Question

How to mount and use an exFAT unit in Ubuntu

Answer 1

This quick tutorial shows you how to enable exFAT file system support in Ubuntu and other Linux distributions based on Ubuntu. This way, you will not see any errors when mounting exFAT units in your system.

Problem when mounting the exFAT disk in Ubuntu
The other day, I tried to use an external USB key formatted in exFAT format that contained a file of around 10 GB in size. As soon as I connected the USB key, my Ubuntu 16.04 showed an error complaining that it can not mount an unknown file system type 'exfat':

Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/abhishek/SHADI DATA: Command-line `mount -t “exfat” -o “uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1001,gid=1001,iocharset=utf8,namecase=0,errors=remount-ro,umask=0077” “/dev/sdb1” “/media/abhishek/SHADI DATA”‘ exited with non-zero exit status 32: mount: unknown filesystem type ‘exfat’

The reason behind this mounting error exFAT
Microsoft's favorite FAT file system is limited to files up to 4 GB in size. You can not transfer a file of more than 4 GB to a FAT drive. To overcome the limitations of the FAT file system, Microsoft introduced the exFAT file system in 2006.

Since most things related to Microsoft are proprietary, the exFAT file format is not an exception. Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions do not provide support for exFAT files by default. This is the reason why you see the mount error with the exFAT files.

How to mount the exFAT drive in Ubuntu Linux

The solution to this problem is simple. All you need to do is enable exFAT support.

I will show the commands for Ubuntu, but this should be applicable to other distributions based on Ubuntu, such as Linux Mint, etc.

Open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T shortcut in Ubuntu) and use the following command:

sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

Once you have installed these packages, go to the file manager and click on the USB disk again to mount it. There is no need to reconnect the USB. It must be mounted immediately.

---

Answer 2

What is ExFAT?
How to use ExFAT drives in Linux?

---

How to use devices with ExFAT format in Linux

Some time ago they wrote us about the impossibility of being able to use ExFAT devices in Linux, although it is not common to get units formatted in this format, all distros should be able to handle them by default, in case your distro is not one of the lucky ones and you have not been able to use your device with this tutorial we hope that now if you can do it.

What is ExFAT?

ExFAT is a light file system, which was created with the purpose of being used in flash drives since it is a lighter format than NTFS, natively this format is compatible with all current operating systems, but in some distros it does not get up automatically the device.

One of the disadvantages of ExFAT is that it does not have as many security measures as NTFS but if it exceeds the limitations of the famous FAT32, now, the biggest user of ExFAT is to prepare multimedia units that will later be reproduced on devices such as televisions, videoconsola , phones, players among others.

ExFAT allows files of any size and partitions without limitations, so it is prepared for large disks as external devices with small capabilities.

How to use ExFAT drives in Linux?

Sometimes your distro recognizes the device but prevents access to the documents stored in it, regardless of what your problem, the solution is the same. We just have to install exFat with the following command:

sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils

After this we can simply use our device correctly. In some cases the problem persists, for this we must create the multimedia folder with the following command:

sudo mkdir /media/exfats

Then we must mount our device in the corresponding directory with the following command:

sudo mount -t exfat /dev/sdb1 /media/exfats

In case you want to remove the device simply execute the following command:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

With these simple but powerful steps we will be able to use without any problem any device with ExFAT format.

---