Mac Os External Hard Drive Write



Summary: Two methods to change Seagate external hard drives from read-only back to read-write, so that you can edit, delete, and rename files on this Seagate external hard drive. Also, if a Seagate external hard drive is read-only or files are locked on Mac due to NTFS format, you can use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to mount it in read-write mode on Mac.

When you plug a Seagate external hard drive into your Mac, one of the worst things would be that you find your Seagate hard drive is read-only. Your photos, videos, and other files you saved from a Windows PC could be locked. Or your Seagate external drive could be write-protected. Are you facing such disk problem right now? Well, you are not the only one.

Mar 15, 2018  Most Mac users will be better off formatting external drives with exFAT, ensuring they work well on both Windows and Mac OS X without any extra work. If you must write to an NTFS drive, one of the paid, third-party drivers will be the easiest option. Dec 31, 2019  If you recently purchased an external hard drive or portable SSD for your Mac, you probably noticed that Mac OS X doesn’t allow you to write data on to the drive. This is because the drive has been initialized for Windows NT File system, NTFS for short, and NTFS is primarily for PC use. Mac computers support a different file system.

Oct 05, 2018  My external hard drive (ExFat and used only on Macbook) suddenly started showing read only. Until yesterday, I could read write. I think it might have accidentally been pulled out. A) Its a month old WD drive formatted to exFat. B) I also ran diskutil verify and found no errors. C) When I connect to another MacBook, it shows it as ReadWrite. MacDrive also includes powerful features that enable you to create and partition Mac disks direct from your PC. And in the event that your Mac disks is having a problem, our robust repair feature can fix basic disk issues. From floppies to hard drives, MacDrive can handle almost any disk you toss at it.

'I'm having a problem using my Seagate external hard drive. I only have permission to read files on my external hard drive, but I am not allowed to write or edit files on the drive when using Mac OS. Why this happened and how to fix Seagate external hard drive read-only on Mac?'

You might have trouble backing up or adding files to Seagate external hard drives on Mac. But it's not necessarily because the disk is locked but some other reasons. For example, the Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only on Mac.

In this article, we introduced three possible reasons for disk being read-only on Mac, and you can find solutions to change the external drives from read-only accordingly.

Table of contents
Why a Seagate external hard drive is read-only on Mac?
Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors

Why is your Seagate external hard drive read only on Mac?

You may be wondering why my Seagate external hard drive is read-only. In fact, read-only Seagate external hard drive results from various reasons. It could be the NTFS format that makes this trouble since NTFS is not writable on Mac. Generally, there are three possible reasons:

  • The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
  • You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
  • The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors

In the following part, we'll go into details about how to fix the Seagate external hard drive read-onli issue in different situations.

Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted

Most Seagate external drives are read-only on Mac because they are pre-fomatted with Windows NT file system (NTFS) by the manufacturer. So your Seagate HDD is read only on Mac, which affects Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, Portable drive, and Slim.

However, macOS disabled the NTFS write support by default. If you connect an NTFS formatted external hard drive to your Mac, you will find that files on this disk will be locked or show as read-only. You can only read but can't add files to this Seagate external hard drive on Mac.

How to check if your Seagate hard drive is NTFS formatted on Mac?

  1. Open the Finder and click Go at the upper right of your desktop, then choose Utilities.
  2. Find Disk Utility and open it.
  3. Select your Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar of Disk Utility.
  4. Then you can see Windows NT File System on the right.
  5. You can click the Info icon at the upper right to check if this disk is writable.

Solution: Use NTFS for Mac to write to Seagate external hard drives on Mac

In this situation, what you need is not to unlock the Seagate external hard drive but a NTFS for Mac driver. Many people would think about converting NTFS to APFS or formatting the Seagate drive for Mac to make it compatible with macOS. However, the truth is that you can fix the Seagate external hard drive read-only issue without formatting, i.e. you don't have to lose your files on this drive.

Alternatively, you can download NTFS for Mac software to enable NTFS drive write support on Mac with no fuss. There are a great number of NTFS for Mac in the market, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is used here as an example.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: NTFS for Mac driver and more

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a handy disk management tool, which can help you mount NTFS formatted external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. on Mac with write support. This NTFS drive mounter is also compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion).

How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drive on Mac?

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your computer.

Step 2: Launch this NTFS driver for Mac and connect the read-only Seagate external hard drive to Mac.

Step 3: Then, you can fully write and copy data to the Seagate external hard drive on Mac after the drive is mounted successfully.

Aside from being an NTFS for Mac driver, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a wonderful tool to manage files on NTFS external drives. It lets users open, monut, repair, and erase NTFS drives on Mac natively and seamlessly.

Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive

If your Seagate hard drive denies your access or restricts you to read-only activities, there is likely an permission issue. Being a multiuser operating system, macOS sets up access permissions for all files and folders on the system, including external drives.

Solution: Change permissions on Seagate external hard drive

To fix the read-only Seagate external hard drive issue, you need to regain full access. You can ignore the ownership or change the sharing and permissions of this disk in the Finder by following the below steps.

Step 1: Select Seagate external hard drive on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar, and then press Command + I to get information of the drive.

Canon mx472 download for mac. Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of this list and click on the triangle that is at the left side of the Sharing & Permissions tab.

Step 3: Click on the lock icon at the right bottom and type in the password to unlock this tab.

Step 4: Check the box to Ignore ownership on this volume, or you can toggle it off and then on if it's already enabled.

Step 5: Click on the gear button and choose Apply to enclosed items… to save your changes.

Then you can go to check if your Seagate external hard drive is read-only still. If not, you will be able to write to this disk.

But if you can't access the Seagate external hard drive as it's locked still. Well, the disk may be really locked by certain programs, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch. Then you need to unlock the password protection or hardware encryption with Seagate Secure software.

Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors

If your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only not for the reasons above, you may need to have a check if there is any inner disk error. Some formatting errors will make an external hard drive read-only on Mac. If this is the cause, usually you will see a warning in Disk Utility that states it is only being mounted in read-only mode.

Solution 1: Fix read-only Seagate external hard drive in Disk Utility

Fortunately, there is a built-in tool called First Aid that can check and repair some minor disk errors. When your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only due to logical disk problems, you can use First Aid to repair it then.

Here is the guidance to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility:

  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive on the left window.
  3. Click First Aid in the top center and choose Run to repair this disk.

Solution 2: Reformat Seagate external hard drive

However, if Disk Utility fails to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive, the last thing you can try to remove write protection from Seagate external hard drives would be reformatting. Reformatting will assign a new file system to this disk, consequently, the Seagate external hard drive issue could be fixed.

But before you go ahead to erase this disk, you should know that reformatting will wipe the files on this hard drive. Thus, you are advised to check if you have a copy of data back in the first place , or you can recover lost data from this external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac data recovery to avoid data loss.

If you're sure that you have data backup in hand, you can proceed to reformat this read-only external hard drive with the following tutorial.

  1. Open Disk Utility as you did before.
  2. Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar.
  3. Click the Erase button in the top center of Disk Utility.
  4. Fill in name, format, and scheme when the pop-up asks.
  5. Click Erase to confirm this operation.

A final note

Besides Seagate external hard drives, Toshiba, WD, Samsung, or other brands' external hard drives will come across the read-only problem. It is common to see people complaining WD My Passport external hard drives suddenly became read-only on Mac. You can also use these solutions to fix this problem. But if you are unable to fix it with the solutions suggested above, you can only send it to local disk repair store for help, but that will cost a lot usually.

By Katrina | Posted to NTFS for Mac, updated on May 25th, 2020 |

External hard drives are important storage media for both Mac and Windows users. Usually, you can read and write to files on an external hard drive on your Mac. But there are chances that this external hard drive shows read-only on Mac. For example, many people have reported that their WD My Passport external hard drives are read-only on Mac. When you check its disk information, you will find you can only read the external hard drive on Mac. Moreover, users who use USB flash drives and SD cards on Mac also encounter this read-only problem.

You may be wondering why you can't write to this external hard drive even though you are the owner of this disk, and more importantly, if you can fix this read-only problem without formatting or not?

Thus, this post will analyze three external hard drive read-only cases so that you can find a relevant and feasible solution to your problem.

Table of contents
Case 1: The read-only external hard drive is NTFS file system
Case 2: Disk permissions are changed as read-only
Case 3: Can't write to external hard drives on Mac due to disk errors
Bonus part: Fix SD card read-only on Mac

Case 1: The read-only external hard drive is NTFS file system

A file system controls how data is stored and retrieved on a disk. There are many different kinds of file systems, and each one has different structure and logic, properties of speed, flexibility, security, size, etc. By default, Windows uses Microsoft NTFS file system while Macs use HFS+ and APFS for OS volume. FAT32 and exFAT are usable for both Windows and Mac operating systems.

That's to say, you are unable to write to NTFS drives on macOS Catalina, Mojave, and any earlier Mac operating systems . If you try to copy or drag files on an NTFS-formatted external hard drive on Mac, you'll be unable to but see the greyed-out no symbol as below. And when you open files on this external hard drive, you will find your documents being read-only. For an NTFS file system SD card on Mac, files like photos are locked as you can only read them.

Therefore, if you find your external hard drive read-only, for example, a Seagate external hard drive shows read-only on Mac, the first thing that comes to your mind should be to check if this drive is NTFS file system.

How to check if an external hard drive is NTFS file system on Mac?

Simply, you can check this by viewing its disk information either in Disk Utility or in the Finder, and here is how.

Method 1: Check if an external hard drive is NTFS file system in Disk Utility

Step 1: Click on Launchpad at the dock of your Mac and choose Other in the menu.

Step 2: Choose Disk Utility among these utilities and open it.

Mac Os External Hard Drive Write

Step 3: When it is launched, click on the external hard drive you have problem with in the left sidebar. You will see an obvious 'Windows NT File System' in the right column.

Method 2: Check if an external hard drive is NTFS file system in the Finder

You can also check this in the Finder with a few clicks.

Step 1: Open the Finder and right-click on this external hard drive.

Step 2: Choose Get info in the context menu.

External Hard Drive Mac Os

Step 3: You will see 'Windows NT File System (NTFS)s' after File system if the read-only drive is formatted with Microsoft NTFS file system.

Download mongolian cyrillic font for mac. Then, after making sure that it is the Windows NTFS file system that makes your external hard drive read-only on Mac, you can go head to fix this problem. Try to repair the read-only external hard drive with or without formatting.

Solution 1: Format this external hard drive to exFAT/FAT32

It is possible that you just recently bought a new hard drive and found it is formatted as NTFS. In this case, if you don't have anything important on this drive or you have a copy of a data backup, you can simply format this external hard drive without worrying about data loss. To formatting this read-only hard drive, you can just go to Disk Utility and Erase it.

There are several formats you can choose, and erasing this disk into which file system depends on how you intend to use the drive.

  • APFS: If you plan to use the drive on macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS 10.14 Mojave, and macOS 10.13 High Sierra, you can format it into APFS for better experience.
  • HFS+: It is also known as Mac OS Extended, whose later versions added journaling to prevent corruption of the file system structure. Therefore, you can choose HFS+ if you are going to use this external hard drive on macOS Sierra and earlier Mac operating systems.
  • FAT32/exFAT: If your storage device is an SD card or USB flash drive, and you'd like to read-write this portable drive both on Mac and Windows OS, you'd better erase it with exFAT or FAT32.

Solution 2: Run NTFS for Mac software on Mac

However, if you have several important files on this external hard drive, and you frequently swap your work between Windows and Mac computers, formatting this drive definitely is the last solution you would resort to. The reason is, as you may know, formatting a hard disk will wipe your data out of this drive and cause data loss.

Then when external drive is NTFS-formatted, how can you fix the read-only drive without formatting?

An NTFS driver for Mac should be the most convenient tool for people who want to fix this issue without formatting, because you can work natively and seamlessly on NTFS file system external hard drives on your Mac in a few clicks. The NTFS for Mac software you can try is iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to make the NTFS drives writable on Mac.

About iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac can mount NTFS external hard drives in read-write mode on your Mac, granting people full access to read, write, edit, copy, and delete files on NTFS-formatted drives.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac- Best NTFS Disk Management for Mac

  • Grant full access to read, write, edit, copy, move, transfer, and delete files on NTFS file system external hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, etc. on Mac
  • Erase disks to NTFS file system on Mac
  • Unmount multiple drives with one click
  • Support macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a wonderful tool to manage NTFS external drives on Mac. It's a menu bar app, from which users can mount, repair, erase NTFS hard drives, external hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, etc. with a simple click.

Tutorial to write to NTFS-formatted external hard drive on Mac with iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

Step 1: Free download, install and launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your computers.

Step 2: Connect NTFS external hard drive to Mac.

Step 3: Write to NTFS external hard drive after the external hard drive is mounted successfully.

Solution 3: Fix read-only NTFS external hard drives with the command line (not recommend)

You can also try the experimental method to enable NTFS read-write support with command prompt on your Mac. However, it is not recommended as it is not stable and could result in data loss if it goes wrong. So, use the command line with caution!

Warning: Do not use this method as a long-term solution to write to NTFS drives that contain important files. Meanwhile, do not use this method if you are not familiar with the command line, in case that you input a wrong command and cause unexpected damage to your Mac and drives.

Well, if you insist…here is how to do this:

Step 1: Click Go at the upper right of your desktop and go to the Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

Step 2: Input 'sudo nano /etc/fstab' to edit the fstab file (supply your password when prompted).

Step 3: Type 'LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse' in the editor window for the fstab file. (Be sure to change the word NAME to the name of your drive)

Step 4: Press Control + O to save the file, followed byControl + X to exit.

Step 5: Unmount your NTFS drive and attach it again.

Case 2: Disk permissions are changed as read-only

The Sharing and Permissions option is set up to determine who can delete or modify a file or program copied to the drive. Thus, if the permissions are changed by you or others, a message will pop up and inform you that the file is read-only or you don't have permission to save when you save changes to this disk.

In this case, if you right-click on the icon of your disk and choose 'Get info' to check the disk information, you will find you can only read this external hard drive or SD card even though it is not NTFS file system. That's to say, you can't write to this drive.

Mac Os Mount External Hard Drive Read Write

If this is the cause for your external hard drive being read-only, you can try the following solutions and fix this issue without formatting your drive.

Solution 1: Change the permission of this external hard drive

If your files on this external hard drive show as read-only or locked, or if you try to move some files to the Trash but get no response, you can try to change the permission of this disk.

External hard drive mac os

Step 1: Open the Finder and find your external hard drive in the left sidebar.

Step 2: Right-click on this drive or volume and choose Get info, and then scroll down to Sharing & Permissions.

Step 3: Extend this column by clicking on the triangle symbol, and then click on the Lock icon.

Step 4: Input the password of your Mac, and click on Read only, then change your privilege as Read & Write in the right column.

Step 5: Click the gear button (Action menu) at the bottom of the window, choose Apply to enclosed items, and then click OK to confirm the action.

Solution 2: Ignore Permissions on external hard drive in the Finder

To prevent such errors from happening, Mac operating system includes a setting to ignore Permissions on external drives, so all files on the drive should be fully accessible regardless of their Permissions settings. Here below are steps to ignore the permission on external hard drives:

Step 1: Select the external hard drive on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar, and then press Command + I to get information on the drive.

Step 2: Click on the arrow that is on the left side of the Sharing & Permissions tab near the bottom of the window.

Step 3: Check the box to Ignore ownership on this volume, or toggle it off and then on if it's already enabled. (Provide the password of your Mac if it is required.)

External Hard Drive For Mac

Case 3: Can't write to external hard drives on Mac due to disk errors

Some internal errors will cause a drive to be read-only as well. When this happens, your drive will be only mounted in read-only mode to prevent the data on it from corruption.

Solution: Repair read-only external hard drive with Disk Utility

Fortunately, you can take some actions to repair these minor disk errors with Disk Utility on your Mac. You can use the following guide to fix read-only external hard drive in Disk Utility without formatting.

Step 1: Click Go at the upper right of your desktop and go to Utilities, and then open Disk Utility.

Step 2: Select the read-only external hard drive on the left window.

Step 3: Click First Aid in the and choose Run.

However, it is possible that an NTFS format is not the culprit of your disk being read-only. On the contrary, some other reasons make your disk not writable. For instance, if your disk becomes read-only after a macOS update, you may be facing one of the rare glitches of a macOS. Ableton live 10 lite free download trial. Under this circumstance, if the solutions above are unable to fix this read-only external hard drive, you may need to format this drive, and then recover your important data from the formatted external hard drive instead.

Bonus part: Fix SD card read-only on Mac

Except for external hard drives, memory cards like micro SD cards and SDHC cards could be read-only on Mac as well. It could occur whether you access the SD card via a card slot or connect the camera to the Mac. If you have tried the solutions mentioned above and none of them work for you, here is a bonus tip.

Solution 1: For most cases, you need to make sure that you slide the write protection switch to the unlocked positition. It's possible that some USB SD card adapters don't honor that switch, but the card reader on Mac definitely does.

Solution 2: If the SD card is read-only on Mac still, you may want to slide the read-write lock to the middle neutral position and retry. Strange though, sliding the 'lock' switch on the card halfway does help mount SD cards in read-write mode.

Mac Os Cannot Write External Hard Drive

Conclusion

Mac Os X Cannot Write To External Hard Drive

Generally speaking, external hard drives being read-only on Mac appears when they are not formatted correctly and the solutions above should be helpful. Nevertheless, if you failed to repair this hard disk even with Disk Utility, it could be a failed external hard drive which needs to be replaced, or you can try your luck by sending it to a local disk repair service.