Mac Software To Read Ntfs

1. Free Software To Read Ntfs On Mac
2. Mac Software To Read Ntfs Free
3. Mac Software To Read Ntfs Drive
4. Ntfs To Mac
5. Mac Software To Read Ntfs Converter

Oct 17, 2019  Hasleo NTFS for Mac is a software designed to full read and write access to NTFS volumes on Mac, so you can use it to full read and write access to NTFS drives in Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina. Tutorial to full read & write access to NTFS drives in Mac OS X 10.15 Catalina. Download, install and run Hasleo NTFS for Mac.

By Autumn X | Posted to NTFS for Mac, updated on August 2, 2019

Cross-platform incompatibility has been a huge roadblock for people who have to move back and forth between Windows and macOS, especially when you need to share files between Windows and Mac using an NTFS drive. After you connected an NTFS drive such as a Seagate or WD My Passport NTFS drive to the Mac, you found that you could view the files stored on your NTFS-formatted drive on Mac, but you couldn't edit, rename, copy, paste, delete, move or create files on it.

Any ways that you can read-write to NTFS drives on Mac running either macOS or Mac OS X? This article will introduce three solutions for you to solve the ready-only NTFS drives on Mac without formatting.

Table of contents

1. Can macOS read NTFS drives?

2. How to read-write to Microsoft NTFS drives on Mac?

3. Conlusion

Can macOS read NTFS?

Yes, you can read Windows NTFS-formatted USB flash drives, SD cards, memory sticks and external hard drives without any problem.

No matter what Mac you are using, either a desktop or a laptop, and no matter which Mac operating system is running on your Mac, macOS or Mac OS X, you are able to read NTFS drives on Mac. You can view your files by opening them. Files will appear the same quality as they do on a PC. What's more, if you have used Boot Camp Assitant to create a Windows BootCamp partition on your Mac SSD, the BootCamp partition is also formatted with NTFS. Therefore, you have read support to Bootcamp partition on your Mac SSD as well.

However, your files will show read-only or locked beside the file name. You can't make any changes to those files nor create/save/move any files on the NTFS drives on Mac. Sharing files between NTFS drives and Mac looks impossible.

Want to have full read-write access to NTFS drives or BootCamp partition on Mac? Keep reading to learn how to enable NTFS write support on Mac and mount BootCamp partition with read-write support.

How to read-write to Microsoft NTFS drives on Mac?

In this section, three options are introduced:

• Free NTFS drivers for Mac
• Cost-effective NTFS for Mac software
• Apple's native NTFS support

Option 1: Free but complicated NTFS driver for Mac

There are some free NTFS drivers for Mac that can help you read-write to NTFS drives on Mac. For example, FUSE for macOS is an open-source project. It can mount NTFS drives in read-write mode.

The process will be very technical and please follow the guide very carefully.

Step 1: Download and install Xcode.

1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal and run the following command line: xcode-select --install.

2. Click 'install' when you are asked to install the Apple's command line developer tools.

Step 2: Download and install Homebrew.

1. Go to the Terminal window and run the following command line:

/usr/bin/ruby -e '$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)'.

2. Hit Enter to install it (provide password when prompted).

Note: If you have installed Xcode and Homebrew before, messages will pop up in Terminal window telling you have installed them before. You just ignore the messages, keep doing the next steps.

Step 3: Download and install FUSE for macOS.

Use default options when installing it.

Step 4: Install NTFS-3G.

1. Go to Terminal window and run the following command line: brew install homebrew/fuse/ntfs-3g.

2. Hit Enter.

Step 5: Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection).

SIP exists to protect the operating system from unauthorized changes.

1. Restart your Mac and hold down Command + R immediately until you see the Apple logo.

2. Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

3. Run the command line: csrutil disable.

4. Hit Enter.

5. Reboot the Mac.

Step 6: Read and write to NTFS on Mac.

1. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

2. Run the following command line:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original

sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

3. Hit Enter.

Note: It is recommended that you enable SIP after you finish using NTFS drives on Mac to better protect your Mac. To enable SIP, you just need to follow the Step 5 and run command line 'csrutil enable' in Terminal window, hit Enter and restart the Mac.

Other than FUSE for macOS, Mounty for Mac, NTFS-3G, SL-NTFS are other free NTFS drivers for Mac. Like NTFS-3G, they are free but all of them require a good bit of work to install and use.

Free Software To Read Ntfs On Mac

If you feel uncomfortable with this method which involves so many command lines and rebooting the Mac, here is an easier solution for you to read and write to NTFS drives on Mac.

Option 2: Commercial but easy-to-use NTFS driver for Mac

Commercial NTFS drivers for Mac are other options to make the NTFS drive compatible with both PC and Mac. They include iBoysoft NTFS for Mac and NTFS Assistant. They might cost you a little money, but they offer high reliability, fast write speed, excellent compatibility and free technical support, which you probably won't get from a free NTFS driver for Mac.

In this section, we'll introduce two cost-effective NTFS apps for Mac: iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to help you read and write to NTFS on Mac computer.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac - a comprehensive NTFS manager

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac can enable NTFS write support on Mac automatically after NTFS drives are detected. It supports full read-write support. You can create, save, copy, paste, delete and modify files on NTFS drives on Mac freely. iBoysoft NTFS for Mac has fast NTFS write and file transferring speed. With iBoysoft NTFS for Mac, you won't feel any difference between using an NTFS drive on Mac or using an drive with the format that is fully supported by macOS.

Best NTFS for Mac - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

• Read and write NTFS volumes on Mac
• Mount and unmount NTFS volumes
• Repair NTFS file system errors
• Erase data on NTFS disks
• List and open all attached external drives
• Reformat other file systems to NTFS
• Support macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8

Besides, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac offers other NTFS management features to help users better manage NTFS drives and other external drives. It allows you to open, unmount, eject or erase the NTFS volumes with one click. You can utilize it to repair the NTFS file system errors. Also, the software will list all conencted USB flash drives, SD cards, external drives and memory sticks. You can open them in the main window too. Moreover, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac supports erasing the data on NTFS disks and reformatting other file systems to NTFS.

Steps to read and write to NTFS drives on Mac:

Step 1: Free download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on Mac.

Step 2: Connect your NTFS drive to your Mac computer.

Step 3: After your drive is mounted successfully, you can manage your drives and read-write to NTFS drives.

Option 3: Enable NTFS write support using command line

I bet most people don't know that the Mac operating system includes the experimental NTFS write support, but it is disabled by default. You can run some command lines in Terminal to enable it. However, Apple hasn't officially supported NTFS-writing ability yet. It is proven to be unstable and risky. It may cause disk corruption and permanent data loss. If you accidentally couldn't access your NTFS drives or lost data from them, try iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover important files.

This solution is not recommended, but if you are curious about how to enable Apple NTFS write support, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to the Applications > Utilities > Terminal to launch the Terminal program.

Step 2: Input 'sudo nano /etc/fstab' to edit the fstab file (provide your password when prompted). No letters will show up when you type in password.

Step 3: Type 'LABEL=VOLUME_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse' in the editor window for the fstab file and press 'Control + O' to write. (Be sure to change the word VOLUME_NAME to the name of your NTFS volume)

Tips: If you have multiple NTFS drives you want to write to, write different line for each NTFS drive.

Step 4: Hit Enter and press 'Control + X' to exit.

Step 5: Re-connected the NTFS drive to the Mac.

Step 6: Click 'Go' at the top left menu bar and choose 'Go to Folder'.

Step 7: Type in /Volomes and hit Enter.

Clean mac for free. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. Desktop and Documents. Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:.

Step 8: Find the NTFS volume or drive and drag it to sidebar for easy access.

Tips: If you want to undo the change, follow the step 1 and step 2, then delete the command line. Save your change and exit.

Conclusion

Writing to NTFS drives on Mac is totally possible. You have several options to choose from - free NTFS drivers, cost-effective NTFS drivers and Apple's native NTFS support. Free NTFS drivers for Mac and Apple's NTFS support are free but take extra amount of work to mount NTFS drives on Mac in read-write mode. They are risky and very unstable. Even though iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is not completely free, it saves you a lot of time and effort for its excellent reliability and ease of use.

If you want to use external drives for file transferring between Windows and Mac frequently, it is a good idea to convert NTFS to exFAT or FAT32 to make the drives compatible with both platforms.

One of the most usual problem encountered in file transfer between computers using a disk has something to do with disk format. Here’s how it normally goes: you plug in a disk to your computer running on Mac OS, and it’s all well and good until you notice that, even though your computer can read the disk, you can’t write anything to them or can’t save any files to them.

This is actually a cross platform compatibility issue that arises when the disk you use has been previously formatted using a Windows OS.

To understand this problem, you should know about file systems. A file system is an operating system’s way of organizing and storing files on drives, and specifies which information can be attached to files, such as permissions, filenames, and attributes. For instance, Windows retrieves, stores and formats any flash drive or external hard disk using its default format, that is: NTFS (New Technology File System). The thing is, although Apple largely has support for NTFS and other Windows formats, write support to NTFS drives is disabled in OS X. This means, when using a computer with a Mac OS and a Windows-formatted disk drive, you are not allowed to save to the drive or alter existing files in there.

Simplest Solution? Format your Drives in FAT

The easiest way to bridge this gap between formats is to just re-format your drive into FAT. By the way, FAT (File Allocation Table) is an older file system created by Windows, and which OS X has full read and write compatibility with.

Obviously, NTFS has several advantages as a format—it’s newer and has been tested to work faster than its FAT-formatted counterparts. But if your drive is relatively new, and you don’t have any files in your drives to keep intact, re-formatting and converting your drive to FAT is an easy workaround to the issue.

This might not be the solution for you for the following reasons:

• If you’ve data on your drive that you haven’t backed up. Re-formatting your drive to FAT format will erase all the data saved on it.
• If you need to transfer files that are higher than 4GB on one go, FAT isn’t the format for you. FAT only allows file transfer of size 4GB and below.

If the above are not your concerns, and want to make transfer between your computers with different operating systems easy, re-formatting your drive is the fix for you.

Third Party Utilities

There are applications available online that have been developed for this OS X limitation. Some are free, but these may be more difficult to set up and less reliable, so if you want surer options when working with your drive, you may want to consider going for paid applications.

Free Apps

OSXFUSE – FUSE for macOS is an open source, GitHub-hosted application that basically operates a mechanism that allows the implementation of a fully-functional file system in a macOS program. The process that FUSE for macOS uses is tedious and can get very technical, which might make people who are not very comfortable in rebooting into recovery mode and using Terminal quite uneasy.

In any case, you can use FUSE for macOS to write over NTFS formatted disk by following these steps:

1. Download osxfuse. Install it.
2. Make sure you have downloaded Homebrew, which is a command line package manager.
3. Open Terminal. You do this by opening your Applications folder, where the Terminal application is located.
4. After you’ve opened Terminal, type in this command:

brew install homebrew/fuse/ntfs-3g

5. Restart your Mac, and before the OS X starts, press and hold Command+R until the Apple icon and a progress bar appears, and then release. This will boot you to Recovery mode, instead of restarting.
6. Open Terminal from the Utilities menu and type this command:

csrutil disable

This will disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) or “rootless” mode, and it should show in a display message. Restart your computer.

7. After you have rebooted, open Terminal again and type these commands:

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original

sudo ln -s /usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

8. Reboot your computer again and repeat what you did in Step 5, so that you reboot into recovery mode.
9. Once you’re in recovery, re-enable SIP by opening Terminal and typing this command:

csrutil enable

10. Reboot your Mac again. If you did all of the above correctly, NTFS will now fully work on your Mac OS.

You should note that the System Integrity Protection exists to prevent unwanted modification of system files. Disabling SIP will allow root programs to alter protected files on the operating system that may lead to a corrupt startup disk and the onset of malware.

Again, if this is something that alarms you, there are other methods of allowing to write to your NTFS disks on your Mac OS that may be more comfortable for you to use.

Paid Apps

Paragon NTFS – Paragon is a driver that allows a full read and write access to NTFS drives on Mac OS X. You can easily write, copy, move, and edit files on the NTFS drive by just installing the software and rebooting your computer to allow the change to happen on your Mac OS X, all hassle free and seamless. This application also boasts to be six time faster than any other NTFS-write software out there. It also comes in a beautiful interface and other functionalities such as a color-coded space indicator, disk formatter and partition creator.

Paragon can be downloaded for free for a 10-day trial, and then for purchase at $19.95, which we can vouch is truly bang for buck.

If your drive also happens to be a Seagate drive, you get a free license for Paragon NTFS, limited for Seagate-manufactured drives.

Tuxera NTFS for Mac – Tuxera is another easy-to-use paid application that allows NTFS drive writing while using Mac OS. It edges out its commercial competition with some of its powerful functions such as smart file caching during transfers and other advanced features. It’s also as easy to install and operate, like its other paid counterparts.

Tuxera can be downloaded for a 15-day free trial, and available for a one-time lifetime, all-devices purchase for $31.

Exploit Mac’s Experimental Feature

Technically speaking, Apple actually can allow you to write on NTFS drive, but this is an experimental feature that should be taken with a grain of salt. You can do this by using a command line that does not need the disabling of the System Integrity Protection, but still comes with the necessary risks. Be forewarned, tweaking with this might corrupt your disk and your data and might cause you to lose your data totally.

Enable Apple’s experimental feature by following these steps:

1. Open Terminal. Again, you do this by opening your Applications folder, where the Terminal application is located.
2. Enter the following command, which will enable the support for the NTFS drive:

LABEL=DRIVE_NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse Time tracking app for mac os 10 6.

• • Substitute DRIVE_NAME with your disk name
  • As you replace your drive name, make sure that there are not spaces, as this may cause some issues.

3. Restart your Mac

If by any chance you do have a drive with a complicated name with spaces included, use the device UUID to be able to write support for that as well. This is how you do it:

1. Run your Terminal and type in the following command, but substitute “DRIVENAME” with your disk name:

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diskutil info /Volumes/DRIVENAME | grep UUID

2. This will give you the UUID of your disk.
3. Once you open the Terminal again, type the following command:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

4. Add to the file the following command, replacing “DEVICEUUID” with the UUID you obtained in Steps 1 and 2:

Mac Software To Read Ntfs Drive

UUID=DEVICEUUID none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

Again, it pays to remember that the above method is experimental, and that no one holds accountability if the method will work, or if it will cause any corruption in your disk and make you lose your data. There’s no guarantee that paying for third party apps can give you, such as ease of access and plain peace of mind. In addition, if you are working with more than one disk, this experimental feature requires you to add one line per disk. This task, needless to say, can be quite laborious.

Wait for Future Updates

There is reason to believe that Mac OS X may develop native support for full compatibility with NTFS. Although this possibility is largely unconfirmed, the fact that Mac currently has an experimental feature in place already hints at how cognizant they are about this limitation. Nevertheless, Apple may totally choose to remove NTFS support altogether and decide to endorse third party apps instead to their users for writing NTFS disks.

Format to exFAT

Our out of the box suggestion, when you have the luxury of a new or empty disk is to format your disk to exFAT. exFAT is an improvement from FAT32—a newer version of FAT that is less efficient than NTFS but has more widespread support than NTFS and exFAT. Like NTFS, exFAT enables you to transfer files bigger than the 4GB limitation of FAT32. Most notably, exFAT is also supported by Windows and OS X both. All recent Windows versions and the recent versions of Mac OS have full read and write support for exFAT, something that cannot be said for NTFS.

This method has certain caveats too. Some devices such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox One does not support exFAT, as well as the now defunct Windows XP and older versions of Windows. exFAT is ideally used if you don’t have to deal with these devices, but exFAT is a good choice of file system format if you want greater compatibility than NTFS and a bigger file size limit than FAT.

Mounty for NTFS

This is a free software for Mac that enables the user to write on NTFS drives on Mac. Its design is rather simple for ease of mounting NTFS drives on Mac and providing the drives with write support. Because the utility is free, some highlights based on its service are provided. The software is free, and its size is less than an MB. Therefore, it is easy and fast to download, and it needs a one-time installation without the need to download additional drivers. However, some of the utility users say that when using it to write on an NTFS drive, the process is prolonged. Sometimes, the software tends to allow the read-write mode on an NTFS formatted drive automatically. Other times, the software becomes unstable, hence failing to mount the drive. When the utility malfunctions, the data saved in the drive can be lost. It has also been realized that tech support is also not provided for the software and that the current Mojave and Catalina Mac OS software do not support its utility.

SL-NTFS

This is free software that is also referred to as Snow Leopard NTFS. When using Mac OS 10.6, it is possible to write on an NTFS drive, even without installing third-party drivers. However, the write support in the OS settings is not active. Therefore, SL-NTFS software acts as an interface for the Mac OS 10.6 NTFS drivers hence allowing writing permissions for a drive in NTFS format. The utility has various merits and demerits. It is free and easy to install, but its developers do not provide technical support. Furthermore, if there is another enabler for NTFS drivers that had previously been installed, it may lead to technical problems. Writing on some external NTFS drives is impossible when using this software. Moreover, its access to vast amounts of data and files is usually limited.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

This is a utility that enables the read-write mode on drives mounted on Mac laptops and computers using Max OS X and macOS. Technical support for the software is freely provided, and the utility is easy to install. Furthermore, the service is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10. 11, and MacOS 10.12, 10.13, 10.14, and 10.15. Apart from APFS format, it supports the formatting of drives into other file systems. Its users report that errors in NTFS file systems can be repaired using the utility. When using the software, you only need one click to eject or unmount NTFS volumes. Using the software allows the user automatic mounting of the NTFS drive to read-write mode.

iBoysoft Drive Manager

Ntfs To Mac

This additional commercial tool can allow the user to access NTFS read-write permission on Mac fully. Moreover, it needs one click to manage network drives and several external drives. The utility is a perfect replacement for other free Mac NTFS drivers because it offers free technical support. It can easily be installed and allows free upgrades for life. Using the software to transfer files between Mac and NTFS drive, as well as writing on NTFS drives, is easy. It is compatible with Mac OS X 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11 and macOS 10.12, 10.13, 10.14 and 10.15. The utility is also very affordable, and a seven days trial is offered for its users. Additionally, the utility can be used in the finder to manage map network drives as well as external drives. When compared to other NTFS Mac utilities, iBoysoft Manager is more affordable.

Mac Software To Read Ntfs Converter

If you do want to stick with your NTFS, now you at least have a variety of options available for your file transfer needs. Just pick the one you think is safest and most convenient for you. Do not forget to back-up your files first, so you don’t lose any data in case something goes awry, or better yet, stick with a paid application that will do the job for you without any worries.