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macOS Monterey external TimeMachine disk is read only.

macOS Monterey external TimeMachine disk is read only.


I have 5 TB external Seagate disk I want to use as a TimeMachine backup as well as secondary storage. Once the disks is setup as TimeMachine Disk, the disk is READ ONLY with no dropdown options to change the rights. The weird thing is IF I USE a backup drive from my OLD MacBook Pro, Time Machine on the new MacBook will use that drive as well as providing storage for iTunes, etc.

Posted on Nov 1, 2021 5:08 AM

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Posted on Nov 1, 2021 6:02 AM

A Time Machine disk appears as read only. This is perfectly normal.

You should only use the Time Machine volume for Time Machine and not other stuff. You could partition the drive and reserve a portion for other files, or whatever.

6 replies

Nov 6, 2021 8:13 AM in response to WKOztotl

Seeing this read only access problem on an empty external disk of mine I made my time machine back up external drive when my original disk was full I scouted around and found that several experts said it was an error on the drive and how to repair it.

I bought a new drive (im not confident in all the techie stuff) mounted the new drive and "You have custom access" changed to read only.

I thought that this cant be an error but the way time machine is set up (as luis says).

So., if I create a new volume (however I do that) I should get the read/write access from THAT volume presumably?

Nov 6, 2021 8:14 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Seeing this read only access problem on an empty external disk of mine I made my time machine back up external drive when my original disk was full I scouted around and found that several experts said it was an error on the drive and how to repair it.

I bought a new drive (im not confident in all the techie stuff) mounted the new drive and "You have custom access" changed to read only.

I thought that this cant be an error but the way time machine is set up (as luis says).

So., if I create a new volume (however I do that) I shoul

Dec 1, 2021 5:42 AM in response to henrik262

Solution for me: Patience - as it takes a while to index the 3 terabytes on TimeMachine.

Then using Migrationassistant (MA) also took a while -

first I let the MA search for 3 hours without mounting the right backup.

The MA timed out and

when I started it again the right backup turned up in 3-5 minutes!.

And now 20 hours later the files are transferred via the MA. Really wonderful. Now I am upgrading all my apps (I have used Mojave for ages!!)

macOS Monterey external TimeMachine disk is read only.

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