Summary: Two methods to change Seagate external hard drives from read-only back to read-write, so that you can edit, delete, and rename files on this Seagate external hard drive. Also, if a Seagate external hard drive is read-only or files are locked on Mac due to NTFS format, you can use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to mount it in read-write mode on Mac.
When you plug a Seagate external hard drive into your Mac, one of the worst things would be that you find your Seagate hard drive is read-only. Your photos, videos, and other files you saved from a Windows PC could be locked. Or your Seagate external drive could be write-protected. Are you facing such disk problem right now? Well, you are not the only one.
The simplest way is using an NTFS for Mac Seagate software to help write to Seagate NTFS hard drive in Mac. IBoysoft Drive Manager is NTFS for Mac Seagate software that can easily mount Seagate NTFS hard drive or NTFS drive of any other brands on Mac as a regular drive with read-write mode on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12 and Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11/Yosemite. May 26, 2020 Solution: Use NTFS for Mac to write to Seagate external hard drives on Mac In this situation, what you need is not to unlock the Seagate external hard drive but a NTFS for Mac driver. Many people would think about converting NTFS to APFSor formatting the Seagate drive for Mac to make it compatible with macOS.
- This is not to mean that it is impossible to use NTFS drive on Mac. It can be done successfully by using various means that allow write to NTFS drive in macOS High Sierra. By using either of these methods users of this operating system will be able to access files stored on NTFS files and add more, edit them and perform other activities.
- Sep 29, 2019 The NTFS Paragon driver translates for your Mac. It allows your Mac to write in NTFS to the Seagate Backup Plus. Understand it doesn’t change the drive. It is still NTFS.
- Mar 15, 2018 If you own a Seagate drive, be aware that Seagate offers a free download of Paragon NTFS for Mac so you won’t have to purchase anything extra. You could also purchase Tuxera NTFS for Mac, which costs $31 and offers a fourteen-day free trial. But Paragon NTFS does the same thing and is cheaper. The Best Free Third-Party Drivers: FUSE for macOS.
'I'm having a problem using my Seagate external hard drive. I only have permission to read files on my external hard drive, but I am not allowed to write or edit files on the drive when using Mac OS. Why this happened and how to fix Seagate external hard drive read-only on Mac?'
You might have trouble backing up or adding files to Seagate external hard drives on Mac. But it's not necessarily because the disk is locked but some other reasons. For example, the Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only on Mac.
In this article, we introduced three possible reasons for disk being read-only on Mac, and you can find solutions to change the external drives from read-only accordingly.
- Table of contents
- Why a Seagate external hard drive is read-only on Mac?
- Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
- Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
- Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
Why is your Seagate external hard drive read only on Mac?
You may be wondering why my Seagate external hard drive is read-only. In fact, read-only Seagate external hard drive results from various reasons. It could be the NTFS format that makes this trouble since NTFS is not writable on Mac. Generally, there are three possible reasons:
- The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
- You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
- The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
In the following part, we'll go into details about how to fix the Seagate external hard drive read-onli issue in different situations.
Case 1: The Seagate external hard drive is NTFS formatted
Most Seagate external drives are read-only on Mac because they are pre-fomatted with Windows NT file system (NTFS) by the manufacturer. So your Seagate HDD is read only on Mac, which affects Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch, Portable drive, and Slim.
However, macOS disabled the NTFS write support by default. If you connect an NTFS formatted external hard drive to your Mac, you will find that files on this disk will be locked or show as read-only. You can only read but can't add files to this Seagate external hard drive on Mac.
How to check if your Seagate hard drive is NTFS formatted on Mac?
- Open the Finder and click Go at the upper right of your desktop, then choose Utilities.
- Find Disk Utility and open it.
- Select your Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar of Disk Utility.
- Then you can see Windows NT File System on the right.
- You can click the Info icon at the upper right to check if this disk is writable.
Solution: Use NTFS for Mac to write to Seagate external hard drives on Mac
In this situation, what you need is not to unlock the Seagate external hard drive but a NTFS for Mac driver. Many people would think about converting NTFS to APFS or formatting the Seagate drive for Mac to make it compatible with macOS. However, the truth is that you can fix the Seagate external hard drive read-only issue without formatting, i.e. you don't have to lose your files on this drive.
Alternatively, you can download NTFS for Mac software to enable NTFS drive write support on Mac with no fuss. There are a great number of NTFS for Mac in the market, and iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is used here as an example. https://pvyellow860.weebly.com/blog/install-ppd-drive-mac-os-x.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac: NTFS for Mac driver and more
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is a handy disk management tool, which can help you mount NTFS formatted external hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, etc. on Mac with write support. This NTFS drive mounter is also compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion).
How to use iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to write to NTFS Seagate external hard drive on Mac?
Seagate For Mac Windows Driver
Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on your computer.
Step 2: Launch this NTFS driver for Mac and connect the read-only Seagate external hard drive to Mac.
Step 3: Then, you can fully write and copy data to the Seagate external hard drive on Mac after the drive is mounted successfully.
Aside from being an NTFS for Mac driver, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is also a wonderful tool to manage files on NTFS external drives. It lets users open, monut, repair, and erase NTFS drives on Mac natively and seamlessly.
Case 2: You don't have permissions to access the Seagate external hard drive
If your Seagate hard drive denies your access or restricts you to read-only activities, there is likely an permission issue. Being a multiuser operating system, macOS sets up access permissions for all files and folders on the system, including external drives. https://pvyellow860.weebly.com/canon-lbp6020-driver-mac-os.html.
Solution: Change permissions on Seagate external hard drive
To fix the read-only Seagate external hard drive issue, you need to regain full access. You can ignore the ownership or change the sharing and permissions of this disk in the Finder by following the below steps.
![Seagate Mac Os X Ntfs Driver Seagate Mac Os X Ntfs Driver](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133870022/998664042.jpg)
Step 1: Select Seagate external hard drive on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar, and then press Command + I to get information of the drive.
Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of this list and click on the triangle that is at the left side of the Sharing & Permissions tab.
Step 3: Click on the lock icon at the right bottom and type in the password to unlock this tab. https://pvyellow860.weebly.com/blog/usb-flash-drive-to-install-mac-os-x. Simple drafting app for mac.
Step 4: Check the box to Ignore ownership on this volume, or you can toggle it off and then on if it's already enabled.
Step 5: Click on the gear button and choose Apply to enclosed items… to save your changes.
Seagate Mac To Pc Driver
Then you can go to check if your Seagate external hard drive is read-only still. If not, you will be able to write to this disk.
But if you can't access the Seagate external hard drive as it's locked still. Well, the disk may be really locked by certain programs, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch. Then you need to unlock the password protection or hardware encryption with Seagate Secure software.
Case 3: The Seagate external hard drive has some disk errors
If your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only not for the reasons above, you may need to have a check if there is any inner disk error. Some formatting errors will make an external hard drive read-only on Mac. If this is the cause, usually you will see a warning in Disk Utility that states it is only being mounted in read-only mode.
Solution 1: Fix read-only Seagate external hard drive in Disk Utility
Fortunately, there is a built-in tool called First Aid that can check and repair some minor disk errors. When your Seagate external hard drive becomes read-only due to logical disk problems, you can use First Aid to repair it then.
Here is the guidance to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive with Disk Utility:
- Open Disk Utility.
- Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive on the left window.
- Click First Aid in the top center and choose Run to repair this disk.
Solution 2: Reformat Seagate external hard drive
However, if Disk Utility fails to fix read-only Seagate external hard drive, the last thing you can try to remove write protection from Seagate external hard drives would be reformatting. Reformatting will assign a new file system to this disk, consequently, the Seagate external hard drive issue could be fixed.
But before you go ahead to erase this disk, you should know that reformatting will wipe the files on this hard drive. Thus, you are advised to check if you have a copy of data back in the first place , or you can recover lost data from this external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac data recovery to avoid data loss.
If you're sure that you have data backup in hand, you can proceed to reformat this read-only external hard drive with the following tutorial.
- Open Disk Utility as you did before.
- Select the read-only Seagate external hard drive in the left sidebar.
- Click the Erase button in the top center of Disk Utility.
- Fill in name, format, and scheme when the pop-up asks.
- Click Erase to confirm this operation.
A final note
Besides Seagate external hard drives, Toshiba, WD, Samsung, or other brands' external hard drives will come across the read-only problem. It is common to see people complaining WD My Passport external hard drives suddenly became read-only on Mac. You can also use these solutions to fix this problem. But if you are unable to fix it with the solutions suggested above, you can only send it to local disk repair store for help, but that will cost a lot usually.
Mac system is very secure than other desktop OS. And something different than other OS as well. Usually, We got so many new features along with ups and downs on every macOS update. However, with this macOS update, NTFS drives aren’t compatible with Mac, Drive not showing after use on windows. You can use the NTFS drive but not entirely as you can only read the NTFS drive, but you cannot perform write operation like creating or editing documents, Copy Some Documents or Folders. This leads to inconvenience for Mac users. You need to take this action in such cases like USB drive used on Windows, But Your Mac Didn’t show Drive, Drive won’t open to use.
Eventually, there are various methods available which can be useful to read and write on NTFS drive. Yes, you can write on NTFS drive on your latest macOS Mojave. After following the guide, you can quickly create new files which can be stored in the NTFS drive along with editing, deleting, copying and much more functions will be supported on NTFS drive. So let’s get started with how to write on NTFS on Mac on macOS Catalina and Earlier.
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Convert your NTFS Hard Drive to supported Mac Drive
Part 1: How to write to NTFS External Hard Drive on macOS Mojave
- Step #1: Plug the USB drive in Windows and then rename it and give a one-word name to that drive. Eject the USB by the clicking on “Safely Remove Hardware” icon on the bottom of the screen.
- Step #2: Plug the same drive in Mac. Start up the Mac which contains macOS Mojave.
- Step #3: Open “Spotlight” by pressing command + space. Write Terminal and hit enter to open Terminal. Else you can also open the Terminal from Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Step #4: Type the below command in Terminal and hit enter.
Ntfs For Mac
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Related Readings
- Step #5: Now, again type the following code. Keep note that Replaces the NAME with the USB drive name.
LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
- Step #6: Press “CTRL+O” which will save the file. Hit “Enter” and to close the terminal press the “CTRL+X.”
- Step #7: Remove the NTFS (USB Drive) and reconnect it.
- Step #8: Now we will access it, Launch “Finder” and click on “Go” and then open “Go to folder.”
- Step #9: Type “/volumes” and proceed by clicking on “GO.”
- Step #10: Now you will see NFTS drive, and if you want to make changes then you can manipulate it in your way.
To undo this operation, you have to remove the line that we had added to the nano editor.
Part 2: Change the Drive Format to exFAT
EXFAT format isn’t compatible with macOS Mojave, so may face problems while accessing the files on NTFS drive. The best way to fix this issue is to convert the NTFS drive to exFAT format so that you can easily access any file on both platforms without any interruption. You can change the form right from the macOS. Here’s how to change the drive format to exFAT in macOS Mojave.
- Step #1: Open the “Disk Utility” from the Spotlight.
- Step #2: You have to erase the drive before changing the format of any drive. Select the drive and click on “Erase.”
- Step #3: Next, select the “EXFAT,” and then click “Erase.” Within minutes your drive will be ready with the new exFAT format.
Suggestions
This tutorial will help in using NTFS Drive on Mac. But you have an alternate option that easy and fixes the problem like this all the time for future use. Dual OS supported. Drives are available in the market. I would like to suggest Seagate Backup Drive.
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To use this drive on different System: MacOS and Mojave you don’t need to reformat.