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How to fix read only USB pen drive in Ubuntu

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How to fix read only USB pen drive in Ubuntu

While copying some large file I mistakenly taken out USB pen drive before the copy get completed.Later I again attached the USB pen drive in Ubuntu system but found that the USB pen drive showing read only filesystem message. I was not able to copy,create and delete any file.To solve this issue I followed some steps which I am sharing with this post.

To fix USB pen drive read only in Ubuntu,follow the given below steps

Step 1: Attach USB pen drive in system’s USB port. Automatically the Ubuntu will mount the USB pen drive and show icon on Desktop or Menu bar.

Open the terminal and become super user by running below given command

sudo su -

Step 2: First we have to find out in which directory the USB pen drive has been automatically mounted.For this run the df -Th command.
In given below output you can see,in my system the USB pen drive is mounted in /media/linux/C38C-099C ,partition is /dev/sdd1 and filesystem is vfat.

Note: When you run df -Th command in your system,the USB pen drive may mount in different directory and the partition might also be different.Hence the output value which you will get, use the same values in further steps.

[email protected]:~# df -Th
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5      ext4       28G   25G  1.3G  96% /
udev           devtmpfs  2.0G  4.0K  2.0G   1% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     796M  1.1M  795M   1% /run
none           tmpfs     5.0M  8.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
none           tmpfs     2.0G  528K  2.0G   1% /run/shm
none           tmpfs     100M  104K  100M   1% /run/user
cgroup         tmpfs     2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda7      ext4      9.2G  8.2G  539M  94% /partition7
/dev/sda8      ext3       46G   38G  6.2G  86% /partition8
/dev/sda9      ext3       74G   67G  3.1G  96% /partition9
/dev/sda21     ext4       14G  4.9G  8.3G  37% /partition10
/dev/sdd1      vfat       15G   12G  3.6G  77% /media/linux/C38C-099C

Step 2: Now unmount the directory in which the USB pen drive is automatically mounted . (As you can see mounted directory path in above ‘Step 1’)

Note: Replace the/media/linux/C38C-099C with the mounted USB pen drive directory path which is showing output in your system after running df -Th command.

umount /media/linux/C38C-099C

Step 3: As we know the USB pen drive got /dev/sdd1 partition
and filesystem is vfat(see in Step 1). Now we will run dosfsck command to check and repair the filesystem

Note: The dosfsck command check and repair MS-DOS filesystems.Because the filesystem of USB pen drive is vfat hence we are using this command

dosfsck -a /dev/sdd1

Step 4: After the dosfsck command get completed.Remove the USB pen drive from system and then re-attach back to system.Now your USB pen drive should working and it should not have read only filesystem.

Note** After mounting the USB pen drive you may see a new file with extension .REC which was created because of dosfsck command.

Step 5 Reboot the system after completing all the steps. (This step we have added after receiving lots of suggestion in comments section from our readers around the world. Thank you for providing feedback and sure it will help many people.)

Comments

  1. Owwww GOD! I t Is Wooooooork Thank You.. so much Guys ..
    You Really Save My Time; God Bless Your Skills.
    .
    .
    I Bookmark Your Website …. and finally I will share this for my friends and other… Have a good day!

    Reply

  4. To my regret it didn’t worked for me…
    [email protected]:/home/dam# dosfsck -a /dev/sdc1
    fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24)
    open: Read-only file system
    Also not after a reboot.
    Is there another solution?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  6. I cannot do step 2 because my usb label consists of two separate words so when I try to do
    umount /media/mike-casa/GMAC LINUX
    I get
    umount: /media/mike-casa/GMAC: No such file or directory
    GMAC LINUX is the label of my usb
    I get this for my first step
    [email protected]:~$ df -Th
    Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    udev devtmpfs 1.9G 0 1.9G 0% /dev
    tmpfs tmpfs 390M 6.3M 384M 2% /run
    /dev/sda1 ext4 19G 7.8G 9.6G 45% /
    tmpfs tmpfs 2.0G 292K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
    tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
    tmpfs tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    /dev/loop0 squashfs 80M 80M 0 100% /snap/core/2312
    /dev/loop1 squashfs 81M 81M 0 100% /snap/core/2381
    /dev/loop2 squashfs 80M 80M 0 100% /snap/core/1689
    /dev/loop3 squashfs 91M 91M 0 100% /snap/writefull/5
    /dev/sda2 ext4 193G 41G 144G 23% /home
    tmpfs tmpfs 390M 80K 390M 1% /run/user/1000
    /dev/sdb1 vfat 7.5G 2.6G 4.9G 35% /media/mike-casa/GMAC LINUX
    [email protected]:~$ umount /media/mike-casa/GMAC LINUX
    umount: /media/mike-casa/GMAC: No such file or directory

    Reply

  7. I cannot do step 2 because my usb label consists of two separate words so when I try to do
    umount /media/mike-casa/GMAC LINUX
    I get
    umount: /media/mike-casa/GMAC: No such file or directory
    GMAC LINUX is the label of my usb

    Reply

  14. Thanks for this! been looking for a solution to this for ages and this one actually worked! Would be nice to see it as a function or built into an app though.

    Reply

  17. I followed all the steps but it is not worked for me,still I am not able to delete any file and format the drive.
    Any other suggestion…?
    Last command response:-
    [email protected]:~$ sudo dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
    fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
    open: Read-only file system

    Reply

  21. brilliant mate , thanks very very much , it worked 1st time after a lot of searching . great . much appreciated your doing this .
    vern FROM MELBOURNE .

    Reply

  22. Crappy regression on Ubuntu/Mint. Now is year 2016 and I cannot write to USB!!! and have to apply several steps from command line instead of get it fixed with first critical system update asap.

    Reply

  25. Superb! I wrestled with a new USB for hours yesterday, and this fixed it in seconds. Thanks for the clear explanation of the process.

    Reply

      • Thanks Sharad. My filesystem reads as hfsplus and the last statement seems like not working. I am getting the output as this.

        fsck.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
        Logical sector size is zero.

        Any suggestions?

        Reply

        • Hi Albert,

          Unfortunately it seems the disk is corrupted and could be sectors are also affected.
          Use the ‘testdisk’ [please,google it] , if there is any ray of hope then most probably you have to rebuilt the file system by using ‘TestDisk’

          You have to “Do it yourself” because I am forgotten and these kind of issue rarely come [once in a blue moon] .
          All the best!

          Regards
          Sharad

          Reply

  27. Hello sir

    please solve my problem i tried these steps but ihe didnt work
    sudo su –
    df -Th
    umount /media/govind/5A85-E61F

    /dev/sdb1 vfat 7.5G 3.2G 4.3G 43% /media/govind/5A85-E61F

    dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1

    fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
    open: Read-only file system

    Reply

      • Hi,
        I have same problem which Henmant has.
        I followed your steps but it didn’t change anything.
        Then I tried GUI mode. After formatting when I plug in my pen drive again I received a message:

        Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/grarysz/Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit: Command-line `mount -t “iso9660” -o “uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500” “/dev/sdb1” “/media/grarysz/Linux Mint 18 Cinnamon 64-bit”‘ exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: block device /dev/sdb1 is write-protected, mounting read-only
        mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
        missing codepage or helper program, or other error
        In some cases useful info is found in syslog – try
        dmesg | tail or so

        This is my third pen drive I’ve lost in the same way…

        Reply

  28. Thanks, I follow your steps but i got this message:

    fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
    open: Permesso negato

    What can i do?

    Reply

    • Thanks bro!

      I wish fixing USB pen drive could be life saver 🙂 Many issues could be solved.
      Thanks again for commenting and giving feedback. Keep sharing the knowledge.

      Regards
      Sharad

      Reply

      • I have a similar problem to this. I have a read-only usb pen drive and also one of my folders gives me this error warning when I try to open it: This location could not be displayed. Sorry, could not display contents of “june”: Error when getting information for file ../LEXAR/june/…:Input/output error

        I’ve searched online but other topics on this were inconclusive.

        Can you please help me out?

        Thank you

        Reply

        • Hello Janne,

          If your USB pend drive is Read Only and has really some malfunction with hardware then it is lucky to get the solution.
          Try Gparted (http://gparted.org/) . Also check if your USB pen drive has any small button which is used for making Read Only. Some USB model has this option.

          Regards
          Sharad

          Reply

  30. Thanks! Worked perfect for me. You might also want to add that the .REC file can be renamed with the appropriate extension and at least in my case with a .tar.gz file I could recover it.

    Reply

  33. it is taking so much time in my 1000gb external adata hard drive. what should i do in this case stop the process or wait for 1 week .

    Reply

  35. Hi Sharad – not successful – i get the following in mint 17
    [email protected] ~ $ sudo su –
    arun-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ # df -Th
    Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    udev devtmpfs 3.9G 4.0K 3.9G 1% /dev
    tmpfs tmpfs 797M 1.5M 796M 1% /run
    /dev/sda5 ext4 453G 27G 404G 7% /
    none tmpfs 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    none tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
    none tmpfs 3.9G 672K 3.9G 1% /run/shm
    none tmpfs 100M 20K 100M 1% /run/user
    /dev/sdc1 vfat 3.3G 1.5G 1.9G 45% /media/arun/USB Stick

    arun-GA-78LMT-USB3 ~ # umount /media/arun/USB Stick
    umount: /media/arun/USB: not found
    umount: Stick: not found

    Reply

  39. I’m clearly not too bright, 147 IQ points and nothing to show for it. I repeatedly cause myself this problem, panic, and forget what to do.. I actually bookmarked this article a while back because it has saved the day every time! I usually subject my thumb drives to it, but today I tried it with my MP3 player and now I don’t have to buy a new one I can’t afford! 😀 Thanks!

    Reply

  43. Hello, I tried both, using dosfsck and even testdisk, but it keeps saying read-only… stupid pendrive. 🙂

    Reply

  47. I followed your steps to fix the pen drive error before. But this time, I am not getting any workarounds to solve this.

    When I run “dosfsck -a /dev/sd..”, it got stuck with this message.

    ============
    fsck.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
    0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt.
    Automatically removing dirty bit.
    FATs differ but appear to be intact. Using first FAT.
    /
    Contains a free cluster (298861). Assuming EOF.
    ============

    Under properties, the file system type is listed as “msdos”.

    I only have 200 MB space left from my 4GB flash, but nothing apart from the freaking virus is displayed. (I tried the basic Ctrl+H ..)

    Any suggestions?

    Thanks.

    Reply

  49. Bookmark this page in my browser so that I could always come here & follow these steps when I face Read only USB problem – check

    Reply

  55. Thank you for this article. I was able to save my files. It’s important to substitute your personal files instead of using the authors. For example, my USB pen drive was mounted in “/media/user/08E7-563B,” the partition was “/dev/sdb1” and the filesystem was “vfat.”

    The commands I had to use were:
    sudo su –
    df -Th
    umount /media/user/08E7-563B
    dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1

    Then all I had to was wait for it to finish, unplug my USB drive when it was done, and plug it back in. Works perfectly now, and it even has the file that failed to copy over and locked my drive up. This couldn’t have been more simple.

    Reply

  57. I have a 32G USB memory stick with a FAT32 file system that mounts read only
    blkid is /dev/sdc1: UUID=”551C-2AA9″ TYPE=”vfat” PARTUUID=”2b71fb4e-01

    It mounts on /run/media/saejin/551C-2AA9
    I tried installing it in a windows machine and ejecting it. It did not fix the problem.

    # umount /dev/sdc1
    #mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdc1
    mkfs.fat 3.0.27 (2014-11-12)
    mkdosfs: unable to open /dev/sdc1: Read-only file system

    # umount /dev/sdc1
    #dosfsck -a /dev/sdc1
    mkfs.fat 3.0.27 (2014-11-12)
    open Read-only file system

    Reply

  58. It worked… ubuntu 12.04 and the filesystem is vfat. dosfsck found the problematic file.
    Thank you Sharad for your help!

    Reply

  62. After running “umount /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu 14.10 amd64”
    I got this output:
    umount: /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu: mountpoint not found
    umount: 14.10: mountpoint not found
    umount: amd64: mountpoint not found

    What this means and what should I do to rectify?

    Thank you!

    Reply

    • Hello Friend,

      df -h command will help to find mounted partition on system .
      Just run the command and check if /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu 14.10 amd64 is mounted.

      The message itself shows /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu 14.10 amd64 is not mounted on system.

      Regards
      Sharad

      Reply

      • Same output came on “mounted on”
        [email protected]:~# df -Th
        Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
        /dev/sda6 ext4 221G 51G 159G 25% /
        none tmpfs 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
        udev devtmpfs 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
        tmpfs tmpfs 385M 1.2M 384M 1% /run
        none tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
        none tmpfs 1.9G 160K 1.9G 1% /run/shm
        none tmpfs 100M 64K 100M 1% /run/user
        /dev/sdb1 vfat 7.5G 638M 6.9G 9% /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu 14.10 amd64
        [email protected]:~# df -h
        Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
        /dev/sda6 221G 51G 159G 25% /
        none 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
        udev 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
        tmpfs 385M 1.3M 384M 1% /run
        none 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
        none 1.9G 160K 1.9G 1% /run/shm
        none 100M 64K 100M 1% /run/user
        /dev/sdb1 7.5G 638M 6.9G 9% /media/ubuntu/Ubuntu 14.10 amd64
        What shall I do?

        Reply

  64. I’m also having the same problem. I’m not able to fix read only usb problem despite going through the procedure mentioned above.

    Reply

    • Hello Sushil,

      The solution works when there are some chances of possibility. If USB is completely malfunctioned on hardware level then it wont work in this way.

      Here, in this post logic is to first convert the USB filesystem into vfat. Then run the command dosfsck . Try once again and send the out put of df -Th if issue still persist.

      Regards
      Sharad

      Reply

  65. [email protected]:~# df -Th
    Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/sda7 ext4 68G 3.8G 60G 6% /
    none tmpfs 4.0K 0 4.0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    udev devtmpfs 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
    tmpfs tmpfs 387M 1.1M 386M 1% /run
    none tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
    none tmpfs 1.9G 80K 1.9G 1% /run/shm
    none tmpfs 100M 44K 100M 1% /run/user
    /dev/sda3 fuseblk 146G 115G 31G 80% /media/sujit/study

    [email protected]:~# umount /media/sujit/study

    [email protected]:~# dosfsck -a /dev/sda3
    dosfsck 3.0.16, 01 Mar 2013, FAT32, LFN
    Currently, only 1 or 2 FATs are supported, not 0.

    Reply

          • i just run both commands

            1.mkfs.vfat /dev/sdc1
            mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
            mkfs.vfat: unable to open /dev/sdc1: Read-only file system

            2.mkdosfs -F 32 -I /dev/sdc1
            mkfs.fat 3.0.26 (2014-03-07)
            mkdosfs: unable to open /dev/sdc1: Read-only file system

            Have you any other solution for this ?

            Thanks
            Sachin SIngh

          • Dear Admin,

            Thanks to reply ,

            I can access my pendrive can play the videos that present in my pendrive and can open and see the docs. is it possible that after all this there may be any hardware issue bcoz i just try all possible solution in all solution my system is telling same thing that I have only read access. is there any solution to save my disk or its just a toy now?

  66. dosfsck command is not working for me, I got:
    dosfsck 3.0.12, 29 Oct 2011, FAT32, LFN
    FATs differ but appear to be intact. Using first FAT.
    /.Trash-1001/expunged/3019349019/chap 2- preliminary/Lab_works/Jan-03-2012/bram_b/ipcore_dir
    Contains a free cluster (1578960). Assuming EOF.
    /…/case3.png
    File size is 3927 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
    Truncating file to 0 bytes.
    Unable to create unique name

    Reply

  68. not solved for me either. Fresh format of usb stick under ubuntu 12.04 with gparted. Did all the steps.
    [email protected]# umount /media/greyone
    [email protected]# dosfsck -a /dev/sdb1
    dosfsck 3.0.12, 29 Oct 2011, FAT32, LFN
    /dev/sdb1: 1 files, 1/950884 clusters
    [email protected]#

    plugged back in and same problem.

    maybe the problem lies here?
    USB-Device is, or become suddenly read only without errors

    If you see “Write Protect is off” and no errors in your logfiles, than you should set filesystem type specific mount options (FS_MOUNTOPTIONS) in /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf. Wrong gid causes mounting read only.

    Reply

  71. Hi i m tryed it but it still no work 🙁 tryed 3x and nothing if u can help me PM me to mail

    ” open: Súborový systém dovoľuje len čítanie ” ( Open : File Systems are for READ-ONLY )

    Reply

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