of enabling the experimental NTFS back up in macOS. There is a very real chance that something could get wrong, resulting in a loss of data on the target bulldoze. We recommend yous do not rely on this method for writing to of import volumes or as a long-term solution.
Sometimes yous may demand to write some files to a locked drive merely in one case, and you tin practise this with congenital-in Mac tools. But while macOS can read NTFS drives past default, its write capability hides behind a Terminal hack. You lot need to follow these instructions for each drive you want 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 drive y'all want to admission:
Characterization=DRIVENAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse Hit Ctrl + O to save the file, then Ctrl + 10 to quit Nano. At present disconnect and reconnect your drive. One time it has remounted, it will be bachelor in /Volumes.
Y'all tin simply get there in Finder; click Get in the carte bar and select Get to Folder. Enter /Volumes and click Go. You lot'll run across your bulldoze listed hither, and yous tin can now copy files onto it.
three. A Costless Open up-Source Solution
Even if you're comfortable using Terminal, no i wants to edit a preference file every fourth dimension they deal with a new drive. If yous're in IT and bargain with Windows drives regularly, you may need a meliorate option. One of the most popular solutions is an open-source product: macFUSE for macOS.
Download macFUSE to become started. The program is a handler; it doesn't contain anything to mount and read the files themselves. You'll need a couple of extra tools to complete the chore, available in a Mac Homebrew parcel called NTFS-3G.
Outset, install Homebrew by pasting this line into the Terminal:
/bin/bash -c "$(gyre -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/Caput/install.sh)" Once y'all run the commands to install Homebrew, and you get a confirmation in Last, you need to install the NTFS-3G bundle. That is another single command:
brew install ntfs-3g Sometimes Terminal doesn't recognize that you accept already installed the macFUSE packet. If that happens, run this command besides:
mash install --cask macfuse You'll then be prompted to reboot your Mac. In one case you lot've done that, try re-running the NTFS-3G control.
How to Write to an NTFS Drive With NTFS-3G
NTFS-3G enables your Mac to write to NTFS drives, but it is not automatic. You need to run a few extra commands to become it working.
Commencement, find the address of your mounted read-only drive. You can become this in the Terminal using the command:
diskutil list Y'all need to run the following commands each fourth dimension that y'all want to mount a drive with write permissions. Supervene upon /dev/disk1s1 with the bulldoze address that yous found above:
sudo mkdir /Volumes/NTFS So:
sudo /usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/NTFS -o local -o allow_other -o auto_xattr -o auto_cache If yous don't desire to run these commands each fourth dimension, in that location'southward a gear up. You lot can kick your Mac into single-user style and replace the born Mac NTFS tools with NTFS-3G. There are some warnings about security on the project site; you can check out the steps to enable information technology on the programmer's GitHub page.
The devs brand information technology articulate that this opens up your Mac to potential exploitation, so this step is non for the faint of center.
iv. A Simple, Paid Selection
The solutions we've described above are pretty technical. If you lot'd rather just click your mouse a few times to get this working, you can use a paid third-party app to simplify the entire procedure.
There are some different choices, but the longtime favorite is Paragon Software's NTFS for Mac. It costs $nineteen.95 per Mac license, though you get a discount for buying a second or third license at the same fourth dimension. You can test drive the software with a 10-mean solar day trial as well, and it'southward fully uniform with Apple silicon.
It'due south a simple install, which then provides a carte bar particular that shows your NTFS drives. Better yet, your NTFS drives now show up in Finder normally, and you can treat them like whatsoever other drive.
Download: Microsoft NTFS for Mac past Paragon Software ($xix.95)
Tuxera NTFS for Mac is another program that'south worth looking at. Information technology'southward built on top of the open up standard we used above, NTFS-3G. The licensing is a bit simpler, as you pay $xv to use information technology on three Macs at the same time.
With a 15-mean solar day free trial, you can put the program through its paces earlier shelling out whatsoever coin. Rather than a menu bar item, Tuxera installs as a preference pane. Y'all can format drives from there, but not much else. Similar Paragon, yous tin use Finder to work with the drive.
Download: Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Tuxera ($15 for three computers)
Solve Other Mac External Drive Problems
Both paid options offer a painless way to mountain an NTFS read-only drive on your Mac and get in writable. The open-source and Terminal options are more than piece of work, and you shouldn't rely on experimental support full-time. You lot can besides write as much data as you lot need to and from your drives while trialing both paid options.
Only having a read-but drive is not the only external disk problem you lot can face on a Mac. Sometimes you can mountain an external drive and it isn't even recognized. Have a look at our guide on how to get your external drive to show up on a Mac for tips on how to solve that consequence.
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