Unable to save files on an external / flash drive

[Aragorn]

Welcome to the forum!

@revolverswitch

Is there a reason why apps like GIMP or Krita don’t allow for saving files on an external drive?

There could be two reasons, yes.

• The first reason could be that you installed those applications as Snaps or FlatPaks. Those are containerized applications and they do not have full access to the underlying filesystems.

• The second reason could be one of permissions, depending on what filesystem is on the stick. If it is a Microsoft filesystem — i.e. vfat, exfat or ntfs — then those are filesystems that do not recognize POSIX-style permissions and file ownership, which means that the kernel must emulate those at mount time — see the two tutorials below.

[Tutorial] Understanding and working with UNIX filesystems and permissions

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ Note: This post is meant as a tutorial. Please do not post on this thread regarding any problems you’re having with permissions, but start a new thread instead. Thank you. PREAMBLE: THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND If you are new to the world of GNU/Linux ─ and especially if you come from the Microsoft Windows ecosystem ─ then you will undoubtedly have already noticed that GNU/Linux handles permissions and storage volumes quite differently from what you might be used to …

[Tutorial] Working with additional 'drives'

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ 1. INTRODUCTION Microsoft Windows started its life as a graphical user interface on top of MS-DOS, a 16-bit single-user, single-tasking operating system that in turn originated as 86DOS, an unauthorized 16-bit rewrite (by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer) of Digital Research’s originally 8-bit CP/M operating system. Both CP/M and MS-DOS were at the time developed for computers that did not support any other storage media than floppy disks. Considering this legacy, Microsof…

So, if you want help with this — which I reckon you do, since you’re posting about it — then you’re going to have to give us more information.

Also, if you are dual-booting with Microsoft Windows, then you need to make sure that Windows Fast Startup is disabled, and then fully shut down Windows, because by default, it uses a kind of hybrid sleep which does not fully shut down its filesystems, with as a result that the Linux kernel regards them as damaged and will not write to them.