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. Then you can read and write to NTFS drives as you wish. Once the drive is detected, a Finder window with its content will pop out. if you must write to an NTFS drive, one of the paid, third-party drivers will be the best-performing, least-effort option.Step 2: Plug the NTFS drives on your Mac. Most Mac users will be better off formatting external drives with exFAT, ensuring they work well on both Windows and Mac OS X without any extra work. Delete the line you added to the file and save your changes. To undo this change later, just repeat the above process to open the /etc/fstab file in nano. It won’t pop up automatically and appear on your desktop like drives normally do. In a Finder window, you can click Go > Go to Folder and type “/Volumes” into the box to access it. (If you have multiple NTFS drives you want to write to, add a different line for each.)Ĭonnect the drive to the computer - unplug it and reconnect it if it’s already connected - and you’ll see it under the “/Volumes” directory. Press Ctrl+O to save the file after you’re done, and then press Ctrl+X to close nano. Type the following command into the terminal to open the /etc/fstab for editing in the nano text editor:Īdd the following line to nano, replacing “NAME” with the label of your NTFS drive: Navigate to Applications > Utilities > Terminal or press Command+Space, type Terminal, and press Enter. This might not work properly - don’t blame us or Apple if you experience problems.įirst, be sure that your drive has a convenient single-word label. We don’t recommend the below method because it’s the least tested. You can then uninstall FUSE for OS X from its panel in the System Preferences window and re-enable System Integrity ProtectionĪpple’s Experimental NTFS-Writing Support – The Least Stable, Don’t Do This Sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs.original /sbin/mount_ntfs After you do, run the following commands:

To undo your changes and uninstall everything, you’ll need to first disable System Integrity Protection. NTFS-write support should be functioning now. Launch a terminal in recovery mode and run the following command: Reboot your Mac and hold Command+R while it’s booting to enter recovery mode. Lastly, re-enable System Integrity Protection. Sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs Sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original

Launch a terminal from the Utilities menu in recovery mode and run the following command:įrom the Mac desktop, open a Terminal window again and run the following commands to make ntfs-3g function: It’ll boot into a special recovery mode environment. Reboot your Mac and hold Command+R while it’s booting. Next, you’ll need to disable System Integrity Protection.

Enable write to ntfs on mac