Ntfs 3g For Mac Os X Download

NTFS-3G is an open source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read-write support.

Oct 11, 2010 The development of NTFS-3G for Mac OS X is funded by Tuxera Ltd. Download: NTFS-3G for Mac OS X 2010.10.2; Source code; System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4/10.5/10.6 (10.6 requires that you do not use the 64-bit kernel), running on an Intel or PowerPC computer. The package has been tested with Mac OS X 10.4.11/PowerPC, Mac OS X 10.5.8/PowerPC.

  • The NTFS-3G driver is a safe read/write NTFS driver for Linux, Mac OS X, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, QNX, Windows and Haiku, providing fast and POSIX handling of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Windows 7 file system.
  • NTFS-3G for Mac 2019 – This app was released by Tuxera Inc. And updated into the new version at June, 28th 2017. Download NTFS-3G 2017.3.23 for Mac from Apps4MAC.com. 100% Safe and Secure Read-Write NTFS filesystem driver for Mac.

Please note that NTFS-3G and FUSE for macOS are independent projects. Should you run into NTFS-3G related issues please post the issues on the NTFS-3G support forum at http://tuxera.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=7.

Installation

The following instructions assume that you know how to use Terminal. Doing this the wrong way could damage your operating system.

First, download and install the latest release of FUSE for macOS from http://osxfuse.github.io. You will need at least version 3.0.

Then, if you don't have it yet, install the package manager 'Homebrew' as described on https://brew.sh.

Install NTFS-3G from Homebrew by opening a Terminal and entering the following command.

After installing NTFS-3G you can manually mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode by executing the following commands in Terminal. Replace /dev/disk1s1 with the actual NTFS partition you want to mount. You can find the partition name using diskutil list.

Auto-mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode

Even though you have installed NTFS-3G, newly connected NTFS volumes will still be auto-mounted in read-only mode. To change this you need to replace Apple's NTFS mount tool /sbin/mount_ntfs with the one provided by NTFS-3G.

It is important that you understand the security implications of what you are about to do. The mount tool is executed with root permissions. This means that NTFS-3G's mount tool will be executed with root permissions, too. Due to the way Homebrew installs software packages, NTFS-3G's mount tool is not protected from being tampered with by unprivileged attackers, essentially giving those attackers root access to your Mac. This is a major security risk. You have been warned.

Note:

On OS X El Capitan files in the /sbin directory are protected from being tampered with by a new security feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). SIP does not protect you against the security threat outlined above.

To replace /sbin/mount_ntfs with the version provided by NTFS-3G you will need to reboot your Mac in recovery mode before proceeding. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314 for details on how to start the recovery system.

Once in recovery mode open a new Terminal window from the Utilities menu.

If volume is APFS, then it will need to be unlocked to install mount_ntfs. Let's assume that Macintosh HD is identified as disk1s1.

To replace Apple's NTFS mount tool with the one provided by NTFS-3G execute the following commands in Terminal. This will back up the original mount tool to /Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin/mount_ntfs.orig.

Uninstallation

To uninstall NTFS-3G, open a Terminal prompt and enter the following:

If you have replaced Apple's NTFS mount tool /sbin/mount_ntfs with the one provided by NTFS-3G to auto-mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode you will need to restore the original mount tool.

Note:

On OS X El Capitan files in the /sbin directory are protected from being tampered with by a new security feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). You will need to reboot your Mac in recovery mode before proceeding. See above for details.

Once in recovery mode open a new Terminal window from the Utilities menu.

To restore Apple's NTFS mount tool execute the following command in Terminal.

Auto-mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode on macOS 10.15 Catalina

This is a advanced guide. If you can't use Terminal please STOPPPPPPP

  • Reboot macOS to Recovery Mode (Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘)-R.)
  • Disable SIP with command csrutil disable, you need to reboot mac device. Please note reboot to Recovery Mode
  • Open Terminal in Recovery Mode from Menu bar -> Utilities -> Terminal
  • Get list disk available with command diskutil list
  • Please flow a label (synthesized) - this is disk installed macOS. See NAME column, a name as Macintosh HD - Data - this is a general name, it can unlike your mac device.
  • See IDENTIFIER in this row. A identifier like disk2s1
  • Unlock this volume with command diskutil apfs unlockVolume disk2s1
  • Go to system folder sbin with command cd '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/sbin'
  • Backup apple original mount_ntfs use command mv mount_ntfs mount_ntfs.orig
  • Set NTFS 3G as default mount_ntfs with command ln -s '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/usr/local/sbin/mount_ntfs' mount_ntfs
  • You can re-enable SIP with command csrutil enable
  • Reboot to normal mac

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is NTFS-3G's write performance so poor?

The ntfs-3g program opens and does I/O to the block device /dev/disk[number] of the NTFS volume in question. macOS does not have a VM buffer cache for block devices when they are accessed in this way. That is the most overwhelming factor, because both metadata operations and file data I/O boil down to read-writes by NTFS-3G to the block device.

Suppose we somehow automagically provided unified buffer caching for block devices by essentially making a disk look like a giant file. Even then, macOS and its buffer cache is really happy only when you do I/O that is in units of page size (4KB) and aligned on a page boundary. To get the most out of the I/O subsystem in macOS, ntfs-3g (or any other program for that matter) would really want to do I/O in multiples of 4KB.

For comparison, you should try writing to an NTFS disk image. You will see that it is considerably faster because you do have some caching in that case.

2. After installing NTFS-3G, my Boot Camp volume stopped showing up in the 'Startup Disk' preference pane. Is reinstalling macOS, Boot Camp, and Windows the only recourse?

Relax. The 'Startup Disk' preference pane is simply filtering out (that is, not displaying) any mounted volumes that it does not consider bootable. Its definition of a Boot Camp volume includes that the mounted volume either be of type msdos or ntfs - this is hardcoded into the preference pane plugin. This does not mean your Boot Camp volume has become unbootable. It is merely not showing up in the graphical user interface. You can hold the 'opt' key during startup and choose the Windows partition to boot from. You can also remount it (read-only) using the NTFS file system built into macOS and it should start showing up in 'Startup Disk'.

By Juno Posted to NTFS for Mac, updated on July 26, 2019

Before you are led to the introduction of free NTFS drivers for Mac, here is some background information that might interest you.

Did you know why you can read files stored on Windows NTFS drives but can't create, edit, copy, paste, delete, or transfer files on NTFS drive on Mac desktops and laptops? NTFS is a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple, and is used by default on Windows platform, especially for system drive. Additionally, if you use Boot Cam 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 till now, Mac operating system such as macOS Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra or Mac OS X El Capitan and earlier only provides NTFS read support but denies NTFS write support.

Any way to solve this incompatibility problem? 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 driver for macOS, there are four options: Mounty for NTFS, NTFS-3G, FUSE for macOS and SL-NTFS.

Four free NTFS drivers for macOS

Some Mac users may have upgraded to macOS Catalina and are digging around for an NTFS driver for macOS 10.15, I have to say that almost all NTFS drivers for Mac, either free or commercial, don't support macOS 10.15 yet. Fortunately, iBoysoft has upgraded their software iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to be compatible with macOS Catalina.

Mac

If you are using a Mac running macOS 10.14 and earlier, a free NTFS driver for Mac would probably help you share NTFS drives between Windows and Mac.

1. Mounty for NTFS

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:

  1. Totally free.
  2. Fast download and installation because it is less than 1MB.
  3. One-time installation and no additional driver needed.

But Mounty for NTFS dose get complaints because:

  1. The write speed to NTFS drive is rather slow.
  2. It can't mount the NTFS formatted drives in read-write mode automatically.
  3. It can be unstable and fails to mount NTFS drives.
  4. It can cause data loss problems.
  5. It doesn't provide tech support.
  6. The software is not compatible with the latest macOS Catalina or Mojave.

2. NTFS-3G

NTFS-3G is an open-source project from Tuxera, so the public can free down this NTFS driver 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:

  1. Complicated installation. You have to know how to use Terminal or have already downloaded FUSE for macOS, Homebrew or Xcode.
  2. Poor usability. Users have to use the software by command lines in Terminal instead of an interface.
  3. Poor compatibility. NTFS-3G only supports macOS 10.12 or earlier. It doesn't support the latest macOS 10.15 and macOS 10.14.
  4. Slow write speed. The file transferring is noticeably slow.
  5. Tuxera stops maintaining this utility.
  6. No technical support. As freeware, no technical support is available when issues occur.

3. FUSE for macOS

FUSE for macOS (was OSXFUSE) is another open source project 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:

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  1. It is free of charge.
  2. It is compatible with Mac operating system from Mac OS X 10.6 to macOS 10.14.
  3. Multiple languages are available.

As a free NTFS driver for Mac, FUSE for macOS has some obvious limitations:

  1. It can be unreliable sometimes such as file size being reported as 0 bytes.
  2. It has no technical support when issues occur.

4. SL-NTFS

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 utility for Mac, SL-NTFS has some pros as followings:

  1. It is free.
  2. It is simple to install.

However, SL-NTFS has some cons to prevent people from using it.

  1. It has limited access to a large number of files and a large volume of data.
  2. It can't enable writing on some NTFS external hard drives.
  3. It can cause conflicts if you have another NTFS enabler installed.
  4. It has no technical support.

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.

Cheap NTFS drivers for Mac

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

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:

  1. It can mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode automatically.
  2. It can unmount and eject NTFS volumes with one click.
  3. It can repair NTFS file system errors.
  4. It can erase NTFS volumes for data cleanup.
  5. It can reformat other file system (except APFS) into NTFS.
  6. It is fully compatible with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
  7. It is easy to install and use.
  8. Free technical support is provided.

iBoysoft Drive Manager

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.

Ntfs-3g For Mac Os X Download

iBoysoft Drive Manager is a great replacement of a free NTFS driver for Mac because:

  1. It is extremely affordable and offers 7-day free trial.
  2. It is fully compatible with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
  3. It is fast to write to NTFS drives and transfer files between NTFS drives and Mac.
  4. It is easy to install and use.
  5. It provides lifetime free upgrades.
  6. Free technical support is provided.
  7. Besides powerful NTFS writing support, it can manage external drives and map network drives as local drives in the Finder.

Ntfs-3g

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 Os X

NTFS driver for macOSiBoysoft Drive ManageriBoysoft NTFS for MacMounty for MacNTFS-3GFUSE for macOSSL-NTFS
NTFS writingYesYesYesYesYesYes
Auto-mount NTFS in read-write mode YesYesNoNoYesYes
SpeedFastFastSlowSlowSlowSlow
Supported Mac OSmacOS 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 devicesUSB 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 systemNTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc.NTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc.NTFSNTFSNTFS, APFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc.NTFS
Tech supportYesYesNoNoNoNo
Simple installationYesYesYesNoNoYes
Ease of useYesYesYesNoYesYes
Other1.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/AN/AMultiple languages are available.N/A
Price$29.95$14.97 ($29.95)FreeFreeFreeFree
Free downloadDownloadDownloadDownloadDownloadDownloadDownload

Ntfs 3g For Mac Os X Download Software

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.