User profile for user: Oree88
Oree88 Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

External Drive permission denied

I use an iMac 16GB memory with an Apple M1 currently having Ventura 13.4.1. I have never had a problem with my external drive until I needed to upload to GitHub. My hard drive is 512GB, and I try saving the room for apps instead of randomly saving everything on it. My external drive is 5 TB, and I can do almost anything with it, but recently, while using my terminal, I got zsh: permission denied: my external address. I have searched to figure out how to get permission within the terminal. I have even transferred the information to a cloud storage and reformated the drive. Yet, I am still getting permission denied. It is not locked, and I have access to read and write, there are no other users with my iMac.

I am just trying to figure out why I can't gain access through terminal?


Thank you for any help,

Karen

iMac (M1, 2021)

Posted on Sep 13, 2023 3:49 PM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
Community+ 2026
User level: Level 9
70,496 points

Posted on Sep 14, 2023 9:00 AM

Make sure the external drive is using one of the following file systems: HFS+ (aka MacOS Extended (Journaled)), APFS, or exFAT. macOS by default can only read NTFS volumes and most new external drives come pre-formatted with NTFS. While possible to install third party software to allow write access, this is not ideal since an OS update could break things....better to format the drive as exFAT if it is needed to be shared with Windows, otherwise use HFS+ or APFS depending on the needs & usage.


Also, "Get Info" on the external drive volume and make sure "Ignore ownership" is checked (this setting is located at the very bottom of the "Get Info" window.


There is also a possibility you may still need to grant macOS permission to use the external volume in the "Security & Privacy" settings...maybe under "Files & Folders" where you gave Terminal "Full Disk Access". I don't know if this is necessary for an external drive, but I do know that the Terminal app needs special permission to access specific folders within the home user folder such as "Desktop", "Documents", and "Downloads".

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
Community+ 2026
User level: Level 9
70,496 points

Sep 14, 2023 9:00 AM in response to Oree88

Make sure the external drive is using one of the following file systems: HFS+ (aka MacOS Extended (Journaled)), APFS, or exFAT. macOS by default can only read NTFS volumes and most new external drives come pre-formatted with NTFS. While possible to install third party software to allow write access, this is not ideal since an OS update could break things....better to format the drive as exFAT if it is needed to be shared with Windows, otherwise use HFS+ or APFS depending on the needs & usage.


Also, "Get Info" on the external drive volume and make sure "Ignore ownership" is checked (this setting is located at the very bottom of the "Get Info" window.


There is also a possibility you may still need to grant macOS permission to use the external volume in the "Security & Privacy" settings...maybe under "Files & Folders" where you gave Terminal "Full Disk Access". I don't know if this is necessary for an external drive, but I do know that the Terminal app needs special permission to access specific folders within the home user folder such as "Desktop", "Documents", and "Downloads".

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External Drive permission denied

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