User profile for user: thierry157
thierry157 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

MacOs Sequoia 15.2 and NTFS management

Hi all!


I know the topic has already been discussed many times but I cannot find the answer to my question.

I would like to know if there has been a change in the NTFS drive management with Sequoia. Before Sequoia, I was able to read NTFS formatted hard drives from friends using Windows. Now, these drives do not show on my desktop, they do not mount. They appear in disk utility but containers appears in grey. I must specify that I only want to read these discs, not write on them.


I tested these disks on a brand new Mac Mini M4 to no avail.


Is it a bug with this Sequoia version or is it intentional from Apple?

I don't want to use third party kernel extension to be able to read NTFS drives as it requires to lower security on my Mac.


If these were my own hard drives, I'd format them in exfat (I have a Samsung TV to which I plug in an exfat-formatted hard drive, and it works just fine), but if they're not mine, of course I don't do it.


Another bug I've noticed since Sequoia with disk management is the inability to download with Safari to an external hard disk if it's not formatted in APFS, but that's another subject!

iMac 24″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 18, 2025 7:53 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
63,896 points

Jan 19, 2025 12:10 AM in response to thierry157

You should certainly be able to read NTFS volumes without needing to install any third party drivers. I know that Apple did change the FAT/exFAT driver in macOS 14.x Sonoma from a Kernel extension into a user space utility. I don't know if perhaps Apple may have done the same with the NTFS driver. I know people had issues with exFAT volumes in Sonoma which were likely due to the driver re-write.


I haven't seen anyone mention issues with NTFS volumes, but most users seem to be using third party NTFS drivers (usually from/based on drivers from Paragon).


I wonder if you edit the "fstab" file to have those NTFS volumes automount as read-only would work for you. However, I know that using "fstab" on Sequoia may have a bug or no longer be fully supported. I saw a recent post where a user could not prevent the auto mounting of a drive and it was confirmed by a respected forum contributor who is extremely knowledgeable and even wrote a User Tip for that process.

Prevent a volume from mounting at startup - Apple Community


While I've done this on Linux systems, macOS is a bit different (similar, but different in specifics). Here is a post I wrote some time ago for modifying the "fstab" file to auto mount a volume as read-only:

Creating RO permissions on Cruial X6 external drive -- HWTech - Apple Community


Plus I recently saw someone needing to use an unusual configuration to allow a drive to mount automatically in Sequoia....unfortunately I cannot locate that post right now (IIRC it was posted in the last month). I believe they used "auto" instead of specifying the file system of the volume such as "ntfs". So if "ntfs" does not work, then replace it with "auto" instead.


I did look into the FUSE based drivers for another user recently and I don't think they are well supported these days. I believe some of those projects have not seen any updates for a while and some have been forked & have their own growing pains (if you look closely...I think one fork which seemed the most popular/active actually had potential data loss issues). From what I saw, I would avoid them these days until the kinks are worked out or someone starts supporting them again.


If you did want to use a third party NTFS driver, then I would suggest using the paid driver from Paragon since many drive vendors provide their drivers with their external NTFS formatted drives, plus Paragon has been around for decades and just recently donated their NTFS driver source code to the Linux community.



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User profile for user: a brody
a brody
User level: Level 10
84,743 points

Jan 18, 2025 8:11 AM in response to thierry157

The easiest to use utility for NTFS on the Mac that I have found is https://macfuse.github.io/


ExFAT is the preferred cross platform format for sneakernet hard drives.


You can always network Macs and PCs with a wide variety of tools like AnyDesk, Teamviewer, Kaseya, Netconsole, NetBIOS, FTP, SFTP, Active Directory mapping depending on the level of connectivity you desire.


We are just end users here, who can't question Apple's policy, with Apple moderation. So whether or not it is a bug or intentional from Apple, no one here can say for sure. You can sign up for the free Developer account and use their bug reporter system. Keep in mind any bugs you report there can not be conveyed on the support community due to your non-disclosure agreement. But at the very least you can find out if it is a formerly reported bug or not.

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User profile for user: thierry157
thierry157 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Jan 20, 2025 9:35 AM in response to a brody

I have no problems with my Time Machine backups because my Time Machine disk is formatted in APFS (I didn't even know it was possible to make a Time Machine backup on a disk formatted in ExFat).


So, to sum up, here's my equipment:


- 1 ExFat-formatted hard drive connected via USB to my TV: no read/write problems on my iMac M1

- 1 APFS-formatted hard drive for Time Machine backups: no problems on my iMac M1

- 1 APFS-formatted hard drive for manual backups: no problem on my iMac M1


The only problem I've had in recent weeks is when a friend lends me his NTFS hard disk so that I can extract some files from it and copy them to my iMac. I could do it before because the disk was recognized. Now it doesn't work and I don't understand why. I don't want to write on this NTFS disk, I just want to be able to read from it.


I think I'm going to do a clean install of Sequoia to make sure that nothing has got in the way of reading NTFS-formatted disks, but the fact that I've been able to test this NTFS-formatted drive on a brand-new Mac Mini M4 and that it can't read it either makes me wonder (it cannot be mounted and does not appear in my desktop, it appears only in disk utility and the container is greyed). I attached two screen captures FYI from a test I made with a USB stick NTFS-formatted.



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User profile for user: thierry157
thierry157 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Jan 18, 2025 9:18 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for your answer, and please accept my apologies for talking about a possible intentional will from Apple.

I will have a look at macfuse, but I'm not very confortable with that kind of kernel extensions.


As far as I'm concerned, I use an external hard disk for my Time Machine backups, an ExFat hard disk to plug into my TV and an APFS hard disk to back up in addition to my Time Machine backup. When I need to pass files to someone else, I use a fat32-formatted USB stick. The only time I get stuck is when someone passes me an NTFS-formatted hard drive. So I think the easiest way would be to transfer data using AnyDesk, which I already use. Thanks for these suggestions!

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User profile for user: thierry157
thierry157 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Jan 19, 2025 2:06 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your comprehensive answer! I'm not very comfortable with using Terminal to modify my Mac, so, no, I did not edit the fstab file.


It's rare that I have to plug in an NTFS-formatted hard disk, so I can't say exactly when it stopped working, but I think that with the first version of Sequoia it did work, especially as I'd done a clean install, so nothing was disturbing the smooth running of my Mac.


If I had to use a third-party application, I would definitely use Paragon, but the idea of having to lower the security level makes me shudder! First of all, I'm going to try and find people in the same situation as me. What makes me think that Apple may have changed the NTFS driver is that I've been able to test it on a brand new Mac mini M4 and it doesn't detect NTFS volumes either.

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User profile for user: a brody
a brody
User level: Level 10
84,743 points

Jan 20, 2025 8:09 AM in response to thierry157

ExFAT on Time Machine is iffy at best. Time Machine is genuinely better to be run on a Mac OS formatted hard drive in HFS Extended GUID or APFS. Don't be surprised if folder icons or even the ability to execute applications that are migrated over from an ExFAT Time Machine are missed. Documents in general don't worry much about PC or Mac drive format types. Clones, forget it, you must use the HFS Extended GUID or APFS. APFS for High Sierra and later systems.



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User profile for user: thierry157
thierry157 Author
User level: Level 1
23 points

Jan 21, 2025 10:46 AM in response to HWTech

Update:


As a matter of conscience, I did a clean install using my bootable usb key containing Sequoia 15.0 that I created back in October.


Before installing my apps, I first checked whether my ntfs-formatted usb stick could be read, and it was.

So I updated to 15.2, then looked to see if my ntfs-formatted usb stick could be read, and it still can.

I reinstalled my apps, checking between each installation whether my memory stick could still be read, as I had my doubts my VPN and Clean My Mac could possibly "block" my ntfs drives. My memory stick can still be read after all my apps are installed.


So the problem is solved, I think I must have tried an app such as Paragon or Mounty and it must have disabled the reading of ntfs-formatted drives. I'm not about to install such software again. As my iMac is configured, it suits me perfectly, as I have no intention of writing to ntfs drives in the future.

Thanks in any case for your answers.



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MacOs Sequoia 15.2 and NTFS management

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