iMac copy and paste help needed.

Phil White · 6 Nov 2016

At the title says, OK I'm new to this Apple computer and want to copy and paste a downloaded file to an inserted USB memory stick but it won't let me. I have put the downloaded file on the desktop and opened up the USB drive and to copy and paste and even drag and drop but it won't let me, however i can do it the opposite way round that is drag and drop from USB to desktop.
I am running OS Sierra if this helps.

Any suggestions please.

Thank You.

Phil.

sep9001 · 6 Nov 2016

Hi Phil,

Is the USB formatted correctly?

Phil White · 6 Nov 2016

I don't know, I want to be able to use it on a Windows machine too. The file I downloaded is to go on a Windows machine, I just downloaded it on to the iMac as it was more convenient.

J Veitch · 6 Nov 2016

I'm going to bet that the USB drive is formatted NTFS. MacOS can read this, but not write to it. Have a read at this:
https://business.tutsplus.com/tutor...xternal-drive-problems-on-your-mac--mac-52507

ecoleman · 6 Nov 2016

The USB stick will have to be formatted as FAT to be read and written to on Mac and PC

neil_g · 6 Nov 2016

Although if formatted to fat then the max file size you can put on there is roughly 4gb.

Personally it might be worth enabling ntfs writing via the terminal, especially if transferring large files (video etc )

srichards · 6 Nov 2016

Was the USB stick full or partly and you deleted stuff from it? If so make sure you do an empty trash first as otherwise you can't copy anything more to it. Also check free space and make sure the file will fit within the available space.

Also make sure it isn't write locked.

dejongj · 6 Nov 2016

Format it as exFat then it works nicely across nearly all systems

unless you have a rather old Windows machine.