FAT32 and exFAT are usable for both Windows and Mac operating systems. There are many different kinds of file systems, and each one has different structure and logic, properties of speed, flexibility, security, size, etc.īy default, Windows uses Microsoft NTFS file system while Mac uses HFS+ and APFS for OS volume.
Here are the main causes of why your external hard drive is read-only on Mac: Then, you can find a relevant and feasible solution to fix Mac external hard drive read-only issue without formatting. This post will analyze the three external hard drive read-only cases. For example, many people have reported that their WD My Passport read-only on Mac and don't know how to unlock Seagate external hard drive read-only on Mac. Usually, you can read and write to files on an external hard drive on your Mac, but there are chances that this external hard drive shows read-only on Mac.