Got a new desktop Mac & haven’t been able to use my hard drives. They are read only. Tried changing it but won’t let me even though I have admin password etc…previous computer was a Mac also. Weird thing is I got a new Passport hard drive yesterday & I can have full access on both desktop & laptop. Still need to sort out this issue on my other hard drives so any Mac experts out there?
also anyone point me in the right direction to get NTFS application without having to pay out for it. Would only require it for this
Hi @tartanjulie,
Please refer to the article WD External Drive Out of Box Format & Operating System Compatibility:
Please check the article How to Partition and Format a WD Drive on Windows or macOS:
When your external drive or any storage drive shows up as “Read Only” on your mac, then you might be encountering a very common problem with the hard drive. In such a situation, the user can open and view the files on a drive but cannot copy or move files to the storage drive. The possible reasons for this issue could be:
- External drive is NTFS formatted
- Disk permission changed as “Read Only”
- External drive is corrupted
However, the issue can be fixed using below DIY methods:
- Reformat the external drive
- Change/Ignore permissions on an external drive
- Repair external drive with disk utility’s first aid
Hope this will help you fix the issue!
I looked carefully at the two photos you uploaded. The second photo shows that your WD My Passport portable hard drive is in the NTFS format:
“Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS)”
By default, Mac computers can only read NTFS volumes and open their files, but they cannot write to them. This means you cannot save modified files, delete files, or copy data from your Mac to NTFS external hard drives or USB drives. This is a common issue because most new external hard drives come pre-formatted as NTFS.
If you want to use your drive on both Windows and Mac computers, you should erase it and change its format to exFAT. If you only plan to use it on a Mac, choose APFS or HFS+, as these two formats are fully compatible with macOS.
If you do not want to erase your drive, you can download third-party software (such as iBoysoft NTFS for Mac, Mounty, or other NTFS for Mac driver) that allows your Mac to write to NTFS drives.
Read also: Steps to Format a Drive for Use with Windows or macOS
