Corrupted external hard drive : The external hard drive you’re trying to copy files to could be corrupted.

Permission issue : The read-only permission setting is a hindrance that restricts you from copying files from a Mac to your external hard drive.

Since Mac OS doesn’t have native support for the system, it will have read-only access to your external hard drive.

Read-only file system : The external hard drive could be formatted as New Technology File System (NTFS), a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft.

Full disk space : The external hard drive may not have enough space to store the files you’re trying to copy.

Connectivity issue: The external hard drive isn’t properly connected to your Mac, leading to a poor connection between it and the external hard drive.We’ve analyzed some potential reasons in this section. Several things can cause the failure to copy data from your Mac to an external hard drive. Why Are You Unable to Copy Files from a Mac to an External Hard Drive? What do you do when you can’t copy files from a Mac to an external hard drive? In this article, we will elaborate on some possible reasons why this might happen and several fixes that you can try to get your files transferred. But sometimes, transferring files from your Mac to an external hard drive may not work. Generally, an external hard drive will be detectable and recognizable after being attached to your Mac, making it easy to copy files from your Mac to the external hard drive. They can be either solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard disk drives (HDDs), and they come in various capacities ranging from a few gigabytes to several terabytes. It provides additional storage capacity for your computer, allowing you to store large files that might not fit on your computer’s internal hard drive.Įxternal hard drives can be used to back up your important files, transfer files from one computer to another, or expand the amount of storage you have available for your computer. An external hard drive is a portable storage device that can be connected to a computer using a USB or other type of connection.

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