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I have just installed an external hard drive on my mac air. It shows up under locations. I have tried to drag and drop files but they won't add to the hard drive. very very very frustrated with apple support. unable to find ANY help anywhere for even simple issues. Really getting close to the same incompetence as MS
That's not a bad thing. When you click on the external hard drive, you'll see some details appear on the right under the drive name. The format of the drive is located there. I've included a sample from my Mac. The disk name is Macintosh HD. The file type is APFS (Encrypted).
This is my main volume, but you'll see something similar on your external drive. If your external drive says NTFS it's unlikely that a Mac will write to it out of the box. Most external drives are not formatted out of the box for Mac. If you see NTFS, and cannot copy files, you may then want to reformat. to a Mac friendly, or Mac and PC sharable format. Again, that depends on your intended use.
That's not a bad thing. When you click on the external hard drive, you'll see some details appear on the right under the drive name. The format of the drive is located there. I've included a sample from my Mac. The disk name is Macintosh HD. The file type is APFS (Encrypted).
This is my main volume, but you'll see something similar on your external drive. If your external drive says NTFS it's unlikely that a Mac will write to it out of the box. Most external drives are not formatted out of the box for Mac. If you see NTFS, and cannot copy files, you may then want to reformat. to a Mac friendly, or Mac and PC sharable format. Again, that depends on your intended use.
Based on your summary, it may be that your external hard drive is not formatted to be writable by a Mac. Warning: formatting a drive will erase all of the current contents of that external drive. If you have files on that disk, be sure to back them up or move them to your computer before reformatting.
If you plan to use the external drive with both Mac and PC, visit https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/format-a-disk-for-windows-computers-dskutl1010/mac
If this will be a Mac only drive you may find it beneficial to use the APFS format https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/add-erase-or-delete-apfs-volumes-dskua9e6a110/mac
A guide to the file types available to you is at https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/file-system-formats-available-in-disk-utility-dsku19ed921c/mac
Thank you so much. I think I found it. I clicked 'erase' and chose the APFS. It erased and reformated. I am on my way to work now, but will try to move files again when I get home.
it is brand new and I downloaded to software for mac. Since I can't find anything even remotely helpful having to do with apple support (or any other companies) I think Ill try somewhere else. believe it or not I did try to find a solution on my own. reading more tech mumbo jumbo doesnt really help me right now. thanks anyway
Just to be sure, you may want to verify your current external drive file format. You can do that in disk utility -- you may need to expand the arrows next to the "container" in the selector to get to your hard drive name. I've run into the same issue in the past because the external drive was formatted NTFS (which a Mac can read but not write to). You can then reformat as necessary and move files. Just be sure to take anything on the drive off first.
I'm sorry. I don't see container. In disk utility I can click on the external hard drive, and I see the specs, but there is nothing to click on. I must need very basic instructions. I appreciate your trying.
I looked and these don't seem to apply
trying to drag files to external hard drive.
