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How to Fix I Can't Write External Disk with exFAT or Mac OS Extended on Mac?

My external disks worked fine (Read & Write) when my macOS was 10.13.3. However, after I updated it to 10.13.4, all of the previously worked disks failed to write. Even after I upgrade to 10.14 today, it still not work. And I've also tried plugging my disks to my friends Mac(10.13.3), they work fine! So I think it is the new macOS issue. Two info I've got, hope for trouble-shooting: 1. The info I get from disk shows "You can only read", even though the access matrix (Me) have "Read & Write". 2. The owners of the external disks shown in disk utility is "Disabled", however my system disk is "Enabled". Is there anyone that has the same issue and already fixed? Please help, thanks!

Best Answered by

Sherry Song

Answered on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Hello, according to your description, here is some advice:

(1)Check the file system of your external disks. 

Commonly speaking, either exFAT or Mac OS Extended (journaled) can be readable and writeable on macOS. But the NTFS only can be read but not be written on Mac, maybe you can check the file system in Disk Utility. If it is the NTFS-formatted disk, you'd better use NTFS driver for Mac like iBoysoft NTFS for Mac, allowing you to use the drive seamlessly on Mac.

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iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

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(2)Check the disk's permissions. You can select Read & Write to enable the write access.

(3)Enable Ignore ownership on this volume.

(4)Check the external hard disk's free space. You can delete some unimportant files here.

(5)Repair the disk with the First Aid in Disk Utility.

(6)Format the external disk on Mac. Be careful to backup all the data of your disk before this step.

Hope you can use the drive in the end.

Also read: Can't Save/Write to External Hard Drive on Mac