I have a usb flash drive with the permission set to read only. The dive is formatted FAT32. Disk utility is unable to erase it. I get an error every time. If there is another way around this i'd love to know. There are no options to change the permissions under the info pane either.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)
Have you tried to erase the entire flash drive instead of the FAT32 volume?
Yes, it is possible to change file permissions using Terminal. Based on the information you have given this probably won't resolve the issue. The chmod (CHange MODe) has been in Unix-like and Unix-based systems since Unix version 1 in the 1970's and is used for changing file and folder permissions. To open the manual for chmod; type "man chmod" in Terminal then press return.
FAT32 does not have permissions, and permissions are irrelevant when formatting a drive, so that is not the problem.
It may be that the drive has begun to fail. Some of them will lock themselves when they begin to have problems, hopefully to prevent loss of the rest of the information on the drive.
There is also the possibility that there is a problem with Disk Utility, but I haven't noticed an issue formatting the few USB sticks I've tried.
a handful of USB drives I've come across that would not format in Mac formatted perfectly in Windows and were usable on the Mac once I formatted.
The drive has failed. I contacted SanDisk and they are sending me a replacement. Thanks!
is there a way to remove read only permissions from terminal in el capitan
