Jun 19, 2019  Paragon NTFS for Mac 15 is a file system driver that allows Mac OS X Yosemite and later (incuding macOS Sierra) to read and write to hard drives, solid-state storage devices, and USB thumb drives formatted for Windows systems. NTFS for Mac OS X is a software that allows detecting an NTFS storage device with a Mac OS. It is possible to modify, erase all stored data in this volume. With high performance of the Mac system, NTFS for Mac OS X offers the same transfer rate as the native format of Mac OS. The user can then extract any stored data in his NTFS drive and copy.

NTFS write support is still disabled on macOS Mojave. This is because NTFS is developed by Microsoft and can only be used on Windows platform. Mac only enables NTFS drive read support, but disable the write support. How to write to NTFS drives in macOS Mojave? The easiest way is to install an NTFS for Mac application.

Is there free NTFS for macOS Mojave?

The answer is yes. There are a few free NTFS for Mac drivers available, but they are not reliable nor secure.iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is one of the best which is cost-effective and feature-rich. Let's have a look.

NTFS for macOS Mojave - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac allows users to write to NTFS drive on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8. It will mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode automatically. Besides, you can open, unmount, eject, repair and erase NTFS volumes with one click. Another nice feature is that iBoysoft NTFS for Mac can allow users to open all attached external disks like USB flash drives, SD cards, memory sticks and external hard drives in the drive list. You can also reformat them to NTFS if you like.

Tutorial to write to NTFS external hard drive on macOS Mojave with iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft NTFS for Mac on Mac running macOS Mojave.

Step 2: Launch iBoysoft NTFS for Mac and connect the NTFS external hard drive to Mac.

Step 3: Write to NTFS external hard drive after the drive is mounted successfully.

How to write NTFS drive in macOS Mojave for free?

You can reformat NTFS drive to exFAT/FAT32. As two of the oldest file systems, exFAT and FAT32 are universally supported by Windows and Mac. If you want toshare an external drive between Windows and Mac, reformatting NTFS drive to exFAT or FAT32 is the first choice. But reformatting will erase all data stored on the NTFS drive, you should back up all important files in prior to this operation. If you forget to do any backup or lose data during copying files,iBoysoft Data Recovery can help you recover lost data from formatted external drive.

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.

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.

NTFS for Mac - free drivers for macOS

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.

Ntfs Driver For Mac Free

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.

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 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:

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 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:

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 NTFS for Mac app, 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 NTFS write 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.

Best 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

Ntfs Driver For Mac Os Sierra Free Download

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:

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.

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 For Mac

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.