Review: Installing NTFS-3G on macOS Monterey (12) for Write Access to NTFS Drive

[Super AI Kingdom]

### Review: Installing NTFS-3G on macOS Monterey (12) for Write Access to NTFS Drive

**Background:** I had a Samsung T5 Evo 500GB SSD formatted as NTFS, mounting read-only on MacBook Pro with macOS 12 Monterey. Goal: Enable read/write without reformatting to preserve ~296 GB data. Used NTFS-3G open-source driver. Encountered multiple issues. Total time: Several hours over sessions due to troubleshooting.

**Initial Setup and Attempts:**
1. **Problem Identification:** Drive in Disk Utility as "USB External Physical Volume - NTFS" with read-only mount. Capacity: 499.9 GB, Used: 296.1 GB.
2. **First Fix: Terminal fstab Method (Free).**
   - Edited `/etc/fstab` with `sudo nano /etc/fstab`.
   - Added: `LABEL=SamEvo none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse` (escaped space).
   - Issue: Blank editor (file didn't exist); unreliable on modern macOS, risk of corruption.
   - Resolution: Backed up data, rebooted, no write access. Abandoned.

3. **Second Fix: Homebrew NTFS-3G.**
   - Installed Homebrew, tapped `gromgit/homebrew-fuse`, ran `brew install gromgit/fuse/ntfs-3g-mac`.
   - Issue: Download failed with `curl: (56) 403` from Tuxera (server block).
   - Resolution: Manual download via browser (bypassed insecure warning), moved to cache, renamed. Retried, but checksum/URL mismatch persisted.

4. **Third Fix: Manual Compilation.**
   - Downloaded: `curl -k -L -A "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36" -O https://tuxera.com/opensource/ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2022.10.3.tgz`.
   - Checked: `file ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2022.10.3.tgz` (gzip data).
   - Extracted: `tar -xzf ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2022.10.3.tgz -C /tmp`.
   - Configured: `./configure --prefix=/usr/local LDFLAGS="-lintl -L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib" LIBS="-lintl"`.
   - Issue: Linker error `Undefined symbols "_libintl_setlocale"` (missing libintl).
   - Resolution: Installed `brew install gettext`, linked `brew link --force gettext`. Added flags to configure. Cleaned `make clean`. Retried.

5. **Build and Install:**
   - Built: `make`.
   - Installed: `sudo make install`.
   - Issue: `mv` error for `libntfs-3g.so*` (macOS uses `.dylib`, `/lib` not directory).
   - Resolution: Ignored (non-fatal), manually copied binary: `sudo cp ./src/.libs/ntfs-3g /usr/local/bin/`.
   - Issue: `ranlib` warnings (no symbols in compat/debug/realpath).
   - Resolution: Ignored (benign).
   - Editor Issue: `nano Makefile` truncated file; `cat Makefile` showed full. Used `vi Makefile` for full edit.
   - Resolution: Switched to `vi` for large files.

6. **Verification:**
   - `ntfs-3g --version`: "2022.10.3 external FUSE 29".
   - Mounted: `sudo ntfs-3g -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/NTFS`.
   - Tested: Created/edited files successfully.

**Additional Tools Used:**
- macFUSE: `brew install --cask macfuse`, restarted, granted Full Disk Access.
- Mounty: `brew install --cask mounty`, used for GUI mounting (worked after NTFS-3G).

**Key Lessons:**
- Tuxera server blocks automated downloads; use custom curl/browser.
- macOS-specific: `.dylib` vs `.so`, ignore Linux errors.
- Dependencies: Link `gettext` for libintl.
- Editors: `nano` truncates large files; use `vi/vim`.
- Persistence: Manual compilation needed due to outdated Homebrew formula.

Posted to help others on Monterey/older macOS. If stuck, check PATH (`export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin`) and permissions.