Mounty for NTFS

Application Overview

Mounty is a lightweight utility specifically designed for macOS, enabling users to remount external storage devices formatted in NTFS (such as hard drives and USB flash drives) from their default read-only mode to read-write mode. This allows seamless file writing, editing, and deletion on NTFS devices directly from macOS.

Supported Systems: macOS 10.9 Mavericks to macOS 26 Tahoe
Current Version: 2.4
License Type: Free Software

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Core Features and Advantages

1. Simple and Intuitive, Status at a Glance

After launching, Mounty displays a small icon in the top menu bar, occupying minimal system resources. The icon’s color changes provide clear visual feedback on current status:

• Gray (inactive): No NTFS volumes detected for remounting.
• Blue (active): An NTFS volume is connected and ready to be remounted as read-write (clickable).
• Spinning (working): Mounty is actively performing mount/unmount operations.
• Green (idle): NTFS volume successfully remounted in read-write mode.
• Red (error): Mounting failed.

2. Smart Notifications and Quick Access

When an NTFS-formatted storage device is connected, Mounty automatically notifies you that it can be remounted for read-write access. You can quickly open a Finder window directly from the menu bar icon to manage the contents of the mounted drive.

3. Adaptability to macOS Evolution

Mounty’s development reflects its strong adaptability to changes in macOS:

• Legacy Versions (pre-macOS Ventura): Leveraged existing NTFS read-write functionality within the macOS kernel, originally intended for Boot Camp, making it easily accessible to users via Mounty.
• Modern Versions (macOS Ventura and later): With the shift to Apple Silicon and Apple’s removal of kernel-level NTFS write support, Mounty evolved into a graphical user interface (GUI) for the NTFS-3G driver. It now works with the free and open-source macFUSE and NTFS-3G drivers, restoring full read-write support for NTFS devices on the latest macOS systems, with improved performance.

4. Free and Open-Source Driver Support

Mounty itself is free software, and its underlying dependencies — NTFS-3G and macFUSE — are mature, free, open-source solutions, ensuring robust, stable, and transparent functionality.

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Installation Guide

Installation steps vary by version. The official site recommends using Homebrew for a streamlined experience.

For Mounty 2.x (macOS Ventura and later)

This is the current mainstream version. Due to required driver dependencies, installation involves more steps, but Homebrew simplifies it with a single command.

# Install Mounty via Homebrew (automatically handles macFUSE and NTFS-3G dependencies)
brew install --cask mounty

For Mounty 1.x (older macOS 10.x systems)

If you’re using macOS 10.9 to macOS Monterey (12), you can use this legacy version, which relies on built-in system functionality.

# Install the legacy version via Homebrew
brew install --cask mounty

Alternatively, you can download the corresponding .dmg installer from the official “Version History” page for manual installation.

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Background and Technical Principles

Prior to macOS Ventura, Apple’s kernel driver secretly included NTFS read-write capabilities, primarily to support Boot Camp for running Windows. Mounty cleverly unlocked this functionality for everyday users.

With Apple’s transition to Apple Silicon and the official discontinuation of Boot Camp support, macOS Ventura and later versions completely removed kernel-level NTFS write support. In response, Mounty 2.x integrated the powerful, community-maintained NTFS-3G driver (running via macFUSE on macOS), continuing its core mission and enabling seamless read-write access to NTFS devices on modern macOS systems.

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Support and Contributions

• Support Development: You can donate via PayPal on the official website to support ongoing Mounty development.
• Assist with Localization: The developer welcomes community contributions for translation. You can download language string files from the website, translate and proofread them, then send them back to the developer to help Mounty serve users worldwide.

Disclaimer: There is a theoretical, albeit extremely low, risk associated with using third-party drivers. Mounty and NTFS-3G are widely used, mature solutions with minimal risk. However, it is recommended to regularly back up important data.

In summary, Mounty is an essential, lightweight tool for Mac users working with NTFS-formatted external storage. With its clean interface, clear status indicators, and robust driver support, it elegantly solves the long-standing limitation of macOS’s native read-only access to NTFS devices.