How to read and write NTFS for Mac?

NTFS is a widely used file system on Windows based PCs and it is owned by Microsoft. Since macOS Catalina as far as i know, reading NTFS file is fully supported. You can freely copy files from NTFS drive to Mac without any issue. However, writing to NTFS is restricted by default on macOS no matter which version it is.

To gain NTFS writing permission on Mac, you have to take advantage of third-party libraries or apps, such as ntfs-3g (command line), mounty, paragon or sysgeeker app.

Each app have it own pros and cons. Here is a full review of best NTFS for Mac app you can find out:

https://www.sysgeeker.com/best-free-ntfs-for-mac-reviews.html

Take a full read and pick up the best one according to the machine you currently have (model and macOS version). Some of them may be not working on M1 Mac or the latest macOS Monterey. So you need to read the review carefully and don't waste time on those problematic solution for your own case.

Once you install the third-party NTFS drivers, you now are dependent on that vendor keeping them updated for new releases of macOS. If they don't, you may lose the ability to write to NTFS drives until they do.

Why not use an external drive formatted as exFAT that is shareable between, and read/writable by both operating systems without the need for third-party drivers on macOS?

Fra55 wrote:

Thank you for your suggestion, As far as I know,   Exfat is only suitable for USB flash drive, not for my external hard drive. am I right? I'm trying to copy movies from my old PC to external hard drive (Kingston 1TB storage SSD), then move back to my maOS monterey. So, to read and write NTFS on macOS, do I need to format to exFAT format?

exFAT is perfectly fine for regular external drives. It is the preferred method over NTFS since exFAT has built-in native drivers for both macOS & Windows which means you don't have to rely of finicky third party drivers that could break with the next OS update. Just make sure to use Disk Utility on macOS to erase the drive as GUID partition and exFAT. Sometimes macOS won't recognize the exFAT file system if it was created using another OS because they may use a file allocation size that macOS does not understand (macOS is currently limited in this respect).

Test formatting an external hard drive with exFAT. Toss a file on it from macOS and see if Windows can access that file.

macOS Monterey has some compatibility issues with some USB3 drives. macOS 12.1 resolved many of the compatibility issues, but some still remain. You can try disconnect all other external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. Wacom tablets seem to be one such device. Some users have had success using the USB-C charging cable to access their USB3 drives, but transfers will be extremely slow since the charging cable only supports USB2 speeds.

I also second the suggestion to use the exFAT file system for sharing a drive with Windows. Just make sure to use Disk Utility to erase the drive since Windows may use file allocation sizes that macOS may not recognize if the drive is formatted using Windows.

Hi,

You can read NTFS Drive, though you can't write to. If you want to read/write NTFS drives, you need to get third party utility like Paragon.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/