Method 2: Check file system info in the Finder You will see an obvious "Windows NT File System" in the right column. When it is launched, click on the external hard drive you have read-only problem with in the left sidebar. Choose Disk Utility among these utilities and open it. Click on Launchpad at the dock of your Mac and choose Other in the menu. Method 1: Check file system info in Disk Utility Simply, you can check file system information by viewing its disk information either in Disk Utility or in the Finder. How do I know if my external hard drive is NTFS file system? If you find your Apple external hard drive read only, the first thing to check what file system the external HDD or SSD is formatted, NTFS or not. What file system does Mac use then? Mac can fully support APFS (macOS 10.13 or above), HFS+, and FAT family. After opening the disk, all documents show read only or locked. If you try to copy or transfer files from Mac to an NTFS-formatted external hard drive on Mac, you'll see the greyed-out forbidden symbol shown as below. NTFS file system is not a Mac compatible file system because macOS only reads it but not allows writing to it. Most external hard drives and SSDs are previously formatted with Microsoft NTFS for Windows use.
#Mac external hard drive read only how to#
It is not impossible that external hard drive is read only on Mac, preventing you from copying or transferring any files from Mac to the external hard drive.įor example, many people have reported that their WD My Passport read-only on Mac and don't know how to fix Seagate external hard drive read only on Mac. After an external hard drive with Mac compatible file system is connected to a Mac computer, you can open it and have full read and write access.