How to open exFAT SSD in Ubuntu 12.04?

Question

I have some files on my SSD and I want to put them on my Ubuntu 12.04(64bit) desktop , but Ubuntu cannot open the exFAT SSD when I connect it via USB. How can I make it work?

Solution 1

exFAT is a proprietary file system developed by Microsoft, and implementing it requires accepting a very restrictive license from Microsoft. However, there is a FUSE implementation of exFAT for linux.

Since you are on a Ubuntu system, you can install the above-mentioned exFAT implementation from their PPA.

1. Add the PPA to your sources list by running

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:relan/exfat
   

   in your favourite terminal emulator

2. Install the fuse-exfat and the exfat-utils packages:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install fuse-exfat exfat-utils
   

Now you should be able to use the SSD

Solution 2

To install exfat on Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, you don’t need to add any extra PPA to your sources list. You only need to install the exfat-utils package.

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install exfat-utils

Ubuntu and Linux Mint will not automatically mount exFAT devices.  To mount your exFAT device, plug in your device and run:

$ su -
# cat /proc/partitions
# cd /media
# mkdir usbdrive
# mount -t exfat /dev/sdd1 usbdrive

From How to enable exFAT on Ubuntu (on Nam Huy Linux), with a typo corrected.

Comments

[MarkHu]

This worked quite well for me. Didn't even have to reboot. Though for some reason it wouldn't install directly, so I just did a sudo apt-get -d download fuse-exfat followed by sudo dpkg -i path/to/file.deb ftw.

[Jay]

Worked like a charm with my 12.04 using these commands but within a sudo shell (sudo -s) instead of "sudo .." for each commands.

[mivk]

Worked for me in 12.04 as described. No need to "sudo -s".

[loostro]

Same for me, no need for sudo -s

[Jay]

What I meant by "sudo -s" was, opening a sudo shell and execute all the commands within it, instead of multiple "sudo ..&& sudo..". I did not need to do this, I just did.

[Nicolas S.Xu]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:relan/exfat does not work at all

[levitopher]

Still does not work, as of 18.04. Use the apt-get instructions from Amelia Torres, below.