SOLVED External Hard drive/memory stick issues on USB ports

[jnscts]

Unable to extract or add data/JPEG’s to any device connected to USB ports on MB air. The external devices
work perfectly on Microsoft Windows PC; so I am sure there is a setting on the MB that is stopping the transfer
of Data

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-Which model Mac?
-Which version of OS X/macOS?
-What brand/model are the USB devices?
-Do other USB devices work - keyboards/mice?

C

 

[jnscts]

Evening Cory,
The MB is running Catalina ver 10.15.6 and the Mb Air is an early model.. I have tried two
Ext HD.s. 1 is a Seagate Expansion portable drive 320 Gb with a lot of jpeg pictures from at least 14 years back ( this works fine on a Win 7 machine ) the other is, not as yet used is a WD my passport Ultra 1 TB HD ( just noticed that it has Windows 10 On the box. Getting back to the stick I can take jpegs off the usb stick and onto the desktop on the MB but cannot move any info/JPEG’s onto the stick from the MB. Also my question being is it best to buy a new stick/hard drive Can a portable HD be formatted using the MB. When I do plug in any of those issues I see them pop up on the desktop. Mr C I appreciate and thank you for your previous help; no doubt you will remember the MacFee deletion issue ( those instructions you gave me were magic)
Kind regards John

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello again,

Yes, I remember that.

If you can read from the USB drives, but not write to them, then it is probably due to the way they are formatted. macOS cannot write to NTFS formatted disks natively. You could do a Get Info on them and see how they are formatted/setup.

C

 

[jnscts]

Evening C,
That looks possibly like the problem - So the Passport portable would have been pre- formatted ( Hence the Windows 10 Info on the package; but I am unsure of the reason why the flash sticks have similar problems. I am now thinking that there was one still that seemed to be ok. Now that you have highlighted that this might be the issue - I will check all again; and even go ahead and purchase a new one, and get back to you in a day or two ( still in lockdown and don’t like to venture out to often. Last question can Flash-sticks be formatted and HD are already done by the manufacture. I will finish War & Peace and thanks so far

 

[Lufbrarunner]

You can use 'Disk Utility' to reformat a Drive or USB stick

 

[jnscts]

Thanks I noted that when Cory gave me an answer yesterday

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, let us know what the formatting is.

You should be able to erase and format them to be compatible, but you will lose all of the data on them when you do that, so make a backup of anything you'd like to save.

C

 

[jnscts]

Hi C,
I did as you requested and went in Disk Utilities and changed the format to : -
MAc OS Extended ( case Sensitive Journaled) and that has done the trick. There were a couple
Of different choices but selected that one. ( I hope that is correct ? )

 

[jnscts]

You can use 'Disk Utility' to reformat a Drive or USB stick

Many thanks I have gone that way - I informed Cory that there were a couple of different prompts
But Iselected “. MAC OS Extended ( Case Sensitive Journaled ).coming out of that I now could add and
Remove items which I could not do before. I am hope this was the correct selection. - again many
Thanks for your help. Regards. Jnscts

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Yes, that will work if you are only using the drive for Macs, as that format be readable on a PC.

C

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Happy to hear you have it sorted.
As Cory says, that will be fine to read and write on a Mac. If you needed to be able to read and write on both Mac and PC Ex Fat or Fat would do the trick.