I am a teacher and I use a Seagate 1TB external drive to back up all my teaching resources. I have had my macbook pro for 3 years and have never had any problems copying files to my external drive. I recently downloaded OS X El Capitan and can now no longer back up my files to my external drive. It may just be a coincidence but I can't think of any other recent changes.
You are not the only one my friend. There are a number of people having similar issues and it seems to be related to El Capitan.
Is the External Drive not appearing on the computer, or is it failing when you try to copy something?
El Capitan does not load all the same third-party extensions that were supported by previous versions of Mac OS X.
If writing to that drive required a Windows New Technology File System (NTFS) extension, you will need to contact that extension's Vendor for a new version that is signed correctly for El Capitan.
The external drive appears on the sidebar. I can open the external drive and even open all existing files however It will not allow me to create folders in the external drive or copy files to existing folders. The properties show me having read only access. I'm very confused.
The files that I'm trying to back up are all Microsoft Office documents. I've never had any problems previously. I can open the external drive and even open all existing files however It will not allow me to create folders in the external drive or copy files to existing folders. The properties show me having read only access. I'm very confused.
Get Info (Command-I) on the external drive from the sidebar (make sure you are selecting the entire drive and not just one file)
Click the lock in the bottom right and type in your password. Change your permissions to Read and Write.
Click the gear and select "Apply to enclosed items." This can take a while if you have a lot of files as it is giving you permission to edit all of the files and the hard drive space.
Looks like you were basically there
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I've tried what you suggested but there is nothing appearing to click on to change the permissions. It simply says you can read only. I'v noticed that the Name and Extension is greyed out. Might that have anything to do with it?
I've just tried another hard drive (Samsung this time) and I have exactly the same issues. I cannot create folders or save files to it as it also states I have read only permissions and no option to change this. Really weird!
How are these HDDs formatted? Click on them when they are on the desktop COMMAND + I keys and it will create this display. Note the format line.
Ciao.
The Mac Reads and Write most file formats without issue. However, it can only Read, not Write NTFS format natively. Many Users have bypassed this issue by buying Paragon software or Tuxera NFTS add-on Utilities that extends Mac OS X abilities to Write to NTFS drives as well.
With Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, requirements for kernel extensions have been tightened, and those NTFS extension do not load. They generate an error message into the System Logs, but few regular users ever venture there.
You will need to refresh those extensions with versions compatible with El Capitan. Alternatively, you could re-format those drives as Mac OS Extended drives (if there is no need to share with Windows) or as Ex-FAT drives (which can be read by both Windows and Mac without add-ons). Caution: Re-Initalizing a drive as a different format ERASES everything on it.
Does your account name appear in the permissions box, where it says Name / Privilege?
You can unlock the lock and then press the +, then select your account name.
Then there should be a box that says Read, you can click it and change to Read and Write. You will then have to hit the gear and apply to enclosed items.
If it doesn't work, try taking a screen shot of the Get Info window with the arrow for Sharing and Permissions pointing down.
Unable to change the permissions manually and the format still shows as Windows NT Filesystem but I download free Paragon software and now I have read and write permissions. It may be a compromise but it seems to get me out of immediate trouble.
Many thanks for your help
Unable to change the permissions manually and the format still shows as Windows NT Filesystem but I download free Paragon software and now I have read and write permissions. It may be a compromise but it seems to get me out of immediate trouble.
Many thanks for your help
Eventually you will want to format the hard drive properly, but this erases all data on the drive. So I would move all your files to your computer or to another hard drive before formatting the drive.
Also, Mac OS Extended only writes with Macs. It will have to be in FAT 32 if you want to use the external on both Windows and Macs. Personally, I have a 500GB external that is partitioned for both. It has 400GB for Mac OS Extended and 100GB for FAT32. That being said, Mac OS Extended is the best format to use with Macs. I would not use FAT 32 unless you have to use the external on a Windows computer as well.
This article says it is for Aperture...just ignore that. If you are using El Capitan, it looks a little bit different but there isn't a support article for El Capitan yet.
Format external drives to Mac OS Extended before using with Aperture - Apple Support
I'm having trouble copying files from my Macbook Pro to external hard drive
