Back again, hello everyone.

In our family there are four individuals who utilize the same external backup drive for all data backups. Today we replaced this drive with a new external 8 TB USB drive. It's been formatted in ext4 and we're ready to begin using it. Sadly we got stuck because the drive is in read mode only. Oddly enough we didn't have this problem with the previous USB drive which this one replaced.

At first I was going to chown the drive with a user name but then it occurred to me that that wouldn't do any good for the other three members of the family. So my question is, what do I need to do in order to have that entire new drive accessible to everyone in the family? It is strictly a storage / backup drive which serves no other purpose. No operating system and no running applications. All of the users are Linux users, one of us also uses Android 10 for access.
Each of us needs to be able to use that drive whenever we want.
Thank you.

How did you mount it? Show the mount command.
Did you mount it as user or root? If you mounted as root then only root can write to it.
You could give users limited access in the /etc/sudoers file.
See:
Or read the docs for your distro and find out how it allows users to mount a device.

The system with the external drive has been set up as root by default. Normally I utilize GUI functions within Thunar to open a folder as root, then assign read/write privileges to all users across the board because that's the easiest way for me to deal with it. This time however, even while using Thunar as root, I wasn't able / permitted to change the drive from read only to read / write. That's why I'm stumped now.

You could create a new group. Make all of the family members of that group. In the file permissions on the drive give the group members read, write, and execute permissions on every directory and file on the drive.

Thanks, but I would need instructions on how to do that. I've been using Thunar with root privileges for years in order to assign read/write options for folders and files during the past several years. This is the first time that I wasn't able to do that. So I'm kinda lost without the instructions to go along with the ideas.

Have you tried a filesystem check or the other suggestions at the link below?

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/chang...emporary-crash

Another option you can use after this problem is resolved is to simply create a 2TB partition for each user with rw permissions for them.

There are lots of sites explaining how to add groups and users to groups such as the ones below.

https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-cre...oups-in-linux/

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/ibm-mq/9...g-groups-linux

In addition to what's been said

1. Put the drive in /etc/fstab, even if you choose to give it the 'noauto' option.
2. Give it the 'users' option in fstab.
3. I would make a directory each for the 4 users, and run 'chown -R luser:users' on them. If, for example, the drive is mounted on /mnt/hd, only root can write to /mnt/hd but each user can write to /mnt/hd/my_subdir. That way users can't overwrite each other's stuff, but can overwrite their own.

That arrangement works as long as the users don't transfer root owned files.

Thank you everyone. I know you mean well but I started using Linux (Ubuntu) back in 2009 when it really wasn't so important anymore to use the Terminal. Since then most Linux distros such as Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, and yes even Debian have evolved to a degree where the terminal is pretty much obsolete for general computer users who jumped over to Linux from Windows ....
Case in point, I have personally helped about 50 people move over to Linux from Windows and I can assure you that none of them are using the terminal for anything and with but one exception so far, everyone has been more than happy after making the switch and getting used to some minor adjustments. Many if not most "long-term oldtimers" with Linux get exasperated at Linux users who pretty much stay away from the terminal, but hey, that's called evolution ... just as cars no longer require a hand crank to start or clothes that need to be washed on a washboard.

So I appreciate all of the advice, but when there's no point 'n' click option for me which I can also later teach to others, then I'll have to revert to that which is easier to understand and/or make use of.

I went ahead and re-formatted the entire hard drive as NTFS and the problem has been solved since our four Linux users all have the NTFS driver installed. Now everyone has access and can do whatever they want. Granted EXT4 is a better file system and there's little to no defragmentation, but as stated earlier, this is strictly a disk for depositing files. I'm sure the drive will be fine for at least 6 or more years with NTFS and by then we'll more than likely have replaced it anyway.
Thanks again everyone.

You see what we're up against? Even Linux users nowadays are not interested in using it as anything more than a safer and more efficient version of Windows. You give them this extraordinary treasure chest and they never even bother to lift the lid and look inside. Using the command line in Linux is not like starting a car with a hand crank; it's like having a car whose engine you can take to pieces whenever it goes wrong and fix it yourself, without ever needing to take it to the garage for repairs.

The OP seems like an intelligent and thoughtful young person but also a bearer of very bleak news.

You're right, Hazel.
Linux is the most amazing and wonderful OS that I've ever used and I've been using computers on a professional level since 1990. I also design, run and maintain websites of which there are about 8 of them that I'm in charge of. On top of that I'm a professional graphic artist who works on pretty much any type of image design, from slideshow presentations to business cards, gigantic commercial advertising posters, car decals, and more. LibreOffice (ever since I switched from MS Office) is used for Databases, Legal Briefs (I'm not kidding), generic business letters, tutorials, and just about anything else that needs to be written for printing purposes. I'm also a hobby photographer and I sell merchandise on two different classifieds portals which requires tons of image work with GIMP after having switched years ago from Adobe Photoshop. There are also pets which require our care and I maintain all of the computers for everyone around here.

So as wonderful as Linux is, when having learned everything with the terminal from day one it comes as second or even first nature, but when having to switch to the terminal after more than 20 years of Windoze usage, while also being as busy as I am where I can't remember one day from the next sometimes, that's when the ease of point 'n' click instant gratification can't be beat. I simply don't have the time to keep on learning new written commands and keeping track of them when there's already a simple point 'n' click method of getting something done. The terminal is not always better and proof of that is with image work where you can blow the socks off someone who tries to do everything in a terminal that I do with images while using GIMP. Times have changed indeed and I'm actually one of those people who believe that it's better for users who are not proficient with terminal commands to stay away from the terminal ... for the sake of safety.

So that having been said, I believe that Linux is mind boggling fantastic ... but in this day and age the terminal should not be a mandatory tool to master (anymore). If you have the time to learn, go for it ... but if you don't, then don't drive yourself nuts learning something new the hard way, when that can just es easily be accomplished with something that you're already familiar with, like a computer mouse.
Peace.

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PS: Forgot to mention that I also do professional translations with English & German languages (no deepl or translation apps) and that I have my own version of MX Linux which also requires tons of my time for graphical, user apps, and translation changes.