User profile for user: James Smith13
James Smith13 Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

How can I change permissions for external drives on Mac mini?

I am new to Mac and have just purchased a Mini M4 with macOS Sequoia 15.4. I have hit a problem with accessing documents in an external drive as I am only being given read only access. This is despite my name showing as having read & write access on the privileges page. I have tried to amend access to read & write for “everyone” but get a “don’t have the necessary permission “. I have tried several options, including “csrutil disable” but nothing is working. Any solutions?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Access to external hard drive on Mac Mini M4


Posted on Jul 4, 2025 5:16 AM

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User profile for user: den.thed
den.thed
User level: Level 10
90,946 points

Posted on Jul 4, 2025 6:07 AM

How are the external drives formated..?


macOS can Read, but not Write to Windows NTFS formatted drives.


You need to copy the Data to macOS APFS formatted drives, exFat formatted drives for cross platform use or install NTFS software on the Mac.

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How can I change permissions for external drives on Mac mini?

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