I am unable to delete files from my passport external drive on MacBook Air

bapumk wrote:

Thanks. It is NTFS formatted. Online recommendation is to install  Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software to edit NTFS formatted files. I am wondering if it is safe to do.

If this is a new drive that you will be using only with the Mac, another option would be to reformat it using a Mac filesystem – either APFS or HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). In either case, you'd want to tell Disk Utility to format the drive as NON-case-sensitive. In the case of HFS+, you would want to choose the Journaled option. APFS is the newer filesystem and is better optimized for SSDs. HFS+ may be better at avoiding fragmentation on HDDs.

Reformatting would destroy existing files on the drive, so this would be something to do to a new drive you had just bought for extra storage, not to a drive full of valuable files that you were bringing over from a Windows PC.

Hi there!

Do you see an error when you try to delete files on your external disk, or can you not see the option to delete files? Also, let us know how the external disk is formatted. You can find out in Finder by choosing Go > Computer, then control-click the external disk and select "Get Info." Its format will be displayed there.

-Jack

Yes, MS NTFS for Mac by Paragon is safe to use. It gives the Mac the ability to write to NTFS formatted drives, which also enables the deletion of files. Mac can only read those drives otherwise and therefore cannot manipulate files.

The recommendation is solid.