If the WD My Passport for Mac still does not work or not show up on Mac 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. If your WD My Passport is not showing up in Finder and desktop, it's possible that the configuration of the Finder Preferences is stopping.

First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and check minor problems of a hard disk. Whenever you can't mount a WD hard drive or My Passport for Mac is not working, First Aid should be a good disk repair tool. Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue Click on the Optionsbutton, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OKbutton. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Applybutton and wait until the process has completed. 4 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 recognised 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, its not working. All my important data is in this hard disk. Please help me, ASAP When your WD hard drive neither shows up in File Explorer nor Disk Management, you can try to change the USB cable, try another USB port, or a new PC to see if the drive can be read or not. Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer. If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine I can confirm that WD Security is installable AND does work on MacOS Catalina on MacBook Pro (late 2014) models! Install WD security and run the app. When prompted, plugin your Passport. It will then prompt you to enter your Passport password

1. Whenever you can't mount a WD hard drive or My Passport for Mac is not working, First Aid should be a good disk repair tool. Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue Click on the Optionsbutton, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OKbutton.
2. So I have a My Passport drive that I had back before my mac computer killed itself. It has pretty much every bit of information I really hold dear, and on any mac computer I can find everything on it. Trying to use it on my girlfriend’s computer is a completely different matter. It doesn’t register that the drive even exists, though the device connected noise sounds. It doesn’t give me.
3. Here's how to Fix WD My Passport Ultra Not Detected in your Windows 10 & macOS.
4. My Western Digital is not getting detected which was working 1 week before. Suddenly this was not detected and following is happening after connecting in my laptop (Win 7 64 bit OS) a) Light appearing on the drive. B) Hearing sound from the drive. But not detected. Please help me on this.

First, unplug the WD from the mains and then restart it, see if it shows up then. Next, check your USB connection and try a different cable. Third, open disk utility and see if the drive shows up. The blinking light on my old WD meant that it was in sleep mode. Report back after trying these things Turn On Your Mac And Log In. Plug in your WD My Passport's USB cable into its Micro USB B port. Then plug the other end into a USB port on your Mac. The WD My Passport gets its power from the Mac and the drive's LED light will start flashing as it powers up . On your Mac computer, click the Finder icon and select the Applications option followed by the Utilities option.; Double-click the Disk Utility option, choose the WD My Passport for Mac drive from the left-hand side of the screen, and click the Erase tab My Passport; My Cloud Home; My Cloud; My Book; Internal Drives / SSDs; WD Elements / WD easystore; Acronis True Image for Western Digital. GoodSync for WD. Install WD Discovery for Mac. WD Drive Utilities for Mac. WD Security for Mac. Product Firmware Product * If your product is not listed above, please visit the product page..

Fix WD My Passport for Mac Drive Not Mounting/Working on Ma

1. If you have already checked your USB port and all the ports are not recognizing the WD my passport Ultra, you can try changing the USB cable. In some cases, the USB cable becomes faulty and the computer becomes hesitant in recognizing the WD my passport Ultra drive. So, you can get a new USB cable to attach your hard drive with the computer
2. Hi, I just bought WD My passport to use with my MacBook Air 2018 model which runs with macOS Catalina version 10.15.1 I have connected the device to my laptop but started reading posts here that my passport doesn't work with Catalina. Before I start a nonsense journey: should I return the..
3. Go to Western Digital and download the update file. Unplug all USB devices except mouse, keyboard and My Passport drive. Ensure the WD Passport drive is connected to the back of your computer, not a USB 3.0 port, but a backward compatible USB port with the same cable that came with the drive
4. If your My Passport drive doesn't turn up for some reason, click on Finder, then select Preferences. A small window will open up. Make sure you tick the checkboxes Hard Disks and External Disks. Your WD My Mac Passport drive should now be running on your screen
5. Western Digital sells a for Mac version - WD My Passport For Mac. This drive is already formatted and set up ready to plug straight in and use on a Mac. And it will work straight away with Time Machine. You just need to point Time Machine to it. Skip the next sections and jump down to how to use WD My Passport for Mac with Time Machine

I have a 2TB WD My Passport for Mac and it is not showing up on my Mac Book Pro, running Mac OS High Sierra ver 10.13.6. In the last month it has stopped showing up on the desk top when plugged in and read mor Security, can be installed from your My Passport Ultra for Mac drive. WD Discovery is a tray application; a small icon appears in the Windows system tray in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The application can also be unpinned, which causes the application to open in a window

Here's how to Fix WD My Passport Ultra Not Detected in your Windows 10 & macOS Check if the WD Passport drive is being detected. Method 4: Update Drivers. If the issue persists, then update the USB Controller and WD My Passport Ultra Device drivers. After updating the drivers, check if the WD Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue is resolved. If not, contact us

WD My Passport not connecting - Apple Communit

1. If your WD My Passport drive can be recognized after plugging it into another USB port, it indicates that your USB port is not working. In the same way, you can also plug it on another computer to see if that works. Solution 2
2. If that does not work... Press Windows key + X Click Device Manager Expand Disk drives Right click the external drive Click uninstall Exit Device Manager, restart then check if its detected. If its a WD drive, try Mapping the drive in File Explorer. If you are trying to log onto it, use your current account username and password
3. Security, can be installed from your My Passport for Mac drive. WD Discovery is a tray application; a small icon appears in the Windows system tray in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The application can also be unpinned, which causes the application to open in a window
4. Every journey needs a passport. The My Passport™ for Mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your on-the-go lifestyle. Compatible with USB-C™ and USB-A, the My Passport for Mac drive comes equipped to connect with today's latest technology. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, there’s space to store, organize, and share all the.
5. or point for me

My WD passport is not working - External Drives for Mac

1. Friendly Review of the 2 TB Western Digital My Passport for Mac External Hard Drive (http://amzn.to/2oSKNVi). The setup, size, connector, fit and finish, uti..
2. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for WD 4TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - Blue, USB-C/USB-A - WDBA2F0040BBL-WESN at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users
3. Why WD My passport Ultra Not Showing Up Mac? There is a possible chance that My Passport is incorrectly formatted, and as a result, Mac isn't able to recognize it. In this case, try connecting the My Passport HDD to a Windows computer and format it with ExFat. Also, do sure to take a backup before formatting
4. Part 4. How to Recover Deleted Files from WD My Passport for Mac. Before you erase your WD My Passport hard drive, it is important to back up your files to prevent file loss. In case you are unable or forgot to back up important files before erasing WD My Passport, you can recover the files easily with a professional data recovery tool
5. WD My Passport Does Not Show up due to Virus Attack As mentioned above, an external hard drive must be formatted properly so that it can be detected by Windows or Mac OS. However, sometimes, virus infection might corrupt the file system of WD my passport external hard drive and make it not show up when you connect the external to your computer
6. WD My Passport for Mac not working on my mac. Thread starter gnauden; Start date May 31, 2014; Sidebar Sidebar. Forums. Hardware. Storage. Previous Next Sort by votes. G. gnauden Reputable. May 31, 2014 1 0 4,510 0. May 31, 2014 #1 Until about a week ago my external hard drive was working normally..

Fix WD My Passport Not Showing Up/Detected Error in 2021

Any hard drive will work, you have the same Passport as the non-for-Mac version, but its just formatted with HFS+ out of the box. bruleke said: Look, I have already formated my passport for mac using HFS+, NTFS and FAT32 but when I connect it on a Windows Vista notebook, it detects the drive, but the icon doesnt appear My Passport by Western Digital is a series of portable external hard drives. Western Digital is an American computer hard disk drive manufacturer and data storage company based in San Jose, CA. There are six series of the My Passport drives, three for PC and three for Mac. They include the Essential. When WD My Passport shows you an error and you can't access the data, don't worry, as the files can be easily rescued. Just download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover the data from a corrupted or inaccessible drive How to get wd my passport to work with Mac? To get My Passport work with Mac, you will need to format it with exFAT. For this, you can connect the drive to a Windows computer, then right-click on the drive and select format Clicking or scratching noises: The WD My passport runs very silent and in normal use, you won't even know that it's working. However, if you hear strange clicking noises or scratching noises from the hard drive, it signifies a hardware problem, most commonly it is observed to be faulty bearings

WD Passport won't unlock after Mac OS update! - External

1. [Go to my last reply to see my solution, may not suit for others though] I'm using a WD Passport Ultra 1TB external hard drive as the back-up device for my computer, and it worked perfectly for the last few months. Today, when I was trying to do a back-up, I connected this device to my computer, but it was not showing up
2. Step 2: Select your WD My Passport hard disk from the list. There are several categories shown on the launch screen of the Recoverit software. Select your WD My Passport external hard drive from the list. It should fall under the category of External Devices. Step 3: Click on the Start button
3. It's popular to use WD(Western Digital) products for storing the huge amount of your files such as music, videos, photos,etc. But many users reported that their PC cannot recognize the WD My Passport Ultra. Not to worry. Here in this post, we will be showing you the tried-and-true solutions for you to resolve WD My Passport Ultra not detected.

WD My Passport not working Mac-Forum

WD My Passport Ultra 1TB drive not detected on PC, how to fix it 'I have a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB portable drive for storing movies, photos, and important personal files. This morning, WD My Passport suddenly became inaccessible, couldn't be detected by my computer. The WD hard drive failed to show up on my PC and I couldn't access saved data. Your My Passport for Mac drive is formatted as a single HSF+J partition for compatibility with Mac OS X operating systems. If you want to use the drive with a Windows computer, see Reformatting the Drive and Troubleshooting. About Your WD Drive My Passport for Mac User Manual I have a WD 2TB My Passport external drive. I used it on my Macbook a month ago and it worked fine. I tried to use it again today but it does not show in my Devices on Finder anymore. What I observed: The light is on and it is blinking. It is vibrating very lightly, like it always does. There is no unusual noise. What I have done so far About Your WD Drive My Passport for Mac User Manual 2. Physical Description As shown in figure 2, the My Passport for Mac drive has: A USB 3.0 interface port A power/activity LED indicator USB 3.0 Interface USB 3.0 supports data transfer rates up to 5 Gb/s your Mac. To fix that Western Digital My Passport hard drives not working or unlock (only if you know the right password) after Big Sur update, simply download, update, and install the latest WD Discovery Utilities for macOS 11 Big Sur. If unfortunately,you can't remember the password, you can only reformat the WD drive (My Passport

[Easy] Use Your WD My Passport For Mac And Windows - 7 Step

• The wd software will not work on windows RT, but the drive will work as normal, if there is no password on the wd drive. Use a computer with out windows RT on it and remove your password. wd app surface rt wd my passport not recognized windows surface 2 wd mypassprt 1tb not recognized windows 8 surface pro wd passport surface pro 3.
• Unable to format WD My Passport for Mac external hard drive in Windows 10 Mini Spy NTFS-formatted drives work with Windows computers, and HFS+ drives work with Mac. Source
• Hello, Sure you can make the WD external drive to work for both Mac and PC. All you need to do is to format it to FAT32. Please click on this link for the instruction. The other is called WD My Passport for Mac and is designed to be plugged into a Mac and work straight away. Regardless of which one you have you can use both on a Mac
• A WD My Passport formatted with a Mac file system will be a dud on Windows and vice-versa. Thankfully, FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file systems to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously

Using My Passport For Mac Features & Fucnction

• Every journey needs a passport. The My Passport™ for Mac drive is trusted, portable storage that perfectly complements your on-the-go lifestyle. Compatible with USB-C™ and USB-A, the My Passport for Mac drive comes equipped to connect with today's latest technology. With a new, stylish design that fits in the palm of your hand, there's space to store, organize, and share all the.
• The last two WD hard drives I bought were Mac versions, however the first two I bought were Mac/PC. I've never had a single issue with any of them. They just work as they should. My main use for these drives are Music production (Pro Tools), Mac backup and Photo edits from a 42mp camera with very large RAW files. Never an issue with my WD drives
• i, Mac Pro, MacBook Air.Use with Time Machine , Partition..

WD My Passport Ultra - Not working for backup My windows 10 computer is recognizing this device for saving/opening files but will not recognize it as a device for backup. I am also unable to open the WD Backup app to run scheduled backups through that; I have used this device and app on this windows 10 computer but it has been several months. This latest iteration of the My Passport lineup looks to the the thinnest and most portable yet with a handful of other improvements. There are a couple of notable issues, though. PROS: - WD has finally brought USB-C to the My Passport lineup. Included in the box are two cables: a standard USB-A cable, and a new USB-C cable . Even worth, it may become unreadable on Mac computer Follow the tutorial in this article to fix WD My Passport not working issue and recover data from unrecognized WD My Passport. Everything has flaws. At times, WD My Passport won't show up when you connect it to your Mac computer, the WD My Passport is greyed out in Disk Utility, or WD hard drive's light is on but not working

Popular Uses of WD My Passport. WD external hard drive such as My Passport are suitable and trusted devices serving as the best backup tools for Mac internal drive's data. Mounting a WD My Passport! A stable WD My Passport is readily available on the Desktop, Finder, and Disk Utility when the drive gets plugged into Mac's USB port . With WD Discovery™ software, you can also work across both Mac and PC. We provide a downloadable HFS+ driver for Windows® 10, 8.1 or 7 to enable you to read and write to your My Passport Ultra for Mac drive without reformatting My Passport portable hard drive, with the WD Backup, WD Security and WD Drive Utilities software USB 3.0 cable Quick install guide Optional Accessories For information about optional accessories for WD products, visit www.wdc.com Operating System Compatibility Your My Passport drive and the WD Drive Utilities and WD Security software ar

WD My Passport is USB 3.0 & 2.0 and comes with the cable if this is one you have. Try different cable if have another USB 3.0 cable, if detected in Devices and Printers it will tell you if it is connected USB 3.0. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/produ...x?id=1000#Tab The fault that causes a Western Digital My Passport external hard drive to make a beeping noise is so common place that Datlabs offers this dedicated page to the topic. The beeping noise you can hear is a consequence of the hard disk drive read write head ceramic becoming stuck to the disk drive platter surface and preventing the spindle motor. WD 2TB My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - Blue, USB-C/USB-A - WDBA2D0020BBL-WESN. USB Cables two. Hard Drive. NOT WORKING - FOR PARTS - FOR REPAIR. HDD IS NOT RECOGNIZED BY PC. NO FURTHER TESTING HAS BEEN DONE Part 2: How to Format WDMyPassport in Mac System Mac systems feature Disk Utility that can help you format your WDMyPassport easily and safely. So, follow the steps mentioned below on your system - Step 1 To start the process, connect your WDMyPassport drive to your Mac system. Once the system detects your connected drive and mounts it. On offer a Western Digital 'My Passport for Mac' 1TB portable hard drive. Includes box and USB 3.0 cable. Utilities for Mac or Windows (Backup schedules etc.) are available to download from WD website. Some very minor scuffs to casing. Totally erased. I have used this on my Macs. Photos are of the actual item

MY PASSPORT FOR MAC USER MANUAL Unlocking the Drive with the WD Drive Unlock Utility Whenever you connect your password-protected drive to a computer that does not have the WD Security or WD Drive Utilities software installed, you can use the WD Drive Unlock utility to unlock the drive there . But now Western Digital has released My Passport for Mac (with 3 capacities - 2, 4, 5TB). It can be seen that WD Easystore wins My Passport in compatibility. WD Easystore VS Passport: Value for Mone The WD My Passport SSD is a solid, uninspiring external USB-C drive, a product that is readily available from most electronics manufacturers. Not everything needs to be ground-breaking or have. Buy WD 4TB My Passport SSD USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Portable SSD (Gray) featuring 4TB Storage Capacity, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Interface, Read Speeds up to 1050 MB/s, Write Speeds up to 1000 MB/s, Bus Powered, 256-Bit AES Encryption, Rugged and Compact Design, USB Type-A Adapter Included, WD Discovery Software Included, Works with Windows and Mac. Review WD My Passport

, Instagram, Dropbox and Google Drive so you can import your photos, videos and docs to the My Passport for Mac drive to help preserve your online life Hi Gang, My WD My Passport for mac 1TB is nearing full. As I don't know much about these things, Im wondering if I get a 4TB unit will I have to somehow transfer the info from the full one to the new one?Thanks in advance! Bo Free 2-day shipping. Buy WD 4TB Black My Passport for Mac Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - Model WDBP6A0040BBK-WESN at Walmart.co While the My Passport for Mac might be your typical standard 2.5-inch hard drive, it's designed to play nicely with Apple OS X's file system from the get go. Of course, that's just reducing it The WD 5TB My Passport for Mac USB 3.0 External Hard Drive is a compact, portable drive designed to work right out of the box with Mac systems running macOS 10.13 and later. It comes with both USB Type-A and USB Type-C cables, so it's compatible with both current and older systems. As a bus-powered drive, no external power sources are required

I do not believe the problem is caused by the computer or by Windows 10. I just want to know if there is any possible way to save the unit. Here is a fairly well-detailed summary. Problem - WD Passport stopped working. Dell laptop computer - Windows 10 op system I attempted the easy checks like disconnecting and reconnecting the WD Passport Western Digital My Passport Ultra for Mac external hard drive 5000 GB Silver (MY PASSPORT ULTRA 5TB F/MAC, My Passport Ultra for Mac, 5 TB, USB 3.0, 110x 81.6 x 20.96 mm, silber) Learn more about the Western Digital WDBPMV0050BSL-WES

With WD Discovery™ software, you can also work across both Mac and PC. We provide a downloadable HFS+ driver for Windows® 10, 8.1 or 7 to enable you to read and write to your My Passport Ultra for Mac drive without reformatting. Password Protection with 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption WD Security function within WD Discovery helps keep your. Troubleshooting WD My Passport does not appear on the Mac Problem Usually defective the USB port or Mac computer, the broken USB cable and some hardware problems could make My WD Passport not appear. You can perform the following basic checks before moving on to further troubleshooting

Software and Firmware Downloads WD Suppor

your WD My Passport for Mac in Finder. Solution 2: Check my Mac Passport in the Disk Utility If the WD My Passport for Mac drive is still not shown in Finder or on the desktop, you can see if it appears in Disk Utility or not. When checking FOR DEO My passport in the disk utility, you might have two results: 1. Your O WD My Passport Not Recognized on Mac. Another situation is that the WD my passport portable hard drive can show up on Mac OS when you plug it to your computer, but the problem is that you are unable to access any data stored on this disk. In this situation, you can also check whether the external hard drive file system is compatible with Mac

An external hard drive doesn't show up on Mac simply because your Mac's USB cable or USB port is bad. But the following factors may also contribute to WD not showing up. * Latest macOS update * Device malfunction * Anti-virus * Virus * Motherboard.. After plugging in the device, go to device manager (In run type devmgmt.msc) In Device manager go to Universal serial bus controllers It should list the storage devices that you have connected to your PC. Right click and then click Uninstall. Remove the USB drive and restart your system. Try connecting the device again

Fix WD My Passport Ultra Not Detected - Recoveri

My question is, is this adapter problem due the hard drive being designed for Mac? Would the normal WD Passport have this adapter piece that makes recovery so difficult? If not, then going forward I should get a regular WD passport and format it and then in the event it fails data recovery should be much simpler, right We use a WD My Passport hard drive as an example but the information on this page applies to any beeping hard drive, not just WD. I have a WD My Passport Ultra 2TB portable hard drive, which I have been taking back and forth to a clients site. Last week the drive when plugged into a USB port has begun to make 7 beeps, then 3 beeps followed. WD My Passport Drive not working. Jump to Latest Follow Status Not open for further replies. 1 - 8 of 8 Posts. K. kartik.tandon · Registered. Joined Jul 17, 2012 · 4 Posts . Discussion Starter · #1 · Jul 17, 2012. Uhmm :cry: MY WD MY PASSPORT dropped and I tried to open it on my computer but it doesn't open or show up, it only shows Local Disk then my computer is getting weird, but the light on the external drive is still blinking and I can hear the sound inside of it, but the problem is I don't have..

Trying to format new 'My Passport' backup on iMac Desktop running Sierra Ver. Am following 'Welcome to WD Support' website directions and get to step 4, erasing files, but it is not clear whether one or all files are to be erased, and when attempt to erase the first (Mac OS Extended Journaled) just keep getting response 'Erase process. WD my passport 2TB for Mac. I think the USBc plugs into the hard drive and the USBa plugs into the computer or device. I'm not sure if it'll work I'm afraid to open it wondering if I should exchange it first. 8 comments. share. save. hide. report. 57% Upvoted For Windows computers, go to the Start menu and select Windows Update. Disk Drive Format Your My Passport Studio drive is formatted as a single HFS+J partition for Mac OS X operating systems. If you want to use the drive with a Windows computer, see Reformatting the Drive... Page 8: Power/Activity Le Perform the same for item b - select WD my passport 0730 USB device restart your PC. Go to the Devices & Printer, right click the my passport 0730 select Properties then WD SES Device then Properties then select Driver then Update the driver. Follow the latest WD My Passport 0730 USB Device Drivers Download

external hard drive (My Passport for Mac) not recognised

Any Condition New Open box Seller refurbished Used For parts or not working. Item Location. Default Canada Only North America Worldwide. Sort. Best Match. 6 product ratings - WD My Passport 4TB Ultra For Mac Portable External Hard Drive Free Priority Ship. C $102.74. From United States That means it is fully compatible with Windows-based machines, but not on Macs. Launch up Disk Management on Windows or Disk Utility on Mac, then select and format the WD My Passport (2016) to exFAT. Then it'll work for Mac, Windows, and Linux without issues - except for special Mac-specific features like Time Machine. Feature The WD My Passport SSD is easily portable, so it's ready for you to back up your Mac or PC any time. And if your laptop no longer has room for all the files you'd like to carry around, then.

Making the drives work with any computer is important, and both will work with pretty much any computer. Both the Samsung T7 and WD My Passport SSD arrive with old school and new school USB cables, thanks to Type A (the old rectangular kind of USB) and Type C (the newer reversible ovular design) being supported WD Elements is excellent for data backups, more stable, and only comes in Black. My Passport is great for frequent file transfers, faster, and comes in one of 6 colors. My Passport also supports password-protected encryption, but WD Elements is slightly cheaper. WD My Passport vs Elements are primarily targeted towards Windows computers If not, then you can go for a deep scan of your WD Passport hard drive. Click on All-around Recovery to have a deep scan of the hard drive. You can recover the files with the modified file date Aside from being extremely portable, the My Passport for Mac has some incredible integrations with Mac computer users. This drive comes pre-formatted as HFS + Journaled for use with macOS. It's specially formatted for use with Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and Sierra (not listed on WD's website) If you've got a WD external drive for Mac platforms and you want it to work on a Windows 10 PC, exFAT format is your best bet. To start formatting, connect your WD Passport to your Mac; then open Mac HD and click Applications, Utilities and Disk Utility. From the Disk Utility window, select the Passport hard drive Carry your important videos, photos, documents, and data files with you wherever you go with the gray 4TB My Passport SSD USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Portable SSD from WD.This gray portable solid-state drive connects to your compatible Windows or Mac computer through a high-speed USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C connector and includes a USB Type-A adapter for convenience and compatibility

Get a data lifeguard for Mac

Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the Finder in the left-hand column under Locations.

However, sometimes, an external hard drive doesn't show up. It’s annoying, especially when you need to transfer something right then. And besides, there can be a risk that data on the external USB pen, hard, or flash drive is corrupt, which means you can’t transfer what you need between devices at all.

Corrupt data can be one reason your Mac won't recognize an external drive, but there are other reasons too. Let’s take a look at why this is happening and how you can fix the external hard drive not showing up problem:

Why your Mac does not recognize external hard drive

Let’s say you’ve encountered the problem of SSD not showing up. There could be a few reasons why SSD isn’t making an appearance (just as any other external drive), the most common being:

• There’s something wrong with the cable
• There’s a power supply problem
• Your drive has been corrupted or broken
• The drive is not readable on macOS
• NTFS read-only problem.

How to fix an external disk drive that won't show up on a Mac

While it’s impossible to instantly figure out why an external disk drive is not showing up, you have to try to fix the problem.

Access an External Drive Not Showing on Mac

Get a huge set of top utilities for troubleshooting external hard drives not mounting on a Mac

Start with the basics:

1. Check whether the drive is properly plugged in. It sounds obvious, but since this relies on a wire - either a USB cable or HDMI cable - if it’s not connected properly then it won’t appear on your desktop.
2. Faulty cable. Assuming it’s plugged in correctly, not wobbly or loose, the cable could be at fault. Try connecting the same device with a different cable.
3. Damaged USB or flash drive port. It could be a hardware issue with the Mac. If you’ve got another port, try connecting the device to that one.
4. Reboot your Mac. Sometimes, if a USB disk won't boot, the cause is a macOS issue. Hopefully, some data damage can be fixed by restarting. Choose the Apple menu > Restart. Or press and hold the power button and, when a dialog box appears, click Restart or press R. Restarting your Mac essentially clears your macOS’s memory and starts it up fresh.
5. Incorrectly formatted drive. Not every external drive is optimized for Macs. It could be that you are trying to connect something only fit to interact with Windows devices. If you’ve got a PC or laptop, it’s worth connecting and seeing if you can access the files through another device. The best way to look for an incorrectly formatted drive is to go to
   Apple (in the top toolbar menu) > About This Mac > Storage.
   See if the external drive shows up here. For more information, go to the same menu option, then select System Report.
6. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. It could be that your Mac already recognizes the device, but just isn’t showing its icon on the desktop screen. Even if that is the case, the drive will still appear in the left-hand column of the Finder menu under Locations. You should be able to access your drive that way, and, in the Finder menu under Preferences > General, you can check External Drives to ensure that from now on it shows up on your desktop too.
7. Reset NVRAM. To do this, shut down or restart your Mac, switch it back on and immediately press these four keys together for at least 20 seconds: Option, Command, P, and R. It should look as though your Mac has started again; if it has, release the keys when you hear the second startup chime. Hopefully, the hard drive has shown up now.
8. Check Apple’s Disk Utility to see if an external drive is showing up. Disk Utility is within System Preferences, or you can find it using Spotlight. If it is visible, then click the option to Mount, which should make it visible on the desktop and in the External Drives option in the Finder menu.

Unfortunately, if none of those options has worked and you continue having the external hard drive not showing up problem, then it could have crashed, or be well and truly broken. But there might still be a way you can recover the data on the external drive.

How to fix new hard drive not showing up in Finder

Wd Passport Ultra Not Showing Up Mac Download

When you connect a drive to Mac, it should appear in Finder under Locations. What to do if external hard drive is not detected? In most cases, when Finder doesn’t see your drive, you just have to change a few things in Preferences. However, sometimes, there are more serious problems such as insufficient power supply. Let’s see how you can fix these things.

How to show connected devices in Finder

1. Go to the Finder menu > Preferences

2. In General, click on External disks to ensure that from now on it shows on the desktop.

In the Sidebar tab, you can choose which folders and devices will be shown in the left-hand column of the Finder window.

How to add cloud storages to Finder

You can also mount cloud storage as a local drive on your Mac. By connecting Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon to your computer, you get more space for securely accessing and sharing files. For your ease, add cloud drives to Finder with CloudMounter so that you keep them close at hand. You can read detailed instructions on managing cloud storage as local drives here.

Repair the failed external drives with First Aid

The most direct reason your external hard drive could be detected by macOS but can't be opened is the file system problem. If your drive is having such problems, you can try to fix them yourself with First Aid and therefore get access to your files.

First Aid tool will check the disk for errors and then attempt a repair as needed. It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup HD and external drive problems. If you are able to fix the hard drive or SSD in your Mac (or any external drive) using Disk Utility you will hopefully be able to recover your files.

To run Fist Aid on an external hard drive:

1. Open Disk Utility. You can search for it using Spotlight or via Finder > Go > Utilities
2. Check on your external hard drive, click the First Aid tab and select Run to start running diagnostics.

How to recover data from a crashed drive

If First Aid has been successful in fixing errors, the external drive should be available to mount. If the utility hasn’t repaired issues, your drive truly is broken or formatted using a file system that the Mac cannot read — in this way you have to recover data from a damaged disk drive.

Thankfully, there is an app for that. Disk Drill is the world’s premier data recovery software for Mac. Powerful enough to retrieve long-lost, mistakenly deleted files from Macs, external hard drives, USB drives, and camera cards.

Get a file recovery app

With Setapp you get a pack of professional tools for file recovery and Mac maintenance.

An easy way to recover lost files on an external hard drive

Here’s how to recover files with Disk Drill (pro version available on Setapp):

1. Connect your drive to the Mac.
2. Quit all other applications on the Mac, especially those that may be trying to access the external drive (e.g. iPhoto, Words)
3. Launch Disk Drill.
4. Click on the external drive that you are trying to recover files from. If it has partitions, you will see all of them. If, however, you still don’t see any volume to the external drive then you may need to try some of the steps above again or read the Disk Drill Scanning FAQs.
5. To avoid the external drive being accessed during the recovery process, click Extras next to the drive or drive partition or file, then select Remount Volume As Read Only. A padlock will appear, protecting the drive during the process.
6. Now click Rebuild (or Recover) next to the file(s) you are trying to recover. Once the scan is finished - it may take some time if the files are large - a list of files will appeal.
7. Next, click Mount Found Items as Disk button on the bottom-left below the scan results.
8. Disk Drill 'strongly suggests saving the files to a different drive than the one you are trying to recover files from. Saving to the same drive substantially lowers your chances of recovery.'
9. A drive icon will appear, which once you double click will give you the option to open the files as you would do before they were lost. Drag them to another location, such as your desktop or a folder on your Mac.
10. Open the files to ensure they have been recovered properly and safely eject the external drive.

Disk Drill does have other ways to recover lost files but assuming there are no complications, this method is the most effective.

A few more tips on getting your files back

1. Macs and third-party apps that look after Macs, such as Disk Drill and iStat Menus come with a S.M.A.R.T. (also known as Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status monitor. If a SMART check reports errors, then it could mean the hard drive is at risk of failing completely. Within Disk Utility and Disk Drill, there are several solutions for this: Repair Disk Permissions and Repair Disk. If neither of them works, it’s recommended to back up all of the data from the disk, erase it, then run a SMART check again. The external hard drive should show up as Verified.
2. Partitions can get lost within hard drives, temporarily hiding all of the information contained within. Disk Drill can help to identify and restore this information.
3. Within Disk Drill, you can restore data when a hard drive is damaged or add formatting, which is also something Disk Utility can help with.
4. CleanMyMac, another useful app available from Setapp, can help you identify external hard drive errors and repair them. It is an essential tool worth trying when you’re having external hard drive difficulties.

Try all these apps for free

Get a huge set of top apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!

Alternative ways to recover data from an external hard drive

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) if your Mac shuts down when you plug in an external hard drive. Then use a different port to connect the external hard drive. If you’ve got a battery that you can’t remove:

• Shut down and unplug the power adapter
• Press and hold Shift-Control-Option and the power button for 10 seconds
• Release all keys
• Plug the power adapter back in and switch your Mac back on.

For Macs with removable batteries, you need to switch them off, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. After that, put the battery back in, plug in the power adapter and switch the power on again.

How to fix external drive NTFS read-only problem

External hard disk detected but not opening? One reason your Mac isn’t recognizing the hard drive is the file format. Windows uses NTFS file formats, while Macs, up until the introduction of Sierra, have used HFS+. Now, Apple has introduced the Apple File System (APFS) for newer operating systems.

If you connect an NTFS drive, your Mac will be able to read it but not edit it. This means you can’t really complete your task (move, copy, or delete any files) as long as you experience the read-only problem. There’s an easy way to fix this with iBoysoft NTFS, an app that enables full read/write support for NTFS drives on Mac.

How to make Ext2/Ext3 drives readable on Mac

The common issue is Ext2- and Ext3-formatted drives are not readable on macOS. There are two ways to access such external drives on your Mac — via Linux OS or FUSE system. The easiest would be installing Linux to a secondary drive or virtual machine.

If you go with Linux installation, dual boot your Mac with Linux on another drive and use FAT32 as a transfer intermediary. If you don’t have the drive to install Linux to, use a virtual machine as an interface for it. Transferring can be done the same way – with FAT32, or via network.

Another option for reading Ext2/Ext3 disks is mounting disk with Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE). Basically, it works as an extra interface enabling file system access via specially installed modules. Here’s how to mount drives with FUSE:

1. Install FUSE for macOS or MacFUSE as well as a fuse-ext2 module.
2. Use the following Terminal command to enable Disk Utility’s debug menu and see all partitions: defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled 1
3. Attach your Ext2/Ext3 drive and locate the device name via Disk Utility.
4. In your user account, create a folder to be used as a mount point.
5. Use the following Terminal command to mount the drive as read-only: fuse-ext2 /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint
6. For write support, use the command: fuse-ext2 -o force /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/mountpoint

And that’s not the only case where Terminal helps you access external drive. Employ the handy all-powerful Terminal, which always comes forward with solutions for difficult problems. Especially if System Information does recognize the USB or hard drive, but continues to hide it from you, disconnect the drive and try to find it using the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.

• Once in the Terminal, type in the command diskutil list
• A list with information about volumes and drives should appear
• Look for a section labelled /dev/disk_ (external, physical)
• Make a note of the whole line after the word disk
• Now put the following command into the Terminal diskutil info disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Now you should see detailed information about the drive, therefore confirming that your Mac can and does recognize it
• Eject using the Terminal by entering the command diskutil eject disk followed by the number or digits assigned to that disk
• Physically remove the disk from your Mac
• Plug it back in and your Mac should recognize it.

Console is also reliable when it comes to solving tricky problems, although it isn’t always that easy to use. You can find Console under Applications > Utilities > Console or via Spotlight. Console shows if an external drive or any error is detected under the Errors and Faults tab. If no errors show up, then the problem is not caused by the device.

How to fix insufficient power supply

Another thing that might cause USB drive not showing up is that your USB cable is just not powerful enough. Typically, a USB 1.0 or 2.0 works, but there are drives that require more power. In this case, you should get another connector or use some type of USB hub to increase the power supply. If you still can’t access external hard drive, consider switching to another Mac.

Conclusion

Hopefully, we’ve covered the topic so you don’t have to google “external hard drive disappear from the computer” ever again. There are lots of potential solutions for a Mac not reading/writing an external hard drive. If you’re trying to connect an NTFS drive, do it with iBoysoft NTFS for Mac. If you need to add cloud storage, CloudMounter will help you. Most importantly, you’ll never have to worry about a crashed or corrupted external drive because Disk Drill will help you recover all the data stored on it.

iBoysoft NTFS, CloudMounter, Disk Drill, and other powerful apps such as CleanMyMac X are all available via Setapp, a productivity suite that solves your tasks with apps. Give it a try for seven days free and fix all your Mac issues in one go.

How To Use My Passport For Mac

Wd Passport Ultra Not Showing Up Mac Address

Can't See Wd My Passport On Mac