Wd My Passport For Mac Not Working

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Summary: This article analyzes why the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac and how to fix this issue. If you worry about losing data from this hard drive, you can recover data with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery at first.

Mar 18, 2014  I have a MAC Book Pro and also have the WD Passport, it was working just the other day and now it wasn't. I could hear it working and see the white light on but it was NOT showing up in devices but WAS showing up in disc utility. Here's what I did; With my WD Passport plugged in I went to; FINDER. DISC UTILITY. I have a WD Ultra 'My Passport' external hard drive and had originally configured it to my MacBook pro, but I just received the surface pro 4 as a gift and I'm trying to use the external hard drive with this device. I saw a post about getting the WD app, and I did that, but it doesn't recognize my device, or at least it is not detecting it.

Overview of WD My Passport for Mac hard drive

Jun 26, 2009  I bought myself a 'my passport for mac 320gb'. Holy Hell, if I am buying it, its because I want to exchange files. But it doesnt work on pc's! I read in some websites that it really doesnt work on pc's. So, I can just exchange files between mac computers but not windows computers? Or there is a solution? Step 5: Physically remove the WD My Passport and then re-plug it. Fix WD My Passport not working by erasing. If the WD My Passport continue to stop working on Mac, the next solution is to erase the external drive. These steps will remove all data stored on the WD My Passport, please make sure you have backed up. I have a WD My Home connected to my system and I couldn't see the volume through the entire Mojave beta trials and even after the official release. For some reason when I logged in this morning my WD volume is there to be used; I'm guessing that WD FINALLY pushed an update. Some WD hardware requires WD drivers. If the WD My Passport external hard drive for Mac still does not work or not show up in Finder/Disk Utility after the basic checks, go ahead to try out the solutions as below to make it show up on Mac. Solution 1: Check Finder Preferences.

The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs and MacBooks. This trusted portable storage always offers quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer and to store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents. The WD hard drive comes in some amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatiblity with Apple's Time Machine backup software. But the problem is that no matter how powerful this hard drive is, it is possible that this WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac computer.

Here is one typical case from apple.stackexchange.com:

My WD hard drive (WD My Passport for Mac) didn't mount on my MacBook Air, not even in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious for me. How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!

In fact, this is a common annoyance for many WD customers that the hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility. If you are confronted with the same issue and haven't got an effective workaround to fix this unmounted drive on your Mac, check this page and learn why it happens and how to address this disk problem.

Why WD My Passport for Mac is not mounting?

This issue may be caused by various factors, such as virus infection, internal file system errors, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring data, etc. For all kinds of reasons, your Mac won't recognize this hard drive and thus this external hard drive won't mount.As a result, you can't open this WD hard drive nor access your important files.

How to fix the unmounted WD external hard drive on Mac?

Step 1: Check whether the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is set to show up on Mac

Go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected. This will ensure if the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.

This operation will show up your WD My Passport drive on the desktop in most cases, but if it failed, you can move to the next point.

Step 2: Check if the WD Mac hard drive is showing up in Disk Utility

Wd My Passport For Mac Work On Windows

You can go to Utility and see if this hard drive appears in the left sidebar. If your WD hard drive for Mac is not mounting but grayed out in Disk Utility, you can right-click and select the 'Mount' button to mount it manually. However, if this external hard drive is corrupted, the 'Mount' button will not be available.

When these two checks didn't make any difference and the WD My passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware that get involved in the disk connection. Let's start with the basics by following the steps below.

Step 3: Check the power supply

It's well known that insufficient power supply or damaged USB ports could also lead to hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.

Step 4: Check the USB cable

Ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.

Step 5: Check the USB port

If the problem still continues, try using a different USB port. Perhaps your Mac has two USB port - the back and front ones. Assuming the external hard drive is plugged in the front USB port, try to insert the drive to the back USB port.

Step 6: Check for driver update

If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that related to this disk problem - the driver. A driver is a software component that allows the operating system and a device to communicate with each other. If your driver files go missing, outdated, or turn corrupted due to any virus invasion or invalid operation, the hard drive attached to your Mac will faile to work, resulting in an external hard drive not mounting on Mac.

Step 1: Click the Apple icon and select 'App Store…'

Step 2: Click Update (NOT UPGRADE!) to install a specific update or Update All to install all available updates.

But sometimes, a hard drive is not mounted because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is corrupted, etc. You WD hard drive will not be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, Disk Utility.

Step 7: Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error

Disk Utility's First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and repair minor problems of a hard disk. Whenever you have troubles with a hard disk, First Aid is your first solution.

Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.

Step 2: In the sidebar, select the not mounting WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

Step 3: Click the 'First Aid' button.

Step 4: Click Run.

If Disk Utility reports that the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive appears to be OK or has been repaired, you're done. Otherwise, you have to retrieve as much of your data as possible.

How to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error without losing data?

However, if First Aid is unable to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive. If you haven't backed up important files, it's high time to recover data from the unmounted hard drive first.

Step 1: Recover data from unmountable hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery

As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is highly recommended. iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is a free Mac data recovery software that can easily recover data from not mounting WD My Passport for Mac hard drive, recover data from unreadable hard drive, recover data from unrecognized hard drive, recover data from corrupted hard drive, recover data from unmountable hard drive, recover data from inaccessible hard drive, recover data from uninitialized hard drive, etc. on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

Besides, iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is also best APFS data recovery software that can recover data from formatted APFS hard drive, recover data from unmountable APFS drive, recover data from unreadable APFS hard drive, recover data from corrupted APFS drive, recover lost data from encrypted APFS volume, recover deleted/lost APFS partition, etc.

1. Free download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.

2. Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery and select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

3. Click 'Next' to search for all lost files on this drive.

4. Preview the listed scanning results, choose files we want, and click 'Recover' button to get them back.

Step 2: Fix WD hard drive not mounting error by reformatting

After getting lost files back, you can fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error by reformatting without worrying about losing data.

1. Launch Disk Utility from Utilities.

2. Select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on the left part of the window.

3. Click the 'Erase' on the top of the Disk Utility window.

4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme, etc.), then click the 'Erase' button.

Conclusion

This article mainly talks about a WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting issue, analyzing why this issue occurs and how to repair this disk error without losing files on this drive. You can also easily recover data from external hard drive with iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery if the drive is corrupted due to virus attack, corrupted file system, power failure, etc.

For any questions or suggestions, please email us below. Thanks a lot!

Posted by Katrina to Mac Data Recovery on November 30th, 2018

I am using a 2TB WD passport in my mac for the past 10 months. It was working fine till now, but all of the sudden the hard disk is not getting recognized in my mac. The LED in the hard disk is glowing, but the hard disk is not getting recognized. I have tried to connect with other cables too, it's not working. All my important data is in this hard disk. Please help me, ASAP.

In WD Support Communities, a number of macOS users have reported that their WD My Passport stopped working on their Mac machine. If you have the similar problem as above, don't worry, this passage will show you various reasons behind this problem along with the solutions.

Why WD My Passport stopped working?

The following are some common reasons for WD My Passport not working on Mac.
Problem with USB ports
Bad or incorrect cable
Recent OS update issue
System failure
Virus infection
Motherboard issue
External drive damage or corruption etc.

What to do if WD My Passport stopped working?

Quick tips:

AsWD My Passport for Mac not showing up can occur for numerous reasons, the first thing that need to do is to isolate the issue. For assistance doing this please try the steps below:

1. Connect the Passport to a computer using a different USB cable.

2. Make sure the external drive gets enough power. Try using a USB (or FireWire) cable shorter than 18 inches in length. If the computer is a desktop, connect the drive on the back USB port (directly to the Mac, not through a hub).

ExpensiveIf you really want a super-fast external hard drive for your Mac, then the Samsung T3 SSD is easily one of the best. As it uses a solid state drive, the read and write speeds of this drive are much faster than external hard drives that use traditional hard drives. This last consideration is perhaps the most important, as when you're entrusting your important files to an external hard drive, you need to be confident that it won't break and lose your data. Drives for mac.

3. Connect the My Passport drive to a different USB or FireWire port on the computer.

4. Connect the My Passport drive to a new Mac computer to see if the drive can be read or not.

5. Disconnect the WD My Passport from the computer and restart the computer.

6. Check your settings. Sometimes, if you don't set preference to show external disks, WD My Passport cannot show in Finder or on desktop. Here are steps to show your WD My Passport on desktop.

Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General, make sure the 'External disks' option is ticked. This will make the SD card show up on the Desktop.

Step 2: Select Sidebar tab on the top, make sure the 'External disks' option under Locations is also ticked.

Data Recovery when WD My Passport stopped working

If these quick tips above fail tofix external hard drive not working issue, the drive might have either file system corruptions or hardware problems. It is suggested to back up your data from WD My Passport before you continue to resolve this problem. Because while fixing WD My Passport not working issue, chances are that you may write new data on it and overwrite the original data. If you forget to back up, then try using a professional data recovery software.

iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is reliable free external hard drive data recovery software for Mac which recovers data from different external hard drive, including WD, Seagate, Crucial, Samsung, Sandisk, etc. It works seamlessly onmacOS Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7. It enables you to recover data from formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, unreadable hard drive, external hard drive, USB flash drive, SD card, memory card, etc.

Tutorial to recover data from corrupted WD My Passport

Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.

Step 2: Launch this program. Select the WD My Passport that not working on Mac and click 'Next'. The program will start scanning this drive for recoverable files.

Step 3: After the scanning process finishes, you can click the found files and preview.

Step 4: Choose what you want to get back and click 'Recover'.

Mount WD My Passport in Disk Utility

Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities, if your WD My Passport is listed but not mounted on the left side bar of Disk Utility, you can try to mount it manually. Simply right click the WD My Passport and choose Mount button.

Repair WD My Passport via First Aid

Step 1: Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities.

Step 2: Select the WD My Passport and click First Aid on the top.

Step 3: Wait till the reparation process finished.

Latest update for mac computer. Important: If you don't see this button, you're on the latest version. Click Relaunch.The browser saves your opened tabs and windows and reopens them automatically when it restarts. If you'd prefer not to restart right away, click Not now.

Run Terminal

IfDisk Utility's First Aid fails on the external hard drive, then try disconnecting them and then remount the drives via Terminal.

Step 1: Go to Applications > Utility > Terminal.

Step 2: Type in diskutil list. Look for the section labeled/dev/disk_ (external, physical), remember the disk number.

Step 2: Type indiskutil info disk_. Replace '_' with your external disk number. This is to check if your system recognizes this drive.

Step 4: Once confirmed, type in diskutil eject disk_ to eject the WD My Passport.

Step 5: Physically remove the WD My Passport and then re-plug it.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Working 2017

Fix WD My Passport not working by erasing

If the WD My Passport continue to stop working on Mac, the next solution is to erase the external drive. These steps will remove all data stored on the WD My Passport, please make sure you have backed up.

Step 1: Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities.

Step 2: Select the WD My Passport and click Erase on the top.

Step 2: Follow the instructions to finish the erase/format process.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up On Mac Sierra

Send it to an expert for reparation

If any of the above methods didn’t help you to solve the problem, the WD My Passport might have hardware problems. In this situation, you can try iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery which is able to recover data from an external drive that is not showing up on Mac. Then send it to a local expert for reparation or replace it with a new one.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up On Pc

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