Can't write - only read!

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for macOS
1

I have a 1tb My Passport with 1000s of photos on it. When I Get Info, it tells me I can only read, not write and I cannot seem to find any way of changing this. Help - please!

2

Is the drive formatted for Macs? If not, you’ll need to install an NTFS driver.

3

The issue happens because the Western Digital My Passport drive is formatted in NTFS, which is Microsoft’s Windows file system; macOS can read NTFS drives by default, but it cannot write to them without external assistance. Here are two ways to fix this。

Option 1: Format the WD hard drive to exFAT
[Back up your photos to your Mac first.]

  1. Open Disk Utility (Press Command + Space, type it, and hit Enter).
  2. Select your WD My Passport drive from the left sidebar.
  3. Click Erase at the top.
  4. Set the Format dropdown to exFAT and click Erase.
  5. Move your photos back to the drive.

Option 2: Use Third-Party Software (No need to erase data)
If you do not have enough free space on your Mac to temporarily offload thousands of photos, or if you need to keep the drive in NTFS format for heavy Windows usage, you can install software that grants macOS write access to NTFS.
Also read: How to fix Mac unable to write to an NTFS drive