Passport for mac doesn't show

Hi all,
I just purchased a WD Passport for Mac the other day to back up my computer.
I plugged it in yesterday and it worked great. Time Machine did it's thing and backup the data and everything.
Unplugged it today and tried to plugging it back in and nothing happens.
Time Machine doesn't recognize it. It won't show up in Utilities. The passport lights up and runs, but nothing happens on the computer side of things.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Your WD drive has likely failed. I would recommend replacing the drive with a higher quality device such as an OWC (www.macsales.com) Mercury Elite Pro. You can find these by clicking:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

Similar Messages

My WD Passport for mac won't recognise its own password or show up on the desktop

I have a Macbook Pro and have been using the Passport for 3 months without a problem. The cable was pulled out without ejecting the Passport the correct way. Now it doesn't show up on the desktop and a colourless window pops up and asks for the password. Im 100% sure the password is correct. The window thinks about it for about 20sec then shakes to not accept it.
I have tried to repair the Passport and that has not worked. Does anyone have another solutations to access the HD?
The passport still works, the light comes on and still spins.
It seems as if it has forgotten its own password and not recognised by the computer.

Allan,
Thank you for your reply.
Yes the WD Passport for Mac has its own password to access the drive. It is an option that i stupidly activated once it was installed. Previously as i plugged the Passport in it would pop up on my desktop and ask for the password. Which it would accept and then i could access the data. Now nothing comes up on my desktop but still asks for the password but does not accept it. The colour of the window for the password has also changed. It now looks like the "security and privacy" icon that you can find in your systems preferences.
It seems as if it has forgotten its own password or there is some other security or problem blocking me.
I obviously wasn't aware that this product had so many problems. I have not installed the Mavericks program to this computer yet as it takes time and im on the road without and solid internet connections.
I will persist with searching forums and trying to recover the data
Any information or help would be awesome!!!!

I have a MacBook Pro and an 1TB WD my passport for mac. I bought a second hard drive to act as back up and when I went to do this the original passport won't mount. It is showing in disc utility but it will not repair. I am told the mac cannot repair it.

I have a MacBook Pro and an 1TB WD my passport for mac. I bought a second hard drive to act as back up and when I went to do this the original passport won't mount. It is showing in disc utility but it will not repair. I am told the mac cannot repair it and I need to back up the files and then restore the hard drive. But I can't open the hard drive to move the files onto the new one!
Help me please. I am not very technical so please answer as if I have no clue!! This hard drive has my iPhoto on it and all my pictures of my son, wedding and my current photography course so I desperate to get it back!
Any help will he appreciated!

disk0s2: I/O error.
disk0s2: I/O error.
The MBP's disk is damaged and requires replacement.
Genius Bar Reservations: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

Help? my passport for mac (western digital) does not show up on Lion desktop, shows up on older laptop

My new Passport for Mac portable hard drive does not show up on the desktop. when connected to another computer the icon shows up on the desktop. When i first connected it it asked do you want to connect to time machine? I said "later"or "no" because I wanted to research how to use it first. NOw it doesnt show up at all... except in the disk utility section. Please help. I am going on a trip and need to have the storage for films. THanks!

Do you see it in the sidebar of a Finder window, under "DEVICES"?

My USB port doesn't detect my external hard drive. What could be wrong? (WD My Passport for Mac)

My Passport for Mac originally worked and I was easily able to download files. It even worked on my MacBook Pro. Now, when I attach this external hard drive and open Finder, the external drive is not there. I've run Disk Utility. I've shut down, hit alt+command+p+r and still, the USB port does not recognize the external drive. Can anyone help.
I don't know if this started after I had problems with a virus (Trojan) and I used MacKeeper AND Sophos AND MacBooster to try to "clean up" the virus. I delete the viruses (8 of them from email), and they come back with another check. This makes me wonder what is the best antivirus software!
Thanks for anyone's help!

Even though it is dated, check through the steps discussed in this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1126326
When you restarted the Mac, did you connect the WD drive while the Mac was shutdown, make sure the drive was powered if it has an external power supply, and then start the Mac? I always turn on all external components before powering up the MacBook Pro or iMac.

Time Machine will not complete backup with WD My Passport for Mac

I am on 10.10.3 and am trying to backup up this particular machine for the first time. I had a 1TB WD My Passport for Mac that worked fine on my older Macbook Pro (which has not been updated to 10.10.3) and have been slow in getting around to backing up this new machine. I tried the 1TB after clearing space and it wasn't working. Figured it must be something with that drive, so I bought a new one (needed more space anyway) and just received a new 2TB WD My Passport for Mac. Tried the update again via Time Machine and it went through the entire process only to tell me it couldn't complete. The drive has something on it now because it doesn't have the full 2TB free and in finder the file says "in progress" at the end of the file name under backup. Please help. I need to backup this machine and now think it is Apple related and not drive related.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

My imac won't recognize my passport for mac external drive

I just bought a WD my passport for mac external drive to back up my imac with Snow leopard OS. the passport icon doesn't show on the desktop and when I look using disk utility the external drive isn't recognized. The external drive has nothing wrong with it as I plugged it into a newer imac running 10.9.5 and it works fine on that machine. I went through the troubleshooting steps from WD and the only one left is trouble with the OS. I have updated the software and downloaded the drivers from WD and still no change. Any suggestions? thanks!

See the mount section of the first link.
Disk Unmount Using Terminal
Disk Utility – Force Mount Disk

I have a WD My Passport for Mac (2 TB). It quit backing up my mac mini (8/2013) stating that it needed to be repaired. Our IT person reformatted it. Now time machine states that it can't back up 234 GB, because there's not enough space.

I have erased the passport for Mac and started all over. When there is ~15 minutes left in the initial backup of the mac mini hard drive (234 GB total), it gets weird and time machine states that it it calculating the time remaining. 24 hours later, it is still backing up but shows that <200 GB of 2 TB are available and it quits backing up stating that there is not enough room. HELP! The WD My Passport for Mac and the Mac mini are less than a year old.

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
If there are runs of repeated messages, post only one example of each. Don't post many repetitions of the same message.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Clear space (old backups) WD My Passport for Mac HD

Hi,
I have purchased an external hard disk WD My Passport for Mac in order to backup my MacBook Air regularly (with time machine) and store films and pictures to save space from my mac.
I have just realised that I have several old backups from my MacBook air stored in the hard drive which are taking quite a lot of space. I have tried deleting the old backups manually (I only need the last one, why would I need a backup from January?), however, the folder disappears but the space doesn't clear up, I'm guessing it's not possible to fully delete back ups this way.
I have read that it's possible deleting those old backups connecting the hard drive to a Windows PC but I do not have one (or any of my family or friends for that matter), surely there has to be a simpler way to clear up space from the hard drive, right? I have read to save the backup and files on my computer and then delete everything through disk utility, but I don't have enough space to keep the old backup and all the media I have stored on my HD in my mac (or another HD) in order to delete everything. Besides, it just sounds stupid, I should be able to delete old back ups easily.
Thanks in advance!
Marta

Hi MadameMarta,
If you backed up your computer onto that external hard drive using Time Machine, then you will want to see the information in the following article to help you address this issue:
OS X Mavericks: Remove a backed-up item from your backup disk
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14221
You can move, copy, or delete the Backups.backupdb folder on your Time Machine backup disk as you would other folders. You can also delete folders within the Backups.backupdb folder. You can’t delete individual items inside the dated folders.
Important: Do not use Terminal or any app other than the Finder to move, copy, or remove items from the Backups.backupdb folder.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

Western Digital My Passport For Mac Won't Mount

Hello everyone,
I always try to find related articles prior to posting, but I haven't found anything quite like my situation listed. I have a "My Passport For Mac" that I recently reformatted on my Mac to use as a time machine (using 10.10.2). Prior to reformatting, it worked fine. I have it encrypted so any time I'd plug it in & it would request my password. All was great. I reformatted it & then used it to back up my Mac. However, days later, when I go to plug it in, the hard drive won't mount. A lot of folks with a similar situation are at least reporting that it's showing up in Disk Utility. However, mine is completely absent. I've tried it on multiple computers (including a PC). It's not showing up anywhere. But the disk is on & spinning. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I'm stumped on this one. I'm not worried about recovering any data from this as it's just a Time Machine backup. I'd just like to get it to mount to my Mac again!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Historically, the problem has been that many USB-powered drives can't get enough power from a USB port after they begin to age. The Passport is bus-powered, getting all its power from a USB port. Not the best solution for a desktop computer.
To get such a drive going again, you need one of two workabouts:
1) a powered USB hub (has its own power supply to make up the shortfall) that goes between the external drive and the computer.
2) use a "Y" USB cable to get power from two USB ports simultaneously (such as http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/USB2AYMBPB/)
Also, WD uses an odd proprietary formatting scheme that is of itself a problem area. WD makes very good bare drives but the enclosures into which they put them to make an external drive are not very good and not particually Mac-Friendly. The formatting makes them harder to use.
Once you get the files you need off the external, consider erasing and reformating it to Mac Extended Journaled using Disk Utility. That often makes the drive more reliable without having to revert to USB hubs or special cables. It gets rid of the proprietary formatting that seem to contribute to the problems.
I have three external drives. All have WD bare drives inside but none are in WD encosures. By far the best enclosures for Mac external drives are those from OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
I have two of the desktop model shown and one of its portable version for my MacBook Pro. All three have given me superb service and zero problems.

HT201250 I just did my first back up with TM and My Passport for Mac, when done adn went into the box ....options...to try and fidn how to delete trash. Then I went back to see if it was erady to do its next scheduled back up and it says there is an error

I just did my initial back up to hard drive (My Passport for Mac 1TB) with TIme Machine on Snow Leopard. I had wanted to omit trash but couldn't find it. All went great and finished in an hour. Then said would restart at 6pm. I went into options about 20 minutes before (when it was done initially) to try and find how to delete trash from being backed up next time.. THis messed things up and now it doesn't recognize the disk and won't let me manually back up...says error. What do I do?
JD in AZ

For all things Time Machine See Pondini's Excellent information here...
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Start Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Also see the FAQs

Can't add files/folders to 'My Passport for Mac'

I just bought a My Passport for Mac 2 or 3 TB (can't remember and unimportant). I have just installed it on my MacBook Pro (it's 6 months old w/built-in CD/DVD drive) and the first file I tried to add to My Passport was a GoPro folder of pictures. Error code -50 came up. So I tried just one photo and the same thing. I then tried to create a folder on My Passport for Mac and again it wouldnt let me.
I have had both PC and Mac's. I havent had a computer for years and everything I try to do on this bloody Mac is trouble for me. I am honestly getting sick of Mac. My iPhone 4S has been nothing but headaches as well. The biggest Problem I have with my iPhone is the sound comes and goes as it pleases, very frustrating! Now this with My Passport.... come on....
Can anyone help me with the My Passport issue? Regarding the other issues, any suggessions would be great!

Thank you very much. The problem was, because I have System Preferences set up not to show hard drives and volumes on the desktop, the mounted volume wasn't appearing there, even 'though I could see it was mounted in Disk Utility.
Prompted by your answer, I found the volume in my Finder and was able to drag and drop contents to it there. Ta-da!

Mac says that My Passport for Mac is not connected but it is there in Disk Utility

Passport for Mac has worked well for over 12 months but since Jan 13 it has not backed up and I get message that "your passport for mac is not connected".
It is physically connected however and shows up in Disk Utilitity.
I have been through the "Verify" process which indicates that it "appears to be in order".
Repair option does not happen due to "Error Live file system repair is not supported".
I have been into WD site but do not see any discussion of this problem.

Hello
i have macbook pro 10.9.2
i plugged my WD passport in to time machine it for the month
mac doesnt regnize it - but disk utility did
i went in activity monitor and quit the process "fsck_hfs" - this allowed eventually the pasport to show in finder -only with read only
i dont know what to do - i cant seem to copy the whole file (containing all back ups) to computer before erasing everything - as not enough room on computer - also tried carbon copy clone but says not enough room also
if i erase the passport on disk utility - will it go back to working again?
eva

WD Passport for Mac stopped backing up Time Machine - can anyone help?

So I have a mid 2012 macbook pro without the new mavericks thing on it, and a wd passport for mac 2tb thats 6 months old. The passport has worked fine until suddenly it has stopped backing up time machine. Everytime i plug it in and start the back up it gets through 200mb max before stopping and showing this message - TimeMachine couldn't complete the backup to My Passport for Mac An error occurred while copying files. The problem may be temporary. If the problem persists, use Disk Utility to repair your backup disk.
The disk utility doesnt appear to find anything wrong with it at all. Has anybody else had this problem? Or know how it can be fixed?

I suggest you start with:
See User Tips for Time Machine for help with TM problems. Also you can select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine" to locate articles on how to use TM. See also Mac 101- Time Machine.
See also, A whole lot about Time Machine
Mac 101- Time Machine
And, select Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu and search for "time machine." There should be numerous help articles including how to restore files from a TM backup.

TROUBLE WITH WD PASSPORT FOR MAC : HELP ME!!?

When I plug my WD My Passport for Mac into my MacBook Pro, a message saying I hadn't ejected it correctly shows up and then my Mac freezes up with another message over the top of that saying I have to restart my computer? HELP?!

Effectively you should find help on the WD sites.
It can be something with the power (try another usb port), it can be formatted incorrectly, the smartware should not be installed (uninstall it), etcetera.
Try following: before connecting the drive, open Diskutility and then connect. If Diskutility sees it before anything happens, click it and then click the "eject" button.
Then disconnect and connect again.

Passport for mac doesn't show

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