External hard drive not mounting after Ventura update

I've had the same issue with 2 different Seagate NTFS drives. With my first drive (a 4TB drive), I spent a fair amount of time troubleshooting the issue last night, and while the drive was still functioning in Windows, I accidentally made things worse when trying a terminal command from a support forum, which now means the drive isn't accessible in Windows either. I've had to purchase recovery software for $70+ to recover my files now. I was beginning to think that the issue was with the drive, but today I connected my 1TB Seagate NTFS drive and had the same issue - drive not connecting via Paragon NTFS for Mac, even after updating to Ventura 13.4.1. and updating Paragon NTFS to 15.9.329. The drive is accessible in Windows. I can however access my Seagate Expansion drive.

I am bitterly disappointed with Apple on this one:

• The issue means I can't access my older Seagate drives
• The issue also resulted in me inadvertently corrupting my most important drive, trying to troubleshoot something that is clearly the result of a poor update from Apple.
• I now have the painstaking task of recovering all 1TB of files on my corrupted drive.

My recommendation if you have this issue, is to backup your drive, format it for Mac OS, and then copy the files back onto it... because who knows when the drive won't work on Mac anymore.

Perform these actions to start using the latest NTFS for Mac version for your hard drive:

1. Uninstall the currently installed version as described here:  How To Uninstall Microsoft NTFS For Mac By Paragon Software
2. If you were using NTFS for Mac 14, you can remove it in System Preferences - NTFS for Mac - Settings - Uninstall, or using NTFS for Mac 14 DMG.
3. Reboot your Mac
4. Download and install the installation package
5. Seagate: http://ftp.paragon.eu.com/support/att/OEM/NTFS-15.10.593.dmg

(If the download doesn't start, please right-click the link as select Save link as).

Having the same problem. I'm using a Seagate HDD. I can open the drive in read only mode using NTSF for Mac, but not read and write so it's not an issue with the cable or ports. The drive works on my other Mac that is still running 13.2, so my guess it is an issue with the software update, maybe an incompatibility with NTSF for Mac. I'll be backing up everything to an SSD drive using my other Mac and wait this one out until the glitch is resolved with a future update.

If your external HD is not NTFS then try the following in order as needed:

1 -  Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support (for Intel Macs) and Mac startup key combinations - Apple Support (for both types)

2 - How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Hi

Can't reproduce on my side.(but not on exact 13.3)

Check the connection: Make sure the external hard drive is properly connected to your Mac. Try unplugging and replugging the cable or using a different USB port.

Restart your Mac: Sometimes, simply restarting your Mac can fix issues with mounting external hard drives.

Or maybe check this article for detailed steps:

[Link Edited by Moderator]

Yes, just updated to Ventura 13.3 and all external drives will not mount unless formatted for Mac OS. I have a paid version of Paragon NTFS, and that sees the drives, but external NTFS drives still won’t mount. I believe 13.3 has an issue with anything formatted as NTFS. Formatting a drive as Mac OS solves this, but I need to mount NTFS drives. Hope they fix this soon.

UPDATE - I updated my Paragon NTFS software and now all drives, regardless of format, mount and are visible on the main screen. I have a licensed version, it just needed an upgrade to handle Ventura 13.3. Took a day to figure out, but all is working fine now. It’s a Paragon problem, not Apple. Yay I’m so happy 😃

FYI

While macOS can read NTFS Windows volumes. It cannot write to them by default.

Paragon NTFS is 3rd party commercial software that enables read/write for NTFS volumes. 3rd party software may require updates when macOS upgrades. You should check to ensure such software is compatible with the latest macOS release as vendors frequently need some time to catch up to a recent Apple update.

If you are using an external drive to trade files with Windows, consider formatting a partition as FAT32 or exFAT as this file system is very cross-platform and will work on most any operating system from Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Unix, etc. In many cases, NTFS is overkill offering features most people won't need such as ACL's, etc.

It worked for me too even tough after reinstalling the paragon software it would only let me mount the disk in "read only mode"

activating the free trial allowed me to write on the disk as well

so I guess that after this 10 day free trial we'll have pay to be able to write on the disk as well.

FYI,

The reason this works is because Paragon NTFS needs to be upgraded to be compatible with Ventura. Disks formatted with NTFS are intended for Microsoft Windows. macOS can read such volumes but cannot write to them. Paragon NTFS adds the write support. Technically, there is an option to enable macOS read/write on NTFS but it's experimental and shouldn't be trusted. Data could get corrupted, etc. Therefore you need to license Paragon NTFS if you really need to use NTFS formatted drives.

If you don't need to connect this drive to a Windows computer then you don't need NTFS support. You can format the disk as ExFAT and that is completely compatible between operating systems. Or if you have only Macs you can format the drive as HFS+. If the external drive is an SSD you can format it APFS.

But if you are stuck with a large amount of data on an NTFS drive, then you may just need to license the Paragon NTFS software and keep it up-to-date and you might periodically need to pay to upgrade.

Again, if you don't need NTFS then you should probably format the drive as HFS+ for HDD and APFS for SSD. Yes, APFS will work on an HDD but it's not entirely ideal.

Connect the drive to whatever operating system and you can then look at it with most any disk utility software to see what format the disk is using. There's more than a hundred ways to look at the disk format across all operating systems. On macOS it is Disk Utility or diskutil. On Windows its Disk Management or diskpart. On Linux... well that's where a hundred other ways come into play.

Here are the supported file systems FAT -> exFAT is short for the long list of FAT file systems):

Linux uses ext4 / btrfs / zfs / xfs / FAT -> exFAT (there are even more )

macOS uses HFS+ / APFS / FAT -> exFAT / Read Only NTFS

Windows uses NTFS / FAT -> exFAT

The exFAT format is the most compatible across all operating systems. Allowing you to connect the drive to all of them and read/write data. Thumb drives using flash chips have traditionally been formatted as FAT so they work out of the box.

Many external drive manufacturers will format NTFS unless they are a major brand associated mostly with Apple. Such as LaCIE drives which usually come formatted with HFS+.

It is easy to reformat a drive, but you will lose all data when do so. Therefore, determine how the drive will be utilized and format it appropriately. If it's an SSD and only Macs will be using it, use APFS. If it's an HDD and only Macs will be using it, go with HFS+. If you need to share the drive between operating systems then format with exFAT.

Let's say you dual boot a Mac with Windows, that might be a good reason to format the external drive as exFAT or you can format it with NTFS and buy Paragon NTFS software. But then you need to keep it up to date when upgrading macOS you should first check if you need to upgrade Paragon NTFS as well.

There could be a few reasons why your external hard drive is not mounting after a Ventura update. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue:

1. Check the connections: Make sure that the external hard drive is properly connected to your computer. Try unplugging it and plugging it back in to ensure a secure connection.

2. Check for updates: Make sure that your computer and the external hard drive have the latest updates installed. Sometimes updates can fix compatibility issues.

3. Restart your computer: Sometimes restarting your computer can fix issues with hardware and software.

4. Check the Disk Utility: Use the Disk Utility tool to check if your external hard drive is detected by your computer. If it is detected, but not mounted, you can try mounting it manually from the Disk Utility.

5. Try another port/cable: Sometimes the port or cable that you are using to connect the external hard drive can be faulty. Try using a different port or cable to see if that fixes the issue.

6. Test the drive on another computer: If none of the above steps work, you can try connecting the external hard drive to another computer to see if it works. This will help you determine if the issue is with the drive or your computer.

If the above steps do not work, there could be a deeper issue with the hard drive itself. In that case, you may need to take it to a professional to get it fixed or try to recover your data.

Hi. This helped me half. Just like some here, my HDD are being mounted only in read mode. I have two 4TB WD Mypassport Ultra and both are in NTFS format. I would like to know if I can format one of the HDD to Mac format and copy all the data from my other HDD (NTFS) to the Mac formatted HDD and not lose any data by doing so? After this I'll format the NTFS HDD to Mac format too, since I don't use windows products. I was either stupid or lazy to use both HDDs in NTFS format since I don't use them across different platforms.

Remove Paragon NTFS software as you must have had it previously or you wouldn't have been able to write to the NTFS disks. It likely broke when you upgraded Ventura. You have the option of upgrading Paragon NTFS but it's licensed software. So if you don't need it just remove it entirely.

FORMATTING WILL DESTROY ALL DATA It's easy to reformat a drive on macOS. Open Disk Utility, click View -> Show all Devices. Identify the correct drive you wish to format. Highlight the top most tree-branch listing the hardware name of the disk. Click the Erase button and choose a filesystem.

The APFS filesystem is designed for SSD primarily, while it does work with HDD it will experience fragmentation that isn't possible on SSD. Formatting an HDD to APFS is mostly fine for say Time Machine due to the way APFS snapshots work. I would recommend that you choose HFS+ for an HDD that just holds data.

Copy the data from the NTFS drive over to this newly formatted drive using Finder and drag and drop.

Tip: ⇧ + ⌘ + Period key will toggle hidden files ON/OFF

If you need cross-platform compatibility with Linux, BSD, Windows, macOS, etc. then the filesystem format you want to use is ExFAT.