Now you should be able to read and write to the drive on Mac. Use free but complicated NTFS driver for Mac. If you don't want to erase your disk, there are some free NTFS drivers for Mac, which guarantee the read-write support on Mac. Mounty for NTFS, NTFS-3G, and FUSE for macOS, just to name a few. However, most of them have inevitable flaws. Format NTFS to Enable NTFS Writing on Mac. The basic reason for not writing to NTFS on Mac is.
One of the most usual problems encountered in file transfer between Mac and PC using a disk has something to do with disk format. Windows natively support the FAT and NTFS files systems, while Mac uses Apple File System and macOS Extended as the default file system. It's well-known that Apple macOS has limited support for hard drives formatted in NTFS. When you insert an NTFS external drive in your Mac, you can only read from but not to write to the drive. In other words, you can only open and view all the files on an NTFS disk, but you can't change them in any way, nor can you copy new files to NTFS format disks.
Wondering how to write to NTFS drives? The following will show you three solutions in detail.
Solution 1: Use paid NTFS drivers
The easiest way to bridge the gap between formats is to use third-party software. There are various apps available online that have been developed for this incompatibility issue. Some are free, but they may be difficult to set up and less reliable. So we highly recommend paid ones as they are safer and require any computer skills.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is the fastest NTFS driver I have ever used. It gives your Mac the ability to read and write to NTFS drives. With the software, you can delete, rename, add files and folders on NTFS formatted drives on macOS Catalina and earlier. It delivers blazing-fast read-write access to NTFS hard drives with a speed of up to six times more that of other competitors.
The program can also be used as a disk manager that enables you to unmount, erase, check and repair NTFS disks within one click. Besides handling NTFS drives, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac also impress you by formatting FA32/exFAT/HFS+/APFS drives to NTFS.
iboysoft-NTFS-for-mac-Catalina
Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your Mac computer.
Step 2: Plug the NTFS drives on your Mac. Once the drive is detected, a Finder window with its content will pop out. Then you can read and write to NTFS drives as you wish.
Solution 2: Use free NTFS drivers
FUSE for macOS is the most famous free NTFS driver that can let you extend the list of file systems handled by your computer. Once installed, it automatically mounts NTFS drives on Mac in read-write mode.
Note: this method will be very technical and tedious. During the process, you have to temporarily disable System Integrity Protection that is a risk for your operating system.
Step 1: Download FUSE for macOS from https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/releases
Step 2: Download and install Xcode command-line tools.
- Open a Terminal window from Finder > Applications > Utilities and run the following command:
Xcode-select –install
- Click 'Install' when you're prompted to install the tools. Follow the wizard to complete the installation process.
install-Xcode
Step 3: Download and install HomeBrew.
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Copy and paste the command line (Provide your password when prompt):
Step 4: Install NTFS-3G for Mac. Copy and paste the following command line, then hit Enter.
Step 5: Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). If you want to automatically mount NTFS drives in read-write mode.
- Enter into Recovery Mode. Restart your Mac and press Command+R while it's booting.
- Launch Terminal from the utility menu in Recovery Mode.
- Type in the command line and hit Enter.
csrutil disable
disable-sip
- After your Mac successfully disabled SIP, you need to restart the machine.
Step 6: Read and write to NTFS drives.
- Open Terminal again.
- Copy and paste the following command line and hit Enter:
Step 7: Re-enable SIP. To ensure the security of your Mac, you should enable SIP after the above operations. Hold Command+R while rebooting your computer. Then launch Terminal in Recovery Mode and run csrutil enable.
Solution 3: Enable NTFS drive write support natively
Actually, NTFS write access can be enabled natively by running some command line. But this solution is unsupported officially by Apple, which may work unstably and cause data corruption. Please back up your important data first. Within this in mind, let's proceed.
Step 1: Connect an NTFS drive to your Apple computer.
Step 2: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal and type in the following command: (Enter your password when prompt)
Ntfs Driver For Mac Os
sudo nano /etc/fstab
apple-NTFS-write-support-step-2
Step 3: You will see the fstab file that is blank. Then enter the following command (Remember to replace 'VOLUME_NAME' to the name of your NTFS volume):
LABEL=VOLUME_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
apple-ntfs-write-support-step
Step5: Reconnect the NTFS drive to your Mac. You will notice the drive does not show in the Finder or desktop.
Step 6: Select 'Go' and choose 'Go to Folder' from the top left Finder menu.
Step 7: Type in /Volumes and hit Enter.
apple-ntfs-write-support-step
The program can also be used as a disk manager that enables you to unmount, erase, check and repair NTFS disks within one click. Besides handling NTFS drives, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac also impress you by formatting FA32/exFAT/HFS+/APFS drives to NTFS.
iboysoft-NTFS-for-mac-Catalina
Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your Mac computer.
Step 2: Plug the NTFS drives on your Mac. Once the drive is detected, a Finder window with its content will pop out. Then you can read and write to NTFS drives as you wish.
Solution 2: Use free NTFS drivers
FUSE for macOS is the most famous free NTFS driver that can let you extend the list of file systems handled by your computer. Once installed, it automatically mounts NTFS drives on Mac in read-write mode.
Note: this method will be very technical and tedious. During the process, you have to temporarily disable System Integrity Protection that is a risk for your operating system.
Step 1: Download FUSE for macOS from https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/releases
Step 2: Download and install Xcode command-line tools.
- Open a Terminal window from Finder > Applications > Utilities and run the following command:
Xcode-select –install
- Click 'Install' when you're prompted to install the tools. Follow the wizard to complete the installation process.
install-Xcode
Step 3: Download and install HomeBrew.
- Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Copy and paste the command line (Provide your password when prompt):
Step 4: Install NTFS-3G for Mac. Copy and paste the following command line, then hit Enter.
Step 5: Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection). If you want to automatically mount NTFS drives in read-write mode.
- Enter into Recovery Mode. Restart your Mac and press Command+R while it's booting.
- Launch Terminal from the utility menu in Recovery Mode.
- Type in the command line and hit Enter.
csrutil disable
disable-sip
- After your Mac successfully disabled SIP, you need to restart the machine.
Step 6: Read and write to NTFS drives.
- Open Terminal again.
- Copy and paste the following command line and hit Enter:
Step 7: Re-enable SIP. To ensure the security of your Mac, you should enable SIP after the above operations. Hold Command+R while rebooting your computer. Then launch Terminal in Recovery Mode and run csrutil enable.
Solution 3: Enable NTFS drive write support natively
Actually, NTFS write access can be enabled natively by running some command line. But this solution is unsupported officially by Apple, which may work unstably and cause data corruption. Please back up your important data first. Within this in mind, let's proceed.
Step 1: Connect an NTFS drive to your Apple computer.
Step 2: Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal and type in the following command: (Enter your password when prompt)
Ntfs Driver For Mac Os
sudo nano /etc/fstab
apple-NTFS-write-support-step-2
Step 3: You will see the fstab file that is blank. Then enter the following command (Remember to replace 'VOLUME_NAME' to the name of your NTFS volume):
LABEL=VOLUME_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
apple-ntfs-write-support-step
Step5: Reconnect the NTFS drive to your Mac. You will notice the drive does not show in the Finder or desktop.
Step 6: Select 'Go' and choose 'Go to Folder' from the top left Finder menu.
Step 7: Type in /Volumes and hit Enter.
apple-ntfs-write-support-step
Read Also:
Conclusion
This article has introduced you three general options to write to NTFS drives – free NTFS drivers, paid NTFS for drivers, and Apple experimental NTFS-write support. Free and open-source NTFS drivers for Mac take a bit of work to install and they are slower than paid ones. It's full of risk to Apple experimental NTFS-write support as this method is not stable. Therefore, using paid NTFS for Mac apps like iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is the easiest way to read/write to NTFS drives on Mac. This software really surprises me for its fast speed in reading and writing to NTFS drives.
The latest macOS Catalina 10.15 has been released and expected to be an outstanding OS which supports plenty of advantageous features. However, macOS Catalina is still not supported to write NTFS drive which is used by many Windows users, how to write NTFS drive on macOS Catalina 10.15?
Solution 1: Use the third party NTFS for Mac software
1. M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac
M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac is a simple and easy-to-use tool which can unlock BitLocker encrypted NTFS, FAT32, exFAT drive and enable to read/write BitLocker encrypted drive like a Mac's native drive after supplying the password on macOS Catalina 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
Although M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac cannot directly read/write NTFS drive, but it provides a BitLocker encryption function. After encrypting NTFS drive, you can read/write BitLocker encrypted NTFS drive without any problem on macOS Catalina 10.15.
2. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a simple app that can read and write NTFS drive on macOS Catalina 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
3. iBoysoft Drive Manager
iBoysoft Drive Manager is a handy tool to manage external drives and network drives with only one-click, it can also read and write NTFS drive on macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
4. NTFS Mounter
NTFS Mounter is a snow leopard application to mount ntfs volumes in read/write mode. A simple utility designed to mount NTFS volumes in read/write mode. Although not officially supported, Snow Leopard is now able to mount NTFS volumes with both read and write support.
NTFS Mounter simply uses this ability, and provides a simple user interface to the mount command for NTFS volumes. User interface is very similar to AirPort: simply click on the icon to display a menu with NTFS volumes name and select the volume you want to write on.
5. NTFS-3G for Mac OSX
NTFS-3G for Mac OS X brings NTFS read/write support to Mac OS X, along with additional advanced features. It is based on NTFS-3G, an open source NTFS driver that is ported into numerous platforms, but also includes other software projects to build a complete toolset for managing NTFS volumes. NTFS-3G for Mac requires Macfuse.
6. Mounty for NTFS
A tiny tool to re-mount write-protected NTFS volumes under Mac OS X 10.9+ in read-write mode. No additional driver will be installed. It simply makes use of the build-in mechanisms already provided by Mac OSX Mavericks
7. OSXFUSE
FUSE for OS X allows you to extend OS X's native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems. OSXFUSE is a successor to Small MacFUSE, which has been used as a software building block by dozens of products, but is no longer being maintained.
8. Paragon NTFS for Mac
Paragon NTFS for Mac is a driver which gives you full read and write access to Windows partitions under Mac OS X. When working with media files or documents on Mac, you need access to the high performance of your system regardless if the files are located on the Mac's HFS+ formatted volume, or in Window's NT File System. Paragon NTFS for Mac provides full read/write access to NTFS with the same high speed as native HFS+ file system
9. Tuxera NTFS for Mac
Tuxera NTFS for Mac builds and extends upon the proven stability of the open source NTFS-3G to deliver a full featured, commercial grade NTFS driver for your Mac. With Tuxera NTFS for Mac you can access your Windows disks as easily as any Mac disk. Tuxera NTFS for Mac delivers the fastest NTFS data transfer speeds you can have on Mac while protecting your data with its new, smart caching layer.
The software fully supports all versions of Mac OS X from 10.4 (Tiger) onwards, including the new 64-bit kernel introduced with Snow Leopard and the upcoming Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and comes with advanced features only available from Tuxera such as support for NTFS extended attributes. Tuxera NTFS for Mac is compatible with popular virtualization and encryption solutions including Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion and TrueCrypt.
Solution 2: Enable writing NTFS drive with Terminal
By default, macOS Catalina can read NTFS drive, while writing NTFS drive is disabled, but it can be enabled from Terminal. What's more, this solution is totally FREE and works under all macOS versions, including macOS Catalina 10.15.
Step 1: Open Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.
Step 2: After launching Terminal, please type the command: sudo nano /etc/fstab to open the /etc/fstab file for editing nano text editor.
Driver For Mac To Write On Ntfs Hard Drive
Step 3: Type the command: LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse (Replace NAME with the name of your NTFS drive).
Step 4: Press 'CTRL+O' and press 'Enter' to save the fstab file.
After that, you can close the Terminal and start writing your NTFS drive without any limitation.
Solution 3: Format NTFS drive to exFAT/FAT32
As a matter of fact, exFAT and FAT32 file systems are compatible with macOS Catalina and all older versions. Actually you can take advantage of this to operate your drive by converting NTFS drive to exFAT/FAT32 file system. To do so, follow the steps as below:
Step 1: Back up the important files in your NTFS drive.
Step 2: Open Finder -> Applications folder -> Utilities -> Disk Utility.
Step 3: Select the NTFS drive from the left panel in Disk Utility.
Write Ntfs On Mac
Step 4: Click 'Erase' on the top menu of Disk Utility
Step 5: Select 'exFAT' or 'FAT32' file system from the drop-down box and then click Erase.
If you mistakely formatted the wrong drive, you can recover lost data from formatted drive with M3 Data Recovery.
How to format the drive to NTFS on Mac?
macOS can format the drive to exFAT, FAT32, HFS+ or APFS file system, but it cannot format the drive to NTFS file system. Because of it, you have to use the 3rd-party tool, such as iBoysoft NTFS for Mac.
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