1. How To Use My Passport For Mac
2. Wd My Passport For Mac 1tb User Manual
3. My Passport For Mac Not Working
4. My Passport For Mac Instructions

The My Passport™Essential Portable Hard Drive provides high-performance portable storage for your PC and Mac® and comes with sync & encryption and Google™software (PC only). For the latest WD product information and news, visit our website at www.westerndigital.com.

File Type PDF Wd My Passport User Manual Wd My Passport User Manual LEanPUb is definitely out of the league as it over here you can either choose to download a book for free or buy the same book at your own designated price. The eBooks can be downloaded in Page 1/12. Wd My Passport Manual About Your WD Drive My Passport™ User Manual 2. Disk Drive Format Your My Passport drive is formatted as a single NTFS partition for compatibility with all updated Windows operating systems. If you want to use the drive with a Mac computer, see Reformatting the Drive and Troubleshooting. My Passport - Western Digital.

Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

This is a question often asked by Mac users only. Windows users don't need to do much other than plug in the WD Passport to use it, but for Mac, it's not as straightforward as that.

The difference in Mac and Windows' native format systems are to blame for this. But don't fret, because this article will show you simple ways to go about formatting your WD Passport so you can easily use it on both Mac and Windows.

Part 1 - Overview of WD My Passport File System

Technology has reached a point where it pretty much seeps into every aspect of our daily life. We're always using our phones and computers to send messages, host meetings, shop online, etc.

Of course, there is much exchange of valuable data as these happen, and where you keep this data is extremely important; that's where WD's My Passport comes in.

My Passport is a hard drive that's trustworthy and portable enough to be given a 5-star rating on almost any website you check. Coupled with the WD Backup TM app and password protection feature, My Passport helps to keep your data safe. That being said, situations arise when you'll need to format or reformat the drive.

Default File System of WD my passport

Western Digital (WD) hard drives are formatted with NTFS (Windows) or HFS+ (Mac) by default to make them more compatible with both operating systems.

Granted, FAT32 is less efficient than NTFS in Windows, but it has inherent benefits too, like its compatibility. And to connect your NTFS-formatted My Passport to macOS, you'll need to utilize a formatting tool.

This is especially true if you regularly use your WD drive on both Windows and macOS. So always remember to check if the drive is formatted or not.

Why WD my Passport can't be used on mac?

A significant number of users trust West Digital hard drives. Their auto backup, password protection, and high reliability are second to none.

But nothing is perfect, right? Sometimes when you connect the WD My Passport drive to your Mac, it's grayed out in Disk Utility.

The drive's external light can be on too but it still doesn't work. Worse still, it could become unreadable on your Mac. You know what that means, right? Your data can't be accessible now.

What Are the Reasons for My Passport Not Showing Up on Mac?

More often than not, 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

What happens here is when you update your macOS to the latest build or release, issues of incompatibility could arise. So, you might have to update the WD My Passport's drivers to at least meet the minimum requirements of the newly-installed macOS.

• Device malfunction

The simple fact is, your Mac could malfunction due to one error or another, and that could tamper with how your macOS identifies your WD My Passport. Computers are susceptible to unexpected or unforeseen glitches and errors, so never rule this out as a possible cause.

• Anti-virus

Yes, an anti-virus is meant to protect your system, but it can also have 'side effects' that won't bode too well for it. For example, most anti-virus is notorious for identifying laptop games as a virus, even though they aren't. Sometimes, they prevent the games from launching.

They can also stop some software from starting. This applies to your hard drives too.

Likewise, the antivirus could stop your system from accessing your WD Passport, perhaps because there is already a virus in it. Thus, it's imperative you install the right anti-virus that will work well and won't tamper with your system's settings too much,

• Virus

Not much needs to be said because everyone knows the kind of damage virus is capable of. There's a virus out there that can even hide your hard drive. So even if you plug it into your My Passport into your Mac, you won't see it.

• Motherboard errors

Without a motherboard, a system is pretty much a screen and keyboard. So, if your Mac's motherboard suffers software or hardware damage, almost nothing will work properly, and that includes your USB ports. So, your drive, even if it's functioning properly, might not even be recognized.

• WD My Passport causes damage or corruption

This time, the problem stems from your WD My Passport. Maybe the drive fell or a malfunctioning system corrupted it. Either of these issues could lead to the drive malfunctioning or not showing up when you plug it into your Mac.

Part 2 - How to Format WD my Passport for Mac?

The simple step-by-step guide below will show you how to format your WD My Passport on your computer, so pay attention. The information you'll find here touches on formatting and reformatting WD's My Passport for your Mac.

• Login into your Mac

Just turn on your Mac and when it boots up, plug in your My Passport drive to your WD. Your WD My Passport drive will appear as a rectangular, yellow icon on your desktop (it looks just like the image below).

• Navigate to Finder if Your Drive Isn't Visible

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.
• Launch Disk Utility

You can find disk utility by clicking on the spotlight search button, then type 'Disk Utility'.

• Highlight 'Disk Utility', then double-click it.

• Access your Drives

You'll see your internal and external hard drives on the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window.

• Click on the dropdown arrow to expand or collapse the drives on the list.

• Look under the 'External' category and you'll find your My Passport drive there. If it has not appeared, your Mac's USB port could be malfunctioning. So, unplug your drive and restart your Mac. That will probably fix the issue.
• Make sure you have your drive selected. By the way, choose the first drive you see on the list; you know, the one at the top. Doing otherwise might lead to issues when formatting the WD Passport for Mac.
• Format Your Drive

Find the 'View' button at the top left of your Disk Utility window and click it. A drop-down menu will open up.

• Remember, what comes next is formatting. So, make sure your files have been copied off the drive if there are any on it.

• Click on 'Erase'

• In the small window that pops up, you'll have to input a name for the My Passport drive first.
• You'll find it useful to give a name to your drive to show what you'll be using the drive for.
• Right below that is the 'Format' field. There are a few formats you can choose from but you only need one.
• Choose Format Type

Select 'Extended Mac OS (Journaled)'.

This is the file system you will need if you want to be able to easily transfer files back and forth between your Mac and you're My Passport drive. The format is also what makes the drive compatible with Time Machine for backup on your Mac

• Next, for the Scheme option, select 'GUID Partition Map.'
• Finally, click on the 'Erase' button. It will just take a few seconds for the drive to be formatted. Once, look at your desktop and you'll see the icon of WD my Passport on it.

• Eject Your Drive

Oh, and always remember to safely eject your drive before unplugging its cable. Failure to do this could lead to the driver crashing or suffering some issues.

• To eject your WD my Passport drive from your Mac, just right-click on its icon on your desktop.
• In the dropdown menu you see, click on 'Eject'.

Part 3 - Recover Accidentally Formatted WD Files

If you are unable to locate or access the data on your Western Digital (WD) external hard drive, it can be devastating, particularly when the lost data contains precious images and invaluable backups.

The tips and shortcuts below will give you the necessary info and tidbits you need to format WD elements for mac. The loss of data from your WD hard drive can be caused by numerous things: Accidental deletion, disk formatting, computer corruption or damage, etc.

But all that doesn't mean you can't get your data back. There are some great solutions you can utilize to recover deleted, corrupted, or lost files and you'll learn of them before the end of this post.

Why Formatted Data Can Be Recovered?

It makes perfect sense for you to worry if you lose your data, but sometimes, formatting becomes necessary too, doesn't it?

• Accidental Deletion or Redesign

Sometimes when you reinstall the operating system, the drive or partition gets deleted, even if you don't intend for it to happen.

• Unexpected Data Loss Situations:

Due to carelessness or haste, some people can unknowingly format or delete the wrong partition. It takes little more than a few clicks for the damage to be done, so you must exercise caution here.

Then, of course, you can't rule out other possible causes like a virus, power failure, or hardware damage to your drive. They are all likely causes of data loss.

When it comes to Western Digital disk recovery, the first option that comes to mind is using third party data recovery applications. This is considerably better than the complicated and time-consuming manual data recovery options out there.

Restoring lost WD data takes only minutes, depending on the size of the drive and the amount of data to be recovered. The data recovery tool in question supports all Western Digital hard disk drives, such as My Book Pro, My Book, WD Elements, My Book Studio, etc.

Sometimes, there will be a need to learn how to reformat my passport for Mac, so once you're acquainted with formatting, you should enlighten yourself on how to reformat WD my passport for Mac.

How to Recover Formatted WD Drive Files using Recoverit Data Recovery?

If you know anything about data recovery, then it's very likely you're familiar with Recoverit Data Recovery. If you aren't, you've been missing out a lot!

Recoverit Data Recovery is a data recovery tool that's extremely capable of recovering data or any kind of file you lost from your drive. So, if you lost your data via formatting, accidental deletion, virus attacks, and more, Recoverit will get them all back.

Recoverit's data recovery steps are often very similar irrespective of which type of system you own; Windows or Mac. But since you're dealing with Mac today, that will be the focus here. So, go on and follow the 3 steps below to get back data on a Mac.

1. Select the WD drive
2. Scan the drive
3. Preview and retrieve data

Step 1: Select the WD Drive

Start Recoverit and look under the 'External Devices' section. You'll see some drives connected to your Mac. Select the WD drive and click on 'Start'.

Step 2: Scan Your WD Drive

Recoverit will start scanning the drive. Look to the left of the software and you'll see checkboxes that detail the types of files the software is finding. You can tick the checkboxes if you're only looking for particular files; that will actually make the scan process faster, but it's just an option.

Step 3: Preview and Recover Pen Drive Data

Once the scan ends, you'll see the list of files Recoverit found. You can even preview them if you want. Recovering the files is pretty easy too.

Just tick the ones you want to recover or tick one checkbox that highlights everything. For the last step, click 'Recover'.

All you have to do is wait for all your files to be recovered. See? Easy as pie. But here's an important tip: Don't save the files to the same WD drive they are being recovered from.

How to use WD my Passport on Mac?

Files and getting bigger and bigger, so you'll need the best drive out there to capable of storing these files, right? There are countless hard drives you can choose from but the keyword here is the 'best', and WD is exactly that.

If you need a new backup solution for your photos or videos, the Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB drive can more than handle the job. It's a compact external hard drive with 1 TB capacity coupled with high transmission speeds.

To use a WD my passport on Mac, you need to know how to reformat it. The same goes for using any kind of WD drive on Mac.

Benefits of WD my Passport

The simple fact is, you'll be very happy with the shape, weight, look, and even feel of the WD My Passport drive. This 1 TB size is wonderful and can comfortably store even the large Digital SLR data files for many years to come.

For those who really love music, all their favorite songs can be stored on this drive too. These large and powerful drives even find use in hospitals and educational facilities, among other places.

The WD Passport is also patronized by computer programmers, innovative artists, and several other professionals in various business fields.

What makes this external hard drive so reliable and easily the best portable drive is the fact it was manufactured by the popular Western Digital Company. It's a trusted company that has filled homes, offices, and institutions with hard drives for over 20 years; that's over 20 years of experience and satisfied customers!

Because of how compact the drive is, it easily fits into your shirt or purse's pocket. And the fact it weighs just about 0.44 pounds means it won't feel uncomfortable or be obtrusive in any way.

This new device is excellent and doesn't need external power, eliminating the need for an extra power cord. It also works almost soundlessly, so no annoying grinding noises to distract you while you work.

If your WD drive is plugged into a USB 3.0 port, you can easily access and save files 3 times faster than what USB 2.0 port is capable of. To elaborate, you can upload a 2-hour HD video in just 5 minutes! But if it was USB 2.0, it will take at least 13 minutes or more. The difference is clear, isn't it?

Tips on using WD my Passport for Mac

• Plug the wall/power bar and let power enter it.
• Plug one end of the USB cable into the drive and the other end in your system. If you have a USB 3.0 port on your system (it's usually blue, especially for Windows systems), use it because it can make a big difference in the speed of the transfer of files.
• If you're using Windows, the drive will now be turned on, showing up in 'My Computer'. It might take a few seconds to do this, so be a little patient.
• If you're on a Mac, navigate to 'My Machine' to see the new hard disk. It's going to be called 'My Book'.
• Double-click it and select 'Create WD Applications'. This will start the Backup software installation process. If you don't see the 'WD Apps Setup', search for a folder called 'WD Apps for Windows'. But if you're using macOS or OS X, you'll see 'WD Apps for Mac'.
• Only follow the Program Setup prompts. Don't stray from them and tamper with instructions you don't understand.

Final words

So, there you have it. A simple yet effective tutorial on making your WD drive work on Mac. Remember that the most important thing here is the safety of your files, so it is highly recommended you use a WD My Passport because it's a drive that promises nothing but the highest quality.

And if anything does happen to your WD drive and you lose your files, there's never a need to worry because Recoverit is ready and willing to get all those files back.

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Summary :

WD My Passport Ultra is very popular. But many users encounter WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue in Windows 10/8/7. This article will show you how to fix WD My Passport Ultra not recognized Windows 10/8/7 issue in very simple steps.

Do you know what WD My Passport Ultra is? WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of portable external hard drives manufactured by Western Digital. It is favored by many Windows users.

However, while it is an excellent external hard drive, users also encounter some issues such as WD My Passport Ultra not showing up, WD My Passport Ultra not detected and WD Passport not recognized.

If you encounter these issues, take the following solutions to fix it right now.

Solution 1. Plug It into Another USB Port

You can connect the WD My Passport Ultra to your PC with another USB port. Sometimes, it is not because your drive is problematic, but the port you’re using to connect it.

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. Change USB Cable

The second quick fix to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue is to change a different USB cable. WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue can be caused by faulty USB cable.

So before you try fixes target to your WD My Passport Ultra disk, you can try using a different USB cable and then check if it appears. If not, please go on with the fixes as below.

Solution 3. Change Drive Letter

The cases to WD My Passport Ultra not detected or recognized can be different. If you find that WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer, you can assign it a drive letter.

Here are two free ways that you use to assign a drive letter for your WD My Passport Ultra. One is using Windows built-in Disk Management. Another way is to try using a third-party WD My Passport Ultra partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

If you have the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10/8/7 issue, you might as well try this simple fix, especially for users who find that the WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer or This PC.

Now I will show you the two ways to change drive letter one by one.

Change Drive Letter with Disk Management

Disk Management is a Windows built-in disk partitioning tool. It has some basic features for users to manage disks and partitions on their computer such as format partition, shrink partition, delete partition, change drive letter, convert basic disk to dynamic and so on.

So, you can change drive letter with Disk Management. And here are detailed steps.

Step 1. Open Disk Management.

Here are two ways for you to open Disk Management in Windows 10.

• Press Windows + R, input msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right-click the Windows Start menu and select Disk Management.

Step 2. Assign a drive letter for the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

1. Select the WD My Passport Ultra drive on the main interface of Disk Management.

2. Right-click it and choose Change drive letter and path….

3. Click Addto add a new drive letter for the USB drive.

4. Then click OK.

After that, you can go back the main interface to check if you can access your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Although Disk Management can help you change drive letter, its features are limited as it lacks many basic but essential features.

However, if you not only want to change drive letter but also need a partition manager to manage your drive in an all-rounded way, it is recommended to use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Change Drive Letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is an all-in-one WD partition manager. It can help you not only change drive letter, but also it enables you to move/resize partition, extend partition, split partition, wipe partition on your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

You can also utilize this tool to check file system, convert MBR to GPT without data loss, copy disk, and convert FAT to NTFS and so on.

To change a drive letter with this marvelous tool, you should download this tool firstly. You can download the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button.

Then follow the simple steps as below to change drive letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Step 1. Select a partition.

1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
2. Choose the target WD My Passport Ultra drive.
3. Click Change Drive Letter after selecting the partition.

Step 2. Change drive letter.

1. Choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu.
2. Then press OKbutton.

Step 3. Apply the operation.

Click Apply on the upper left corner to allow the pending operation.

After that, you can go to This PC to see if the WD My Passport Ultra drive appears.

Apart from assigning drive letter, you can make use of its other features to manage your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Solution 4. Reinstall USB Controller

A Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller is a chip or device that enables the computer to communicate with USB devices. You can check the USB controller in Device Manager.

When there is a yellow exclamation mark next to Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller, it means that the device driver is not installed correctly. In this case, your USB devices cannot be recognized by your PC. This could be the reasons for your WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.

How to fix my passport not recognized error? Don't worry. You can reinstall USB controller to fix WD my passport not detected issue.

Step 1. Open device manager Windows 10.

• Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.

How To Use My Passport For Mac

Step 2. Start reinstalling USB controller.

1. On the main interface of Device Manager, expand the category of Universal Serial Bus controllers.

2. Find the controller through which the external hard drive is connected.

3. Right-click on it and select Uninstall.

4. Restart your computer and check if the WD My Passport not recognized issue has been solved.

If this fix doesn't work, try the next solution.

Solution 5. Update WD Device Driver

Corrupted or outdated driver could lead to the WD My Passport not detected or recognized issue. And some users reported that updating device drivers resolved their WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue. So if you have the same issue, why not have a try?

You can follow the detailed steps as below to update the WD device driver and fix WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.

Step 1. Open Device Manager in Windows 10.

• Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.

Wd My Passport For Mac 1tb User Manual

Step 2. Find the Unknown device in Device Manager.

1. To find it, you can expand the Disk Drives, Universal Serial Bus controllers, Other devices, or Portable Devices to check.

2. Right-click on it and select Properties.

Step 3. Update driver software.

1. Click on the tab Details.

2. Click on the drop-down menu and choose Hardware Ids.

3. Right-click the first code and choose Copy to copy the code.

4. Paste it into the search engine to download the drivers.

5. After downloading the drivers, right-click on the drive again and choose “Update driver”.

6. Choose the Browse my computer for driver software from the pop-up window. Now navigate to the driver you downloaded and saved on your computer. Then install it.

If you find this complicated, you might need a piece of driver updater software. This kind of software will scan for and list drivers that need updating or replacing. So you don't need to find it manually, which is very convenient.

There is a great amount of driver management software on the Internet. You download one by yourself. Be sure to choose a reliable one.

Solution 6. Run Anti-virus Software

You may find it weird but it is true that some time malware or viruses can give rise to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue.

You may perform a virus check on your computer and run anti-virus software to kill virus firstly.

If your WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected after trying the above fixes, you may check if there are physical issues on your WD My Passport drive. You can also send it to hard drive repair center to check some physical errors may have occurred to your device.

If your disk is under warranty, you may contact the Western Digital for replacing it.

About WD My Passport Ultra

WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of external hard drive. With its sophisticated design and large capacity, it grabs people’s attention.

There are three kinds of capacities for WD My Passport Ultra. They are WD My Passport Ultra 1TB, 2TB and 4 TB. So, you have enough disk space to backup and store various files like photos, videos, music and documents if you are using the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Besides, WD My Passport Ultra is formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 operating systems. You don't need to reformat it unless you want to use it on other operating systems.

My Passport Ultra Drive is manufactured with proven real WD components, which is durable and of assured quality. And with up to 4TB of storage and a 3-year limited warranty, you can use the storage for years to come.

Bottom Line

My Passport For Mac Not Working

After trying the above fixes in this post, have you fixed the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue? If you come across WD external hard drive not recognized Windows 7/8/10 issue, try the above fixes.

My Passport For Mac Instructions

If you have better solution toward how to resolve WD Passport not recognized or detected issue or if you have any question, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you can contact us via [email protected].