Mounty for NTFS
A menu bar helper that flips an NTFS drive from read-only to read-write.
What it does
macOS mounts NTFS volumes read-only. The kernel can write NTFS, but Apple does not enable it. Mounty unmounts the volume and remounts it with the write flag set, from a menu bar item or a notification when a drive is plugged in.
For moving files to a drive shared with a Windows machine occasionally, that is far less invasive than installing a FUSE-based driver.
Apple’s NTFS write support is undocumented and not officially supported. It is fine for copying files; it is not something to trust with the only copy of important data, and an unclean unmount can leave the volume needing
chkdsk on Windows. Always eject properly, and for a drive shared between systems regularly, use exFAT instead.Notes
Free. It does not work on volumes that are already dirty — Windows has to repair those first.
Alternative to
| Alternative | Type | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Paragon NTFS for Mac or Tuxera NTFS | Paid | Fully supported NTFS write drivers |
| ntfs-3g with macFUSE | Open source | Needs a kernel extension |
| exFAT | Built in | Reformat the drive and the problem disappears for both operating systems |
Install
brew install --cask mounty