How To Change Read Only Flash Drive Mac

Don't worry when your external hard drive displays as read-just on Mac. This page includes 3 reliable solutions that tin help y'all in removing the 'read-only' mistake from your Mac external hard drive, making it readable again. Choice upwardly whatever method below to brand your device attainable without losing any information at present:

Workable Solutions	Pace-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Reformat External Hard Drive	Open "Applications" > "Utilities" > Launch "Disk Utility" to "Erase" external drive > Restore formatted data...Full steps
Fix ii. Ignore Permissions	Right-click external drive > "Get Info" > "Sharing & Permissions" > Check "Ignore ownership on..."...Total steps
Fix three. Repair Drive Errors	Open Disk Utility > Select the external hard bulldoze and click "Get-go Help" > Click "Run"...Total steps

The External Hard Drive Shows Up equally 'Read Only' on Mac, Assist!

External hard drive read only on Mac

"Howdy there, do yous know how to brand the external hard bulldoze accessible once again when it shows as 'Read Merely' on Mac? I'm having this problem that my Seagate hard drive all of a sudden turned to read-but this morning when I connected it to Mac. I could only read and view saved data on the drive, just can't apply the data on it. If you accept any clue to fix this trouble, please tell me. Thanks very much."

Right-click your external storage device, select 'Get Info', and if y'all see 'You can only read' at the bottom, you are encountering 1 of the commonest problems with an external hard drive. When your external hard drive or other external storage devices bear witness upwardly every bit 'Read Only' on your Mac, y'all tin can:

Open up the drive and view the files
copy files from the external storage bulldoze

You can't:

Copy files to the device
Delete files from the external drive

Why Is Your External Difficult Drive Read-Only on Mac

Why can you simply read the external difficult drive that is connected to your Mac? There are iii possible reasons.

The File System Is NTFS

Right-click your hard deejay and select 'Get Info', if you lot notice the external difficult drive in NTFS format, that's what the cause is. The incompatibility of the file arrangement is the principal cause. NTFS is a file organisation that is optimal for Windows-based computers. Although the Mac operating system allows you to read the files on the external hard drive, you can't write files to it because the fashion that NTFS writes data to the device is incompatible with the way macOS doing information technology. (Go to the Fix.)

The Permission Settings Is Non Ignored

An external hard drive is subject to the admission permission set upwardly by Os X for all files and folders on the system. When yous use the device on another figurer with a different OS, the permission settings with information technology may not be recognized or prevent access to the files on the hd. (Go to the Set.)

The Hard Drive has Formatting Errors

Some other common cause for the external difficult drive 'Read Just' problem on Mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. If y'all see a alert that says the device is only being mounted in read-only mode while connecting, your hd is diagnosed to have formatting errors that prevent you from writing files to it. (Go to the Gear up.)

Identify the cause that leads to the 'Read Only' mistake on your Mac from the information to a higher place, and then follow the respective solution to solve the problem with ease.

How Can Y'all Solve the External Hard Bulldoze 'Read-simply' Problem on Your Mac

Based on dissimilar reasons, there are three solutions to the trouble.

Fix 1: Reformat the External Hard Drive

If your external hard drive is read-only on your Mac due to its NTFS file system, you can fix it past reformatting the device to a Mac-uniform format with Mac Disk Utility. Before that, call back to back up your external hard drive quickly with data backup software since the formatting will erase all the files on the device.

Step 1: Launch "Deejay Utility".

Head to "Applications" > "Utilities".
Or tap "Control + Space" and blazon Disk Utility.

Footstep two: In the list of available drives on the left, choose the problematic external hard drive. And so click the "Erase" choice in the main window.

Step 3: Cull a proper file organisation and rename your hard disk. (Both APFS and Mac OS Extended file system are Mac-exclusive. Thus, if y'all want your external difficult bulldoze to be both Mac and PC compatible, choose MS-DOS, as well known every bit Fat, or ExFAT instead.)

Step 4: Click Erase to reformatting your external hard drive.

Wait for the reformatting procedure to consummate and then become to the information window, this time yous will see the "You tin but read" has changed to "You tin can read and write", which means yous can read and write the drive on your Mac unremarkably.

Read-Only External Drive on Mac - Solution 1

Generally speaking, when a storage device shows upwardly as read-only, you can nevertheless copy files off of it. If yous cannot view or see all saved data on the drive, don't worry. Afterwards you format it, you can use the professional person Mac hard drive recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Sorcerer for Mac to get back your lost data on the drive with elementary clicks:

Footstep 1. Select the disk location (it tin can be an internal HDD/SSD or a removable storage device) where you lot lost data and files. Click the "Scan" push.

select a location and click scan

Step ii. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac will immediately scan your selected disk volume and display the scanning results on the left pane.

start scan on the Mac

Pace 3. In the scan results, select the file(s) and click the "Recover" button to have them dorsum.

click recover now button to recover lost data on your Mac

Fix 2: Ignore Permissions

If yous are sure the problem is caused by the permission settings, you just need to ignore the permissions to solve the 'Read Only' external hard drive problem on your Mac.

Step 1: Right-click your external hard drive shown on your Mac and select "Go Info".

Step two: Expand the "Sharing & Permissions" department, so click the lock to authenticate.

Stride three: Cheque "Ignore ownership on this volume".

Read-Only External Drive on Mac - Solution 2

Prepare iii: Check and Repair Hard Drive errors

If there is a formatting error on your external hard drive that makes the device read-just, you can use Disk Utility to check the errors and repair the external storage device.

Step 1: Go to "Disk Utility".