Cannot save files and folders to backup drive

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Level 1

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Cannot save files and folders to backup drive

I have a 2TB USB external backup drive that is formatted with APFS and encrypted connected to a Mac Pro 2013. I use it for Time Machine backups using OS X Monterey. Now I noticed that I cannot create new folders or save any files to the external backup drive. i.e. it is only good for running automatic Time Machine backups and nothing else. i.e. the New Folder icon is greyed out in Finder menu if I select the external USB drive. More than half the drive is empty space since my Mac Pro 2013 only has a 1 TB SSD drive. What are the rules for configuring external drives so that they can be used for both Time Machine Backups and saving ordinary files and folders? I seem to remember that earlier backup disk configurations allowed one to also drag and drop files and folders. Has something changed?

Posted on Jul 23, 2023 8:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

dialabrain

Level 10

124,685 points

Jul 23, 2023 8:15 PM in response to anthonymaw

Time Machine drives are now read only. It's a bad idea to save data and backups on the same drive in any case. When the drive fails, you lose both. It's possible to do but, you would have to erase the drive, partition it, then assign one partition to Time Machine and one for your files. But as I said, it's a bad idea.

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Answer 2

Niel

Level 10

731,825 points

Jul 23, 2023 8:17 PM in response to anthonymaw

This shouldn't be done; the drive may fail at any time and cause both the working data and backup to be lost. Get another external drive and back it up as well.

If you must use a single drive, partition it.

(242306)

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Answer 3

anthonymaw Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 23, 2023 8:22 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks. I kind of guessed the Rules have changed! I found I can just add another ordinary data Volume to the same APFS partition as the Time Machine volume. Both volumes are 2TB on the same 2TB disk. Not sure how that's gonna pan out.....

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