Before you are led to the introduction of free NTFS drivers for Mac, here is some background information in case you don't know.
You can read Windows NTFS drives on Mac. But Mac can't write to NTFS drives, including create, edit, copy, paste, delete, or transfer files on NTFS drive on Mac desktops and laptops. Do you know why?
NTFS is a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple. NTFS is used by default on Windows platform, especially for system drive. Additionally, if you use Boot Camp to create a Windows partition on your Mac, you will find you can't mount BOOTCAMP Widnows partition with both read-write access either. Up to now, Mac operating systems, including macOS Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and Mac OS X El Capitan, only provide NTFS read support but deny NTFS write support.
Dec 19, 2017 Use NTFS Drives On Mac Os High Sierra 10.13 - YouTube. Dec 19, 2017 8:33 AM Reply Helpful (5) Thread reply - more options. Link to this Post; User profile for user: Kurt Lang Kurt Lang User level: Level 8 (49,403 points) macOS. NTFS-3G is an open-source project from Tuxera, so the public can download this NTFS for Mac free to write to Windows NTFS drives on Mac computers. Set aside its advantage for being free, NTFS-3G is complained a lot because of its poor performance. The Mac Mini simply does not like it and the Paragon Drivers, for whatever reason, have just stopped working altogether. Try Tuxtera for the Mac-Mini —this would be most informative —15 day free trial. Tuxera NTFS for Mac – Read and write Windows drives on your Mac. Report back your success or failure.
You know the business, but for users, is there any way to let Mac write NTFS drives? Can you make the NTFS drive fully compatible with macOS or Mac OS X? Sure. The easiest method is to use NTFS driver for macOS software.
If you are looking for a totally free NTFS for Mac software, there are four options: Mounty for NTFS, NTFS-3G, FUSE for macOS and SL-NTFS.
Some Mac users may have upgraded to macOS Catalina and are digging around for an NTFS driver for macOS 10.15. But it's hard to find a Free NTFS for Mac that supports macOS 10.15 yet. Fortunately, iBoysoft has upgraded their software iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to be compatible with macOS Catalina.
If you are using a Mac running macOS 10.14 and earlier, you can try the NTFS driver for Mac below and share NTFS drives between Windows and Mac.
Mounty for NTFS is completely free software to enable write ability to NTFS drives on Mac. It has simple design to help users mount NTFS drives with write support on Mac.
As a free utility, Mounty for NTFS does have some highlights:
But Mounty for NTFS dose get complaints because:
NTFS-3G is an open-source project from Tuxera, so the public can download this NTFS for Mac free to write to Windows NTFS drives on Mac computers.
Set aside its advantage for being free, NTFS-3G is complained a lot because of its poor performance. Some main drawbacks of this free NTFS driver for Mac are listed below:
FUSE for macOS (was OSXFUSE) is another open and free NTFS driver for Mac from Tuxera that can enable write support to NTFS drives on Mac. In fact, FUSE is a file system extension that allows user to read and write disks with the formats that are not fully supported by Apple.
FUSE for macOS is worth trying because:
As a free NTFS driver for Mac, FUSE for macOS has some obvious limitations:
SL-NTFS means Snow Leopard NTFS. As a matter of fact, writing to NTFS on Apple is possible since Mac OS 10.6 without any third-party NTFS driver, but the NTFS writing support is disabled by default. Therefore, SL-NTFS is used as an interface on the Apple NTFS driver to enable writing to NTFS drives on Mac.
As a free NTFS for Mac app, SL-NTFS has some pros as followings:
However, SL-NTFS has some cons to prevent people from using it.
Generally speaking, despite of being free, those free NTFS for Mac software have various flaws, making them very risky to use.
If you are afraid of using a risky free NTFS utility for Mac, there are two cost-effective alternatives for you. Even though they are not completely free, they can provide a lot of merits that free NTFS drivers don't have.
Free NTFS drivers for Mac can be troublemakers because of their low write speed, poor compatibility, no technical support, etc. Nevertheless, you don't have to pay a fortune to get enough reliability, stability and simplicity from a cost-effective NTFS for Mac - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac or iBoysoft Drive Manager.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is an ultimate NTFS for Mac solution in macOS and Mac OS X that can easily help you mount NTFS volumes on Mac desktops and laptops as regular drives in read-write mode.
iBoysoft NTFS for Mac has quite a few advantages you can take into account:
Another great alternative to free NTFS driver for Mac is iBoysoft Drive Manager. It is a handy Mac tool that can enable full read-write access to NTFS drives on Mac and help manage multiple external drivers/network drives with one click.
iBoysoft Drive Manager is a great replacement of a free NTFS driver for Mac because:
If you want to know any disadvantages that iBoysoft Drive Manager might have, I would say the only one should be - it is not free. But it is really cheap compared with other commercial NTFS for Mac programs, such as Paragon and Tuxera.
We also provide a table to help you find the most preferable NTFS driver:
NTFS driver for macOS | iBoysoft Drive Manager | iBoysoft NTFS for Mac | Mounty for Mac | NTFS-3G | FUSE for macOS | SL-NTFS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NTFS writing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Auto-mount NTFS in read-write mode | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Speed | Fast | Fast | Slow | Slow | Slow | Slow |
Supported Mac OS | macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.8. | macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.8. | macOS 10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.6. | macOS 10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.6. | macOS 10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.6. | macOS 10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11 to 10.6. |
Supported devices | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. (not all) | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. | USB drives, SD cards, HDDs, etc. (not all) |
Supported file system | NTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc. | NTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc. | NTFS | NTFS | NTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc. | NTFS |
Tech support | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Simple installation | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Ease of use | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Other | 1.Manage external storage media with one click. 2.Map network drive as local drives. | 1. Repair NTFS. 2.Erase NTFS volumes. 3.Reformat other file systems into NTFS. | N/A | N/A | Multiple languages are available. | N/A |
Price | $29.95 | $19.95 | Free | Free | Free | Free |
Free download | Download | Download | Download | Download | Download | Download |
Now, you have a few options in your hands. If you don't care the risks and want to try out the free NTFS for Mac programs, generally speaking, Mounty for NTFS and FUSE for macOS are better ones. However, if you care about the reliability, technical support and NTFS write speed a lot, or you are specifically looking for an NTFS driver for macOS Catalina, Mojave or High Sierra, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is your best choice.
I installed NTFS for Mac 15 on a MacBook Air (13 inch, 2017) running Mac OSX High Sierra (10.3.2). When I do System Preferences, NTFS for Mac, I immediately get a window that says 'Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 system extensioons is blocked! (I attach a screen snapshot). I try the Allow button in System Preferences, Security & Privacy, General tab, but that does not cure the problem. The external hard drive that I wish to use is a Seagate Free Agent GoGlex 500 GB drive, but the problem that I describe above occurs without even attaching the drive to the USB port.