I have a 1TB hard drive formatted with the Windows NT File System (NTFS). While I don’t fully understand what that means, I’ve done some research but can’t find a solution to my problem.
The hard drive worked perfectly with my old MacBook, allowing me to back up files without issues. However, since switching to a 2019 MacBook Pro, I can no longer add files to the drive. I can still access and copy files from the drive to my desktop, but adding new files isn’t possible.
Interestingly, I tested an 8GB USB drive, and it works without any problems.
If anyone knows how to resolve this issue, your help would be greatly appreciated.
It sounds like your issue is related to macOS’s limited support for NTFS-formatted drives(introduced by Microsoft). By default, macOS can read NTFS drives but can’t write to them. That’s why you can copy files off the drive but not add anything new.
(1)If you don’t wanna reformatting, you can use some NTFS drivers for Mac to realize smooth reading and writing on Mac. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a good tool, allowing you to fully and seamlessly read and write access to NTFS on Mac like on Windows.
(2)If you’re okay with erasing everything on the drive, you can reformat it to a file system that’s fully compatible with macOS, such as exFAT (works with both Mac and Windows) or APFS (optimized for macOS). Be careful with this option since it will delete all data on the drive:
Go to Disk Utility on your Mac.
Select your drive in the sidebar.
Click on Erase, then choose a compatible format like exFAT.
Confirm and wait for the process to finish.
(3)Since your 8GB USB works fine, you could temporarily use that or another exFAT-formatted drive for transferring files.
You can also try Terminal, macOS has a hidden feature to enable NTFS write support, but it’s experimental and not always reliable. If you want to try it:
Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Run *sudo mkdir /Volumes/NTFS * sudo mount -t ntfs -o rw /dev/diskX /Volumes/NTFS
[Replace /dev/diskX with your drive’s actual identifier (you can find it using the command diskutil list).]