Time Machine problem with external HD

That's how Time Machine is setup now. It's a read only volume. The drive is dedicated entirely to Time Machine.

In the past, before the read only change, if one were to store files on the same drive as the Time Machine backups there would be no backup for those files. If the TM drive crashed those extra files would be lost for good.

Drives are inexpensive. If you need extra storage you might consider a setup like the following:

It's economical if not aesthetic and lets you easily swap out SSDs if needed - or not. Just some food for thought.

Holger Jensen wrote:

Thanks for your response but I remain puzzled. I have the latest MacMini with a LaCie 2TB external HD for Time Machine backups plus other files that I stored there. After the latest Ventura OS update I had no problem creating yet another backup on that LaCie HD without erasing it or the other volumes stored there. I also have a MacBook Pro and had a spare a LaCie 1TB HD lying around that I wanted to use for a Time Machine backup. That's where the "read only" problem occurred. And if Time Machine backups are now on read-old drives, how does one access them for a restore?

Starting with Big Sur, Time Machine creates new backups on an APFS (Case-sensitive) volume that is read-only.

It will continue to use the old HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) backups, but will always erase and format a new backup as APFS (case-sensitive) and read only.

When your external drive or any storage drive shows up as “Read Only” on your mac, then you might be encountering a very common problem with the hard drive. In such situation, user can open and view the files on a drive but cannot copy or move files to the storage drive. The possible reasons for this issue could be:

1. External drive is NTFS formatted

2. Disk permission changed as “Read Only”

3. External drive is corrupted

However, the issue can be fixed using below DIY methods:

1. Reformat the external drive

2. Change/Ignore permissions on external drive

3. Repair external drive with disk utility’s first aid

Hope this will help you fix the issue!

[Link Edited by Moderator]

That's normal for Time Machine and the new system Ventura., i.e. the read only part.

When do you get the notification, every time TM makes a backup? That is not normal.

Holger Jensen wrote:

And if Time Machine backups are now on read-old drives, how does one access them for a restore?

As always, thru the Time Machine app via the TM menu in the menubar.

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You can partition them or you can create APFS Volumes on them for Time Machine and other. But, it is always poor practice to store anything on a backup drive.