Microsoft NTFS is one of the primary file systems of Windows. If you work on a Mac computer and need to read or write files from HDD, SSD or a flash drive formatted under Windows, you need Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software. Write, edit, copy, move and delete files on Microsoft NTFS volumes from your Mac! Fast, seamless, easy to use. NTFS is the most stable file system for windows and with drivers like NTFS-3g you can get it work easily on MAC. However, if you work with multiple MAC computers then it's not a good idea to install NTFS-3g on your friends computer. On Paragon Software Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 ($20) is a file system driver that allows Mac OS X Yosemite and later (incuding macOS Sierra) to read and write to hard drives, solid-state storage. NTFS for Mac OS is a software that detects one of the primary Windows file systems NTFS and allows you to read or write files from HDD, SSD or a flash drive (formatted under Windows)on a Mac OS. It is possible to modify, erase or extract and copy all stored data in this volume.
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)
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.
When switching files between Windows and Mac, the portable external drive is the most frequently-used tool. However, when you insert the Windows NTFS drive into Mac, you must have found that you can only read the NTFS drive, but cannot write data into the drive.
Yes, Mac cannot write to NTFS formatted drive.
Mac Write to NTFSAs the default file system on Windows computer, NTFS format is created for quick plug and file transfer for Windows users. However, the proprietary is designed to open and read files for Mac, instead of copy files to the NTFS format disk.
In this guide, you will discover 4 solutions to deal with the dilemma and enable NTFS to write for Mac.
Solution 1. Format NTFS to Enable NTFS Writing on Mac
The basic reason for not writing to NTFS on Mac is the incompatible file system. So, for solving the problem, the basic solution to this problem is changing the file system from NTFS to Mac compatible formats by formatting NTFS.
Then, follow the steps below to format the NTFS drive.
Step 1 Insert the NTFS disk into computer
Insert the NTFS disk into your computer, and run Disk Utility (Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.).
Step 2 Format NTFS disk
Select your NTFS disk from the left sidebar, and click the 'Erase' tab on the top menu > Then a pop-up window will appear, where you should give a new name of the NTFS disk optionally and select the format from the drop-down list. Here you can select 'ExFAT' or 'MS-DOS (FAT)'.
After confirming that, click 'Erase' to format the NTFS drive immediately.
Extended reading of disk format on Mac
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): Mac computer and read and write files from the driver formatted in this way, but Windows-running computers can only read files from this type drive.
MS-DOS (FAT): Windows and Mac computer can read and write files from this file system drive, but it only allows file transfer of size 4GB and below.
ExFAT: Windows and Mac computer can read and write such file system drive, and supports the file size larger than 4GB. However, Mac running in OS X 10.4 Tiger and before does not support this file system. Most consumer electronics (cameras, camcorders, video game systems) don't support exFAT.
If you want to write to NTFS files on Mac by formatting, then the file system recommended to you is FAT and ExFAT.
If you want to get rid of the limits of the formatted NTFS file system and do not want to lose data from the formatted NTFS drive, the next solution is what you will need.
Solution 2. Mount Microsoft NTFS Driver for Mac for Read-Write Access
Though Mac does not write to NTFS, you could install the Microsoft NTFS driver for Mac for writing access.
There are various NTFS drivers in the market, which can get the read-write compatibility for Mac computer. Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Tuxera, Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software, MOUNTY for NTFS, and more. They work similarly and you can select which you want.
| Features | Paragon NTFS for Mac | Tuxera NTFS for Mac | MOUNTY NTFS for Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logo | |||
| Price | $21.93 | $15.00 | Free |
| Free Trial Days | 10 days | 15 days | Full version |
| macOS | Mac OS X 10.10-11 | Mac OS X 10.4-11 | Mac OS X 10.9-11 |
| Write (MB/s) | 92 (HDD) | 102 (HDD) | 65 (HDD) |
| User-interface | 9.5 | 8 | 8 |
Though there are free NTFS drivers for Mac, the free version carries the slow speed to write to NTFS and there are reported corrupted NTFS cases from the users.
As a result, we will take Paragon NTFS for Mac as an example to show you how to write to NTFS.
Step 1 Free down Paragon NTFS for Mac
Free download this NTFS driver on your Mac. Double click the package and follow the on-screen instructions to install and run it.
It offers the free trial with no limitation for 10 days, and it can be extended to 5 more days if you would share the product information with your Facebook friends.
Step 2 Write to NTFS on Mac
After activation, this software will be restarted. Then you can obtain the full read-write access to any type of NTFS.
Just open the NTFS disk on Mac, and you can easily write the data like modify, delete and transfer data on Mac directly.
Solution 3. Write to NTFS for Mac with Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner Directly
Another third-party tool that can help you write to NTFS drive is Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner.
This software is the all-in-one Mac data cleaner and manager. Not only write to NTFS files, you could also benefit from its tools from its ToolKit like uninstall apps, optimize system, protect privacy, mange files, hide/encrypt files, check Wi-Fi status, compress/extract files from 7z and RAR.
What's more, it can be the powerful data cleaner to clean the junk files, old & large files, duplicated photos, duplicated Finder, and more.
4,000,000+ Downloads
Write to NTFS files in macOS X 10.11 to macOS Big Sur.
Write files from HDD, SSD or a NTFS flash drive formatted.
Support NTFS disk from Seagate, Western Digital, Buffalo, etc.
Clean data and monitor Mac system in simple clicks.
Step 1 Select ToolKit
Free download this software on your Mac computer, install and run it immediately.
In the main interface, you should select 'ToolKit'.
Step 2 Select NTFS
In the popup window, you should select 'NTFS'.
After that, insert your NTFS disk into Mac, and click 'Write'.
Step 3 Write to NTFS
Select your NTFS disk and click 'Write' at the bottom-left corner, and it will open a window where you should select the files that you want to transfer into this NTFS disk.
After you complete the file writing, you should click 'Eject' to exit the MTFS drive.
Very easy, right? This software deserves having with more functions on Mac.
Solution 4. Apple's Experimental NTFS-Write Support (Not Recommended)
Ntfs For Mac
The last solution to write to NTFS is the tested solution, not the official one. The solution is still unstable and may never be fully stable.
First, make sure your drive has a single-word label. If it does not, just change its label.
Step 1 Run terminal by going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Alternatively, just press Command + Space and type Terminal and press Enter.
Step 2 Type the following command into Terminal to open the ' /etc/fstab file'.
sudo nano /etc/fstab
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)
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.
When switching files between Windows and Mac, the portable external drive is the most frequently-used tool. However, when you insert the Windows NTFS drive into Mac, you must have found that you can only read the NTFS drive, but cannot write data into the drive.
Yes, Mac cannot write to NTFS formatted drive.
Mac Write to NTFSAs the default file system on Windows computer, NTFS format is created for quick plug and file transfer for Windows users. However, the proprietary is designed to open and read files for Mac, instead of copy files to the NTFS format disk.
In this guide, you will discover 4 solutions to deal with the dilemma and enable NTFS to write for Mac.
Solution 1. Format NTFS to Enable NTFS Writing on Mac
The basic reason for not writing to NTFS on Mac is the incompatible file system. So, for solving the problem, the basic solution to this problem is changing the file system from NTFS to Mac compatible formats by formatting NTFS.
Then, follow the steps below to format the NTFS drive.
Step 1 Insert the NTFS disk into computer
Insert the NTFS disk into your computer, and run Disk Utility (Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.).
Step 2 Format NTFS disk
Select your NTFS disk from the left sidebar, and click the 'Erase' tab on the top menu > Then a pop-up window will appear, where you should give a new name of the NTFS disk optionally and select the format from the drop-down list. Here you can select 'ExFAT' or 'MS-DOS (FAT)'.
After confirming that, click 'Erase' to format the NTFS drive immediately.
Extended reading of disk format on Mac
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): Mac computer and read and write files from the driver formatted in this way, but Windows-running computers can only read files from this type drive.
MS-DOS (FAT): Windows and Mac computer can read and write files from this file system drive, but it only allows file transfer of size 4GB and below.
ExFAT: Windows and Mac computer can read and write such file system drive, and supports the file size larger than 4GB. However, Mac running in OS X 10.4 Tiger and before does not support this file system. Most consumer electronics (cameras, camcorders, video game systems) don't support exFAT.
If you want to write to NTFS files on Mac by formatting, then the file system recommended to you is FAT and ExFAT.
If you want to get rid of the limits of the formatted NTFS file system and do not want to lose data from the formatted NTFS drive, the next solution is what you will need.
Solution 2. Mount Microsoft NTFS Driver for Mac for Read-Write Access
Though Mac does not write to NTFS, you could install the Microsoft NTFS driver for Mac for writing access.
There are various NTFS drivers in the market, which can get the read-write compatibility for Mac computer. Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Tuxera, Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software, MOUNTY for NTFS, and more. They work similarly and you can select which you want.
| Features | Paragon NTFS for Mac | Tuxera NTFS for Mac | MOUNTY NTFS for Mac |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logo | |||
| Price | $21.93 | $15.00 | Free |
| Free Trial Days | 10 days | 15 days | Full version |
| macOS | Mac OS X 10.10-11 | Mac OS X 10.4-11 | Mac OS X 10.9-11 |
| Write (MB/s) | 92 (HDD) | 102 (HDD) | 65 (HDD) |
| User-interface | 9.5 | 8 | 8 |
Though there are free NTFS drivers for Mac, the free version carries the slow speed to write to NTFS and there are reported corrupted NTFS cases from the users.
As a result, we will take Paragon NTFS for Mac as an example to show you how to write to NTFS.
Step 1 Free down Paragon NTFS for Mac
Free download this NTFS driver on your Mac. Double click the package and follow the on-screen instructions to install and run it.
It offers the free trial with no limitation for 10 days, and it can be extended to 5 more days if you would share the product information with your Facebook friends.
Step 2 Write to NTFS on Mac
After activation, this software will be restarted. Then you can obtain the full read-write access to any type of NTFS.
Just open the NTFS disk on Mac, and you can easily write the data like modify, delete and transfer data on Mac directly.
Solution 3. Write to NTFS for Mac with Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner Directly
Another third-party tool that can help you write to NTFS drive is Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner.
This software is the all-in-one Mac data cleaner and manager. Not only write to NTFS files, you could also benefit from its tools from its ToolKit like uninstall apps, optimize system, protect privacy, mange files, hide/encrypt files, check Wi-Fi status, compress/extract files from 7z and RAR.
What's more, it can be the powerful data cleaner to clean the junk files, old & large files, duplicated photos, duplicated Finder, and more.
4,000,000+ Downloads
Write to NTFS files in macOS X 10.11 to macOS Big Sur.
Write files from HDD, SSD or a NTFS flash drive formatted.
Support NTFS disk from Seagate, Western Digital, Buffalo, etc.
Clean data and monitor Mac system in simple clicks.
Step 1 Select ToolKit
Free download this software on your Mac computer, install and run it immediately.
In the main interface, you should select 'ToolKit'.
Step 2 Select NTFS
In the popup window, you should select 'NTFS'.
After that, insert your NTFS disk into Mac, and click 'Write'.
Step 3 Write to NTFS
Select your NTFS disk and click 'Write' at the bottom-left corner, and it will open a window where you should select the files that you want to transfer into this NTFS disk.
After you complete the file writing, you should click 'Eject' to exit the MTFS drive.
Very easy, right? This software deserves having with more functions on Mac.
Solution 4. Apple's Experimental NTFS-Write Support (Not Recommended)
Ntfs For Mac
The last solution to write to NTFS is the tested solution, not the official one. The solution is still unstable and may never be fully stable.
First, make sure your drive has a single-word label. If it does not, just change its label.
Step 1 Run terminal by going to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Alternatively, just press Command + Space and type Terminal and press Enter.
Step 2 Type the following command into Terminal to open the ' /etc/fstab file'.
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Step 3 Add the following line to nano, replacing 'NAME' with the label of your NTFS drive:
LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse
Step 4 Press Ctrl+O to save the file after you're done, and then press Ctrl+X to close nano.
Step 5 Connect the NTFS drive to the computer, unplug it and reconnect it. Then you will see it under the '/Volumes' directory.
In a Finder window, you can click 'Go' > 'Go to Folder' and type '/Volumes' into the box to access it, because the NTFS drive will not pop up automatically like other drivers normally no on your Mac.
The last solution is the not recommended, you should not blame us or Apple if it does not work.
Ntfs Format
Conclusion
While it is very normal to write to NTFS on Windows, it comes to be tough to do that on Mac. This post gathers top 4 ways to enable NTFS writing on Mac by formatting the NTFS to FAT or ExFAT, mounting the Windows NTFS driver for Mac to write to NTFS files, use the third-party software, Apeaksoft Mac Cleaner to write the files into NTFS directly and exploit the experimental solution from Apple. Button up create custom buttons free.
Which way is your favorite one?
Ntfs For Mac
Do you have any better solution?
Ntfs For Mac Torrent
Let me know b leaving your comments below.
