How to Remove Read-Only on External Hard-Drive

Do you have access to any Mac? (It doesn't have to be your own.) If so, you could hook up the external drive to it and do a "Get Info" on the drive in Finder to find out the formatting. (There is probably a way to do it on a Windows PC, but I haven't used Windows in a long time and don't know how to do it.)

If the formatting turns out to be the problem (as I expect), and there are files on the drive that you care about, there are two approaches: You could just get a new drive and format it appropriately for use with the iPad. Alternatively, you could copy the files somewhere else, reformat the existing drive, and copy them back.

The part I can't explain is how you were able to do this in the past with the same disk formatted the same way. I don't know that iPadOS 15 took away any disk format support.

Mac-ker Said:

"How to Remove Read-Only on External Hard-Drive: [...](it’s a Passport hard drive). I was able to do this in the past, so I’m wondering if the update to iOS 15 is creating this problem[...]."

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It might be a bug. So,...

Report this to Apple:

Do your part: Let Apple know what is going on here. Provide them with feedback on this. They may not get back to you directly, but the more feedback they received on this, the more they will know what is going on, and what needs to be fixed in updates to come.

1. Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
2. Comment: on when you came across this issue, and how you have trorubleshsot it, thus far.
3. Select: "Bug Report" for the "Feedback Type"
4. Proceed from there aw necessary

It might be time for you to contact actual Apple Support personnel through the "Get Support" link in the upper right corner of this page.

If you prefer to continue here with other users like me, my next questions are:

What is the actual formatting on the drive? (That may be easier to see from the Mac.)

Can you read/view files on the drive from the iPad?

Can you read/view files on the drive from the Mac?

You mentioned not being able to copy files off the drive. Is that still true?

When you say you were able to do it in the past, was that with the same external hard drive? If so, did you change the formatting of that hard drive since it was working?