Brief: This quick tutorial shows you how to enable exFAT file system support on Ubuntu and other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions. This way you won’t see any error while mounting exFAT drives on your system.
Problem mounting exFAT disk on 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 plugged the USB key, my Ubuntu 16.04 throw an error complaining that it cannot mount unknown filesystem type ‘exfat’.
The exact error message was this:
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 exFAT mount error
Microsoft’s favorite FAT file system is limited to files up to 4GB in size. You cannot transfer a file bigger than 4 GB in size to a FAT drive. To overcome the limitations of the FAT filesystem, Microsoft introduced exFAT file system in 2006.
As most of the Microsoft related stuff are proprietary, exFAT file format was no exception to that. Microsoft has been open sourcing few of its technologies and exFAT is one of them. The newly open sources exFAT file system will be supported in the upcoming Linux Kernel 5.4 release. You may check your Linux kernel version to make things sure.
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="640" height="360"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
But for Linux Kernel 5.3 and lower versions, it remains a proprietary software. Ubuntu and many other Linux distributions don’t provide the proprietary exFAT file support by default. This is the reason why you see the mount error with exFAT files.
Recommended Read:
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How to Format a USB Disk as exFAT on Linux [Graphically and Command Line]
Want to create a exFAT disk in Linux? Learn how to format a USB as exFAT in Linux using both GUI and command line methods.
How to mount exFAT drive on Ubuntu Linux
The solution to this problem is simple. All you need to do is to enable exFAT support.
I am going to show the commands for Ubuntu but this should be applicable to other Ubuntu-based distributions such as Linux Mint, elementary OS etc.
Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut in Ubuntu) and use the following command to enable the universe repository because this repo contains your packages. Chances are that you already have the Universe repository enabled but no harm in double checking.
sudo add-apt-repository universe
Update the repository information:
sudo apt update
Now, you can install the required packages.
sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils
Once you have installed these packages, go to file manager and click on the USB disk again to mount it. There is no need to replug the USB. It should be mounted straightaway.
If you prefer videos, I made a quick video showing the steps in action.
Did it help you?
I hope this quick tip helped you to fix the exFAT mount error for your Linux distribution. If you have any further questions, suggestions or a simple thanks, please use the comment box below.
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OMG, you are the BEST! I’m totally new to Linux and installed Ubuntu today after being unhappy with the lack of customization options in Mint (couldn’t resize global font/icon/etc without decreasing resolution to a CRT equivalent) and all of my stuff was backed up on an exFAT HDD! I was pretty scared until I found your tutorial and the fix was absurdly easy! Thank you so much!
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Happy to help :)
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I couldn’t install it :(
Here is the message when I try run
sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package exfat-utils is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Unable to locate package exfat-fuse
E: Package ‘exfat-utils’ has no installation candidate
What does it mean? :(
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Which Linux version are you using?
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Sorry, it is Xubuntu 18.04 LTS
I searched the internet a bit but couldn’t find a solution, they are all quite similar.
In one post a guy posted link to where the installation file for exfat-fuse,
(It is the last post in this help page:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1057423/ubuntu-18-04-does-not-mount-2tb-exfat-drive-even-after-installing-exfat-fuse-exf
)
I searched and found also exfat-utils and exfatprogs (exfatprogs isn’t mentioned anywhere as required install to get exFAT compability but I tried install it anyway.. :)
The files are at:
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/f/fuse-exfat/exfat-fuse_1.3.0-2_amd64.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/e/exfat-utils/exfat-utils_1.3.0-2_amd64.deb
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/e/exfatprogs/exfatprogs_1.0.4-1_amd64.deb
However, after install these 3 files I tried plug in portable drive (I just bought a new known brand portable drive so it should be ok) but exFAT wasn’t recognized, I haven’t rebooted my machine yet, and it’s not mentioned anywhere on the net it has to be rebooted after installation, I am in the middle of a work so I have to wait with reboot which is my last hope it will resolve the problem…
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Normally, reboot is not needed but there is no harm in doing that.
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Hello again, I rebooted but no can do exfat….. :(
I also tried to manually mount using..
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/username
but no success.
According to some info regarding mounting, one can do something like…
gksudo nautilus /etc/fstab
but I’m not sure, there is no fstab in my /etc folder.
I tired also..
sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse exfat-utils –fix-missing
But it says…
E: Package ‘exfat-utils’ has no installation candidate
In the past it also complained about fuse-exfat, but not now, perhaps that file succeeded install properly, but why not exfat-utils?
Many ??? my head need a break.. :(
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Thanks Abhishek. New problem for you. With last sunday time change in France when I compare the file on my usb key (128G exFat) and the files on my hard drive, the files on my hard drive went back 1h. So that I have to potentially synchronize huge amount of data again. Is there a way to tell ubuntu keep the files time the way they were and not have time change affect them? Would appreciate if you could help.
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Hmm… I think the problem lies with ExFAT filesystem because like FAT, it checks the local time. In other words, there is not much you can do here :(
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It worked. Thank you so much.
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So once the exFAT libraries have been installed, what happens when you still receive the same error as before?
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getting error message. dpkg was interrupted. you must manually run ‘ sudo dpkg –configure -a’. Please help how to handle this issue and oblige.
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And does “sudo dpkg –configure -a” fixe the issue?
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