Unable to Move or Copy Files to Mac External Hard Drive - Mac Will Not Write Files to USB Hard Drive

Unable to Move or Copy Files to Mac External Hard Drive - Mac Will Not Write Files to USB Hard Drive
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Ok so you've plugged in an external drive to your Mac to copy files to it. But no matter what you do, the file will not move or copy to the drive. The hard drive seems to be working fine but you just can't put any files on it. The reason this isn't working is because this drive has been formatted for a Windows operating system. And if I press Command-I on my keyword I can learn more about the attached storage device.
In the Info window next to Format, my drive shows that it has been formatted with the NTFS file system which is a Windows type of file structure. While the Mac can read and copy files from this NTFS drive, it cannot copy to or write files onto this device. For me, if I want full capabilities of this drive I'll have to initialize and format it.
But before I begin, I definitely need to plug it into a Windows computer and copy or backup all the files somewhere else if I want to keep them. I'd encourage you to watch the entire video before proceeding so you won't accidentally delete any of your important files. This is just a warning because I want to keep your data safe!
To format the NTFS drive, I'll connect it to my Mac. Then in the Launchpad, I'll type Disk Utility in the search bar. After launching the Disk Utility, click on the problem drive in the left column. Here mine is called Elements_1_Backup. And under the name I can confirm this is the NTFS drive. To start the format, click on the Erase button at the top right of the window.
On the popup menu, I can rename the drive if needed. In the Format dropdown menu there are only 2 options that should be used. Select MacOS Extended (Journaled) if this drive is only going to be used only on a Mac. Using this option means a Windows computer will no longer recognize this storage device when plugged in. But for me, the best option is to choose the ExFAT format which allows the most flexibility. ExFAT allows both Mac and Windows to read and write to the hard drive. It's actually the best of both worlds!
After you choose one of those formats the next step is to click Erase. But please note that this final step will erase and delete everything on the hard drive. There'll be no way to recover the lost data if you continue. So first back up the data on the drive if needed. I'm not ready to erase this drive so I'll just cancel out. But the steps I just described is what you need to do when your Mac can't write files to an external hard drive.
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[@nanneteluna2365]

I really appreciate this, it’s been months of my trying to figure out with permissions and user access to read and write but always had the same error again and again till I found this video by chance. Thank you so much!!

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! Sorry you had to go through all the other steps before figuring it out. Glad your hard drive is working again!

[@AlexMyth]

Solved the problem! It was all about Windows format, now I changed it to ExFAT. Thank you!

[@vivianterzian506]

I had difficulty getting photos from my old macG4 to a new WD passport external drive, and you helped me tremendously. I couldn’t understand why the drive wasn’t compatible. I followed your instructions and Saved the photos! Thank you

[@RylanIsabella]

This video was very helpul and took a load of stress off me, thank you! You're a great teacher and get straight to the point.

[@KatamagoTv]

one of the best video I've seen. clear and direct.. thank you..

[@TheRenderQ]

Wow, thanks! Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@bluegypsy71]

THANK you so much, I am not tech savvy so this helped me save thousands of personal photos I had on my Mac desktop to my Seagate HD🙏

[@TheRenderQ]

Excellent! I’m glad you got your hard drive working on your Mac so you can back up your photos!

[@AmeerAlmaliki]

Works perfectly. Thank you so much been having this trouble forever.

[@25xLife-j6b]

Thank you so much! Very helpful. I’ve been struggling to figure out why my drive wasn’t working with my MACBOOK.

[@TheRenderQ]

Glad I could help!

[@yukidear8424]

Thanks but I need to know how to partition the drive to use part with Time Machine and part to use for Read/Write to move files to.

[@trinityuncut]

Quick and straight to the point. THANK YOU!! =)

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@kostaskazakos7653]

Very helpful . Thanks a lot mate

[@emdlcrx]

this is brilliant! I love your video. It helped me a lot. I'm just new to mac because I recently bought a macbook pro 2019 and this perfectly worked for me. Thank you so much.

[@ritvikvaishnav3472]

Thank you so much. Very informative and easy tutorial, straight to the point.

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@lauradelalisal]

Thank you and bless you

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@_xstarbutterfly]

this is perfect. mine is now working. thank you so much!

[@swetamuralinarippatta4427]

This was super helpful! thanks!!

[@riyaajay4961]

you are a life saver! this was driving me nuts

[@troysecondez]

thanks for this!

[@TheRenderQ]

No problem!

[@sergipadillaargelich8459]

what if i just can format it to APFS type formats?

[@khalidhaariye950]

Thank you very much. This is really helpful

[@heyaple]

Do you have to clear all the data??

[@Kokomaxem]

It works for me!!!🎉🎉🎉 Thank You so much it was driving me crazy!

[@TheGracefulGlowup]

thank you!

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@PlentifulPlatypus]

Mine is letting me download videos, but when I go to look at them on the hard drive file it says “the document could not be opened. An unknown error occurred” it also is taking forever to download the videos so I’m not sure if I’m doing it wrong. Please help.

[@CozyScot]

Thanks so much for this video!

[@thehometherapy]

Thank you so so much!!! this really helped solve my problem. 100% to you for doing this video :)

[@rohansahni1]

useful video👍🏻

[@TheRenderQ]

Thank you 🙂

[@caglagunay9453]

i just accidentaly click erase.... what can i do?

[@marningrace432]

Thank you this helped me out!

[@ZaraPictures11]

Thanks more my pal it helps me more bro❤❤

[@MaxTooney]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@MateoGaming1]

This Helped Thanks!

[@MrCarlrockz]

very useful and informative.thanks it works👍

[@dbuc4671]

yes, i've flown on planes before. it's just that it's been years since i last flew, i haven't seen such a view in a long time.

[@ashishvermavlogs2142]

thank you

[@TheRenderQ]

You're welcome

[@rakeshreddy68]

Cant we Do without Formating Them ?

[@abigaelcalma]

Same question. All videos I find is to erase the external hard drive and change the format to ExFAT. I have alot of files in my external HD so I can’t copy and paste them all to my MacBook.

[@rakeshreddy68]

Yes , I had formatted my 1TB by copying files to other drive and changed to Exfat recopied back

[@ekafitriyani86]

After you erase it so you just move all the previous files back to the hard drive?

[@TheRenderQ]

Yes! You can move the files back to the newly formatted hard drive. Of course make sure you copy the files to another drive before you erase the problem drive.

[@OhohohTST]

Cool stuff! Thanks mate

[@UtpalBiswasOfficial]

Thanks! It really helped.

[@DineshKumarP08]

It was helpful. Thanks!

[@matthewspaven6264]

Thank you so much!!!!!!!

[@Hanover_outdoorsman]

Thank you so much ! Saved my day man !

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome! So glad you got your hard drive working on your Mac!

[@Hanover_outdoorsman]

@@TheRenderQ working on my first long form video , ran into space issues fast . Used a 128GB SD card as a hard drive to put iMovie library on lol . Till I got a hard drive , witch this saved the day and was Stright to the point and clear . Thank you

[@plainkady]

How can I do it without having to delete 8Tb of data from my external hard drive?

[@MONUBHATI-j1z]

thank u sir

[@TheRenderQ]

You’re welcome!

[@Topeng_perak]

Thank you so much. Problem solved🙌🏻

[@Djanirudhapawar05]

thank you for solved my problem❤ love you

[@lindiepearl]

My drive is set to ExFat but is still unmodifiable. Thoughts?

[@ConanDiaries]

Thank you! Its working

[@eighttarot9949]

Really helpful

[@xtxiba191]

hi whenever i try erasing it says failed no matter which format i choose to erase to

[@AC-Ninja]

I changed to exfat and now do not get an "Errors" but it sill does not load them to the drive? I have all permissions on read and write. For whatever reason it makes the audible sound as though it loaded to external hd but just disappears from the hd and there is no error message or anything that would give me any insight as to why. I have been looking into this for a week now and cannot find ANYTHING that helps. I am at a loss here. Making me REALLY REGRET switching to Apple. Never had this issue with MS/Windows

[@suvde.2012]

It helped 🎉

[@TheRenderQ]

Glad my hard drive tutorial helped!

[@rnowlin13]

Fixed my problem! thanks

[@CaptureIndia]

I have 800GB hard disk and no other hard disk to backup . is there any solution in that we don't need to delete data?

[@jiesguricreations]

Did you find any wayout?

[@CaptureIndia]

@@jiesguricreations Aapko hard disk ko format hi krna padega then uska format ntfs se fxfat krna padega. Ntfs only support windows and fxfat support both. Ntfs me aap hard disk data copy krke mac me paste jarur kar skte ho lekin mac ka data ntfs hard disk me paste nahi kar paoge. Maine to 1tb ki hard disk hi purchase kr li thi 🙏

[@jiesguricreations]

@@CaptureIndia Agree. In my case. I have 8 tb data 🤣

[@CaptureIndia]

@@jiesguricreations 🙂😀

[@alinavianne]

Thank you!

[@johnxywu]

I don't see the ExFAT option on my hardrive

[@yozeruga]

Why does MacBook crash when I’m connected to HDMi and move the magic mouse

[@ignatiussetiawan1280]

Thanks a lot

[@ThatDominicanLife]

Thank You

[@tonyrajan5120]

My external drive is 8TB AND MAC has only 1 TB now tell me how do I back it up ???? Why making videos with the same single solution when each and every single video just says the same thing.

[@VICTORIOUS_SANJAY]

Ong 😢 Thank you so much 😮

[@Mazerschi36]

you save me thanks

[@JeramieSaito]

Wow I need to buy a new hard drive then thanks

[@muzykaarmani7831]

Im just start hate mac , my brother gifted it to me and omg its so complicated, too many websites not opening its so stupid i am now trying to format it so I haven the same problem and I don’t have now window laptop to save data i have 3 hard disk and all with same problems

[@smokepepsi]

my g

[@RB-Book-Of-World-Records]

Wowwwww

[@jasonlindquistmedia]

gopd damn i hate mac so much

[@taghavi_script]

thanks bro help a lot