How to write to NTFS drives on macOS

Updated August 2026 · applies to macOS 13–15

macOS reads NTFS out of the box but silently mounts it read-only: you can copy files off your PC's external drive, but not put anything on it. Here are the actual ways to get write support, and the trade-offs of each.

Option 1: ntfs-3g over FUSE (open source)

ntfs-3g is the reference open source NTFS driver — the same one every Linux distribution uses. On a Mac it runs over a FUSE layer: either macFUSE (a kernel extension, which on Apple Silicon means Recovery Mode and reduced security) or FUSE-T (no kext at all). This is the stack Omnimount ships: ntfs-3g over FUSE-T, wrapped in a menu bar app.

Option 2: commercial drivers

Paragon NTFS (~$20/seat, subscription-ish upgrades) and Tuxera NTFS (~$40) install their own drivers with good performance and vendor support. Solid products; you're paying for closed-source convenience. Mounty, a popular free tool, deserves a warning: it flips Apple's experimental native NTFS write flag, which Apple itself never enabled by default — corruption reports are common enough that we'd keep it away from data you care about.

Option 3: reformat to exFAT

If the drive doesn't need to stay NTFS, exFAT is read/write everywhere — Windows, macOS, Linux, TVs. It's the right answer for a shared external drive you control. It's not an option for Boot Camp partitions, a friend's disk, or drives with Windows-specific ACLs — and mind that exFAT has no journal, so it's less forgiving of unplug accidents.

Checklist before writing to any NTFS disk

• If Windows "Fast Startup" hibernated the disk, mount will be read-only or fail — boot Windows and shut down fully, or mount with the remove_hiberfile option.
• Eject before unplugging; NTFS journals, but half-written files are still lost.
• Bitlocker-encrypted drives can't be opened by any macOS NTFS driver — unlock them on Windows first.