My Passport is a series of portable external hard drives and solid state drives produced by Western Digital. There are currently six series of My Passport drives; Essential Edition, Essential SE Edition, Elite Edition, Essential for Mac, Studio Edition and the Essential SE for Mac.
My Passport drives are designed to look like and be the size of a passport, none of the drives in the passport series require a power socket although the 'elite editions' feature a docking system.
Standard Editions[edit]
Essential Edition[edit]
The message you saw (eject before disconnecting) is definitely what you get when you forget to eject first. I had a similar problem several months ago with a WD My Book that I was using as my Time Machine backup. Now I cant get the My Passport to mount even when I leave it connected to my computer overnight. Eject external hard drives, memory cards and more by clicking on the Eject icon next to the name of the device in the Finder window. Look on the left side. Look on the left side. Summary: This guide introduces three common scenarios in which you might find your WD My Passport external hard drive read-only on Mac. If the WD My Passport read-only on Mac problem is caused by the NTFS file system, installing iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to edit, rename, delete the saved files and transfer files to the read-only WD My passport hard drive.
Essential Editions include USB 2.0 though new models also include USB 3.0 ports, the white LED Indicator.[1]
Essential SE Edition[edit]
Essential SE Editions have not to of the fat both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports and come in 750 GB and 1 TB variations; the Essential SE Edition has the same physical appearance as the Essential Edition.[1]
I have fully looked into the issue you have raised and my answer to your question is below:-To eject a device on apple, you have to go to finder and then locate the drive on the right-hand side, once do so there will be a triangle to eject the disk. I hope my answer helps you resolve your problem! Now that you know your items have been backed up, EJECT/REMOVE “My Passport for MAC” to be safe, and start deleting items you choose off your computer’s hard drive to free up space. Reinsert your “My Passport for MAC” external drive when you need/want to retrieved backed up items you deleted off of your computer’s hard drive.
Elite Edition[edit]
Elite Editions have a USB 2.0 port and come in 320 GB (320 GiB), 500 GB(500 GiB)and 640 GB (640 GiB) variations. Elite Editions include a desktop dock and have a LED capacity gauge on the front and a lock indicator.This edition comes in red, blue and black.[2]
Mac Editions[edit]
Essential Edition[edit]
The Essential Edition for MacBook Pro and air which sucks has a USB 2.0 port and a capacity of 320 GB (320 GiB) and is available in gloss black. It has the same design as the Essential Edition.[3]
Essential SE Edition[edit]
The Essential SE Edition for Mac has a USB 2.0 port and a capacity of 1 TB and comes in silver. It has the same design as the Essential Edition.[3]
Studio Edition[edit]
The Studio Edition has FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports and a capacity of 320 GB (320 GiB) and 640 GB (640 GiB). The Studio Edition has a capacity gauge on the top side and has a silver appearance.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ abWestern Digital portable range.
- ^cnet.com.au – WD Passport Elite 500 GB (500 GiB)Review
- ^ abcwdc.com – Western Digital portable range for mac.
Summary: WD My Passport for Mac is not showing up Mac? 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. Even worse, it may become unreadable on your Mac. In either way, your important data on this drive will become inaccessible.
If the WD My Passport is not showing up on Mac desktop, Finder or Disk Utility after connecting to your Mac, how to find it and make it work? If you can't see files from WD external hard drive on Mac, how to access data? You'll get answers here.
Troubleshoot WD My Passport not showing up on Mac issue
As mentioned above, malfunctioned USB port or Mac computer, the broken USB cable and some hardware problems can also make WD My Passport not showing up. You can do some basic checks to troubleshoot whether this issue is resulted from those factors.
- Safely remove the WD My Passport and reconnect it to the USB port. Try quickly plug and slowly plug, sometimes it just works for no reason
- Check whether the USB cable or USB port is bad by connecting other hard drives to this USB port or cable and see if that makes a difference.
- Reboot your Mac computer to see if your WD My Passport drive is not showing up in Disk Utility/Finder or not.
- Connect the WD My Passport to another Mac computer or Windows PC, which will find out if it is the incompatible file system of the drive that makes this WD My Passport undetectable.
How to fix WD My Passport not showing up on Mac issue?
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 your WD My Passport drive showing up. In other words, you didn't allow the connected hard drives showing up in the Finder or on the desktop.
Now, follow the guide below to set Finder Preferences and make the WD My Passport for Mac show up in Finder or on the desktop.
- 1. Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab.
- 2. Tick the 'External disks' option to show the WD My Passport for Mac on the desktop.
- 3. Go to Sidebar tab, tick 'External disks' under 'Devices' to show your WD My Passport for Mac in Finder.
Solution 2: Check My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility
If the WD My Passport for Mac drive is still not showing up in Finder or on the desktop, you can see whether it is showing up in Disk Utility or not.
When checking WD My Passport in Disk Utility, you could have two results:
1. Your WD My Passport drive is detected and showing up in Disk Utility, but it is greyed out or not mounting.
2. Your WD hard drive is not recognized, so it's not showing up in Disk Utility at all.
Here, we'll show you solutions to case 1.
How To Properly Eject My Passport For Mac
Method 1: Mount WD My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility manually
Sometimes, hard drives cannot be automatically mounted in Disk Utility, even though Mac has detected the hard drive. So it's possible that you'll see the WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting in Disk Utility. In this situation, you can manually mount the hard drive.
- 1. Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- 2. Click 'Show All Devices' in View option at the left corner of Disk Utility.
- 3. Select your WD My Passport for Mac drive from the left sidebar and click the Mount button on the top of Disk Utility window.
Instead, you can also click on the mount icon beside the drive to mount it immediately.
Method 2: Repair WD My Passport for Mac drive with First Aid
If you can't mount the WD My Passport for Mac manually, there should be some file system problems in this drive. But don't worry. There is a native repair tool called First Aid in your Mac computer's Disk Utility, which is able to analyze and repair basic hard drive problems especially with file systems and catalogs, extends, volume bit maps. You can follow the instructions to fix this problem.
- 1. Go to Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the WD My Passport for Mac.
- 3. Click First Aid on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Click Done when the reparation finishes.
My Passport For Mac Setup
Solution 3: Erase/Reformat My Passport for Mac
How To Properly Eject My Passport For Mac
If First Aid was unable to fix the errors in the WD My Passport, which is quite common, the file system of this drive could be seriously corrupted and you have to fix the WD My Passport for Mac not showing up on Mac problem by reformatting.
The situation is, reformatting will assign a new file system but will erase your data on this drive as well. To avoid the loss of important data, please make sure you have a backup copy of data. Without a backup? It's not necessarily the end of the world. You can at first recover lost data from the WD My Passport for Mac with professional Mac data recovery software, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is free hard drive data recovery software for Mac that is able to recover deleted files on Mac, recover lost data from formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, unreadable hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, etc. It's compatible with macOS Big Sur 11/Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra/Sierra 10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.
Recover lost data from My Passport for Mac with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
- 1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
- 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
- 3. Select My Passport for Mac and click 'Next' button to scan all data on this drive.
- 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you need, and click 'Recover' to get them back.
Reformat My Passport for Mac in Disk Utility
After recovering data from this drive, you can now courageously proceed to erase your WD My Passport for Mac drive with no fuss.
- 1. Go to Disk Utility.
- 2. Select the WD My Passport for Mac drive in the left sidebar.
- 3. Click Erase on the top of the Disk Utility window.
- 4. Complete the information for your drive (such as new format, partition scheme, and so on) and click Erase.
What to do if the WD My Passport drive is not recognized/detected?
If My Passport for Mac hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utility at all, it means the WD hard drive is not recognized. Very probably, your My Passport for Mac may have some hardware problems. It's better to send it to a local reparation center.
Understanding why My Passport drive not showing up on Mac
Sometimes, an external hard drive not showing up on Mac just because the USB cable or the USB port on your Mac is bad. In addition, the following reasons may also lead to WD My Passport for Mac not showing up or not working.
Wd Passport Mac Not Working
- Recent macOS update issue
- System failure
- Virus infection
- Motherboard issue
- WD My Passport drive damage or corruption
Bonus Maintenance Tips for WD My Passport drives for Mac
Apparently, most hard drive not showing up issues are caused by unsafe ejection and sudden power outrage. In order to maintain your WD My Passport for Mac in good condition, you should pay attention to:
How To Eject My Passport For Mac Before Disconnecting It
- Make sure that your WD My Passport doesn't become physically damaged.
- Always safely and properly eject the WD My Passport for Mac drive after using it.
- Don't just unplug the USB cable, on the contrary, unmount your drive by right-clicking (control-click) on the icon on the Desktop or in the Finder and choose Eject.
- Properly use WD software like WD Drive Utilities, WD Backup software ( to back up important files to your My Passport drive), and WD Discovery ( to organize and share your files to the My Passport drive to backup your online social life).