How To Make NTFS Partitions Writable In Mac OSX

2/15/2021 since Big Sur came out, the OSXFUSE doesn’t seem to work with ntfs-3g using brew any more. .

2018-03-21 In case the ntfs-3g no longer works after Windows updates or macOS High Sierra update, we can re-install ntfs-3g by updating:

xcode-select –install

brew uninstall ntfs-3g

brew update

brew install ntfs-3g

sudo mount -uw /

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original3

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/ntfs-3g/*/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs

Reboot and everything should work if the Windows partition is clean – should run chkdsk or finish all the updates.

 

 

2017-05-29 Brew had been updated and it works perfectly with macOS Sierra 12.5. We no longer need install.rb to install homebrew.

brew install ntfs-3g (not homebrew/fuse/ntfs-3g)

2017-01-11 I tried to install Fuse 3.5.4 on macOS Sierra using the same procedure but failed to install Homebrew miserably due to error “/usr/local/bin: not a directory”. After hours of Googling and I found Skyl on github who wrote a script “Homebrew without sudo” (amazing script). He really made my day. Thanks Skyl. Now after installing homebrew correctly with install.rb. Here are the simple instruction codes needed to get fuse 3.5.4 to work. Must have xcode version 8.2.1 and command line tools installed to work with macOS Sierra.

Fuse 3.5.4 custom installation     xcode-select --install

homebrew_failed_macos_sierra     Install brew without sudo install.rb

brew update  !! if you installed homebrew already you will have an error.

brew update     brew update with Homebrew folder error

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

xcode-select --install

brew update

brew install ntfs-3g  !!check for the folder # inside the Cellar folder...

sudo mv /sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs.original  !!rename original mount_ntfs.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/ntfs-3g/*/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs  !!if you don't want to write the whole folder number.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/ntfs-3g/2016.2.22/sbin/mount_ntfs /sbin/mount_ntfs !! link mount_ntfs to mount_ntfs.

brew install homebrew/fuse/ntfs_3g     create mount_ntfs link

Now we’re done… reboot and we should be able to write to the Windows NTFS folder.

For Mac Wanna Be devices, we always have some NTFS partitions from Windows OS that need to be read and writable. There are many paid software out there to do that, but Howtogeek.com has an article on how to do this manually. It’s not hard, very easy and it works perfectly. We need all the files:  Fuse for MacOS 3.5.3 (current), XCODE, Homebrew. Just follow the instruction on howtogeek and we’ll get the NTFS partitions read and writable.

OSXFUSE 3.5.3 installation

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