Why can't I copy and paste files from Mac Studio internal drive to an external HDD with read-only staff permissions?

Hello,

Why can't I copy and paste files from my Mac Studio internal drive to an external HDD why do I have to drag and drop? Why can't I just copy and paste? I hate to drag and drop!!!

Both drives are APFS.

I copy and paste all the time from my Mac Studio 512GB internal to another 2TB external APFS HDD drive all the time with no problems.

The permissions settings on this 2TB external APFS HDD drive is read and write for administrator (aka my name) and read and write for staff and read only for everyone.

The permissions settings on the 18TB external APFS HDD drive that I can NOT copy and paste to are read and write for administrator (a.k.a. my name) and read only for staff and read only for everyone.

I couldn’t find a paste option anywhere, including by trying a Command-V action.

And when I try to change the staff permissions to read and write like the permission settings are set on the 2TB HDD on this 18 TB drive it tells me I don’t have permission… I’ve tried everything.

I also tried booting to this 18 TB external drive, but it only shows permissions for administrator and wheel and everyone there is no staff permission to change to read and write like on the 2 TB drive settings.

I even tried logging into my other two users on this 18 TB drive and it’s the same as I just mentioned in the previous paragraph.

In users and groups on my Mac, there is one user that is administrator which is my name would adding another user to this help me to do what I’m trying to do?

I’ve spent many days and so much work on this hopefully somebody out there can help me out because I really need it!!!

I hate dragging and dropping!!!

Thank You!!!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Mar 8, 2025 4:20 PM

27 replies

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HWTech

Level 9

63,512 points

Mar 21, 2025 9:44 PM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

I'm just curious about the specific difficulty you encounter with the Drag & Drop. I know with the Apple Trackpads with Haptic Feedback, that I cannot do anything correctly as long as the Haptic Feedback setting is enabled. Is this perhaps part of the issue you may be having with the Drag & Drop? Try turning Haptic Feedback off within the Trackpad System Settings to see if this makes any difference for you.

Another thing I do is to disable the Tap to Click feature since there is no adjust available. I get into so much trouble with Tap to Click enabled since it is usually much to sensitive for me.

If the Drag & Drop issue you have is with trying to accurately drop the items at the correct location, then this can indeed be tricky at times especially if you hover the pointer over a folder too long which will open it. The trick is to hover over the white space area between the icons in Icon View, or far enough to the right if using List View (there is a sweet spot where you can hover in List View).

I'm very dangerous with a Trackpad, but I do manage for the most part by customizing those Trackpad settings & learning to hover over the white area sweet spots so folders do not automatically open when hovering too long. You can hover over the back arrow in the Finder to close the automatically opened folder to return to the previous folder as well.

Maybe these things can help you as well.

I don't think the drives are the problem with the Copy & Paste action.

Mar 22, 2025 6:50 AM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

You never responded to my illustrated solution to get the destination window ready to accept the files DIRECTLY, eliminating the drag, open drive, open folder, open another folder, drop ... then call your hand doctor for the aching.

with HWtech's additional suggestions, it should make drag-and-drop doable. Please be sure and try it.

Mar 22, 2025 9:27 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Zurarczurx wrote:

This doesn't answer the OP's question.

After looking through the Apple support document for copying and moving files, I could not easily find a recommendation to use Copy and Paste for this function.

THIS was my answer posted above:

Drag and Drop really is the preferred method for moving files. Copying a file reference to the clipboard is mainly intended for manipulating NAMES of items, not the items themselves.

Mar 23, 2025 12:40 PM in response to HWTech

You said you didn’t think the drives were a problem. What about the drive dock? Should I buy a different drive dock?

I know how to drag and drop but sometimes I make mistakes it works,

But I need to have copy and paste. I’ve been working on this for five weeks now.

Mar 23, 2025 1:52 PM in response to APPLE DREAMER - PC CLINGER

I think if you were to contact Apple Support with this complaint, they would be really nice to you, but say essentially:

"To copy or move files on a Mac, use Drag and Drop. We will not fix 'copy and paste a group of files' because we never proposed, supported, or documented doing it that way. So it's not broken."