Free Ways to Read a NTFS Drive on Mac

I was trying to copy files sitting on my USB flash drive to my Mac. However, the drive name is not showing up in Finder left sidebar. Hence, I am unable to do anything with the drive. It turns out the drive is formatted with NTFS file system, which is only available on a Windows PC.

Considering the fact that NTFS is the primary format used by Windows OS, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, read drives having NTFS format on a Mac. Fortunately, there are a few free ways you can try, which let you have full access to a NTFS drives on your Mac.

P.S if you want to avoid the trouble of using NTFS software each time it is plugged in, please format the drive to exFAT instead, which works on both Windows and macOS natively.

1. Mounty for NTFS

This is a free, lightweight tool that can be used to mount write-protected NTFS drives on a Mac in read-write mode. It supports most Mac versions from Mavericks to Big Sur.

Here’s how to use Mounty for NTFS. First, get the latest version of this tool from its official website. Once installed start the program, Mounty appears as an icon at upper right corner of menu bar.

With the help of various color codes, it indicates the status of NTFS drive and the tool itself as shown below.

Once the drive is mounted successfully with Mounty app, you will see a drive name in Finder. After that, you can read file or write file to it.

This also has a few issues associated with it. For example, your NTFS drive might disappear from desktop while using this tool, it throws an alert pop-up and does not allow the drive to be mounted, or sometimes the files maybe inactive and so cannot be changed in any way. However, they do have an FAQ page, you can go through that in case you come across any issues while using this tool.

Pros:

1. Free
2. Lightweight
3. No pop-ups

Cons:

1. Failed to detect NTFS drive formatted by 3rd-party tools.

2. Terminal

This is one of the simplest ways to extend support for all NTFS drives from your Mac. Simply open a terminal on your Mac and type the following command:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line to file opened in nano, be sure to replace “NAME” with the label of your NTFS drive:

LABEL=NAME none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

Once done, press ctrl+s to save the file, and then press ctrl+x to exit nano.

Connect the NTFS drive to your Mac, unplug it and reconnect it. Now you will get to see it under /Volumes directory.

In the Finder window, you can click Go > Go to Folder and type Volumes into the box to access it, this needs to be done since an NTFS drive does not pop up automatically like other drives normally do on your Mac.

Pros:

1. Free
2. No software installation

Cons:

1. Complex
2. Risky

3. Paragon NTFS for Mac (10-Day Free Trial)

This is a freemium utility from Paragon software using which you can gain full control of your NTFS drives on your Mac. Using this utility software, you can write, copy, edit, and even move and delete files on your Microsoft NTFS drives right from your Mac. It is built keeping in mind the Apple ARM architecture in mind, and it is completely compatible with M1-based Mac devices.

Install the software on your Mac computer and restart the computer as required. Open NTFS for Mac and you will see all disks on the left sidebar. Now, select the NTFS drive and click Mount tab on the right side. After that, you can freely read and write NTFS drive.

This utility is pretty fast compared to other similar products. You can perform all common tasks with this software like mount, unmount, and verify NTFS drives. It is somewhat similar in use to Apple’s own Disk Utility. It also has advanced options like mounting in read-only mode (just in case data sensitivity is an issue), and disabling automatic mounting.

It is compatible with most Mac OS including Big Sur, and can handle NTFS drives created by Windows NT 3.1 to Windows 10.

Pros:

1. Completely free for 10 days
2. Support macOS Big Sur and M1 Mac
3. Nice GUI and easy to navigate
4. Troubleshooting and online tutorial available

Cons:

1. Take more time for installation
2. Need a license key after free trial

4. Tuxera NTFS for Mac (15-Day Free Trial)

This is another freemium utility software that lets you play with NTFS drives on your Mac computer. Using this utility software, you can conveniently swap and change NTFS drives extending full read and write capabilities for those Windows NTFS drives. Also, this is the only software which supports the NTFS extended attributes which, in other words, are the metadata for your files stored on your NTFS drive.

Get the free version of the software and install it on your Mac. As soon as it is installed on your Mac, it overrides Mac’s own NTFS driver. From then on, open the app and pick up the drive from left sidebar. The Mount option now shows up at the bottom and click it to mount NTFS drive for reading and writing on Mac.

There are, however, some challenges. While using this software you need to ensure that you use the “Safely remove hardware” feature in Windows while removing NTFS drives, otherwise, Tuxera NTFS for Mac may find it difficult to mount the drive since it may be in an unstable state. Also, it will warn before you can mount a “hibernated” partition on your Mac as this can lead to loss of your data on that drive.

Pros:

1. 15-Day free trial
2. One license for three Macs
3. Faster file transfer speed with smart caching technology
4. Come with a free disk management app
5. Support OS X 10. 4 to macOS 11.1.3
6. Work on M1 Mac

Cons:

1. More steps for installation
2. Come with pop-up window and ask for purchase during free trial

The Bottom Line

These are the popular ways to open a NTFS drive on Mac. Mounty should be our first option as it is completely free. However, if it could not mount the NTFS drive, please go with Paragon or Tuxera NTFS software instead.