Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

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. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop.

Jun 25, 2021 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. Mac not formatted to display external drives on the desktop. Sep 09, 2021 Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop Sometimes, the My Passport drive is recognized and mounted by the Mac, and you just don't see it. You can go to Finder Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected.

  • MY PASSPORT ULTRA USER MANUAL Using the Drive with a Mac The My Passport drive is formatted as a single NTFS partition for compatibility with updated Windows operating systems. To use the drive on Mac OS X operating systems, and to use Time Machine, if you want, you must reformat the drive to a single HFS+J partition.
  • Consider replacing w/the WD Passport for Mac. It is already formatted for the Mac. Just plug it in & use it along w/Time Machine. That is part of the problem. I had a WD Mac Edition drive that was indeed formatted for Mac but would not behave like any Mac drive I'd ever used. That was the reason for my 'proprietary formatting' comment to the OP.

Easiest Way to Fix WD Passport Not Showing Error

  1. 1. In Control Panel, go to Devices and Printers. You can see your passport drive visible there.
  2. 2. Open its properties and then open drivers, simply uninstall it.
  3. 3. Unplug your passport drive.
  4. 4. Restart your computer and insert/plugin your passport again into PC.

Follow to learn how to make your WD Passport external hard drive detected again:

Much like my WD My Passport Ultra, most external hard drives out there are customized to work with Windows, not OS X. If you’re only going to use the external hard drive with Macs or you want to. List of all WD firmware and software available for download.

Why Is WD Passport Not Showing Up
5 Fix for My WD Passport Is Not Showing Up on Computer Error
Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC
Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable
Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up
Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected
Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive

How Do I Fix My WD Passport Ultra Not Showing Up on My Computer

'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 Passport ultra is not showing up on my PC and I couldn't access saved data either. Is there a possible way that can help me to repair the not detectable WD drive to work again?
'

If you are having a similar problem on your WD My Passport Ultra hard drive or other brands of external hard drive or devices, don't worry.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

On this page, you'll learn why is WD Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and how to fix this error on your own with practical fixes and tutorials.

Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP

My Passport Ultra Mac Installation

There is a lot of reasons that will cause your external hard drive not showing up or not detected on Windows PC. Check the following list, you may find the exact cause that makes your WD Passport Ultra external not recognized error:

  1. 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
  2. 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
  3. 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
  4. 4. WD drive driver is out of date
  5. 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated

So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Check the fixes and follow tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.

5 Fixes to Remove WD Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:

Quick Fix. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC

When your computer cannot detect or read your WD hard drive, you can first try to change the USB cable and connect it with another USB port or 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. The problem exists on the USB cable.

Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new computer.

  • If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub on your computer that stops WD from showing up.
  • If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, the error is highly possible on the WD drive.

You can selectively follow below 4 methods to get problems fixed and repair the WD My Passport drive to show up and work again.

Method 1. Change WD Drive Letter to Make WD Passport Drive Detectable

When your WD become inaccessible, you can follow the guidelines below to change its drive letter so as to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:

Step 1. Press Win + R to bring up Run dialog > Type: diskmgmt.msc to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.

Step 3. Click 'Add' and choose the drive letter beside Assign the following drive letter > Click 'OK'.

If WD drive has already assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.

Step 4. Then restart PC and you can check out whether the problem still exists or not.

Method 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD Not Showing Up

If the system files corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, you won't be able to access the drive. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.

EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature supports repairing corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive. Download it, you can easily make your WD external hard drive show up on the computer again.

Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:

Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2: In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

Step 3: The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

Method 3. Update Device Driver to Make WD Drive Work, Detected

When the WD Passport drive is not working, it's highly possible that the device driver is not updated. So the best way is to update its driver via the following two paths:

Manually Download and Install WD Device Driver:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon at the left corner and select Device Manager.

Step 2. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers or Other devices to see if WD device is shown as Unknown device.

Step 3. Right-click on Unknown device > select Properties.

Step 4. Go to Details tab > Set Property to be Hardware Ids.

Step 5. Right-click the top Value and click Copy.

Step 6. Paste what you copy into a browser to search the correct device driver, find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.

Step 7. Then restart your computer and everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select Device Manager.

Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.

Method 4. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers on WD My Passport Drive

When the Universal USB Bus Controllers is outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So the last efficient way that you can try is to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Find and expand Universal Serial Bus controllers > Right-click on USB controllers on your WD drive and select 'Uninstall device'.

Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.

Step 3. Restart the computer and Microsoft will automatically reinstall the USB controllers software for your WD drive.

After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.

Extra Important Tips

If your WD hard drive shows up and can be detected normally again, please don't rush to use it. Please do these tips first:

  1. 1. Copy and backup important data from your WD hard drive to another storage device.
  2. 2. Format WD hard drive or external hard drive to NTFS for saving data again.

If the WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected, some physical errors may have occurred to your device. Please try these tips for a guide:

  1. 1. Search and find some manual guide online to check the physical error on your WD hard drive.
  2. 2. Or you can take your WD drive to a local hard drive repair center for professional help. (If you are not professional, please try this tip.)

Conclusion

Microsoft internet explorer for mac osx. On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 5 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.

If you are having a similar issue on other brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card, you can also try these tips to make your device show up and work again on Windows PC.

People Also Ask

For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:

1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac

If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: (Some are similar as shown on this page)

  1. #1. Reconnect WD Passport to Mac
  2. #2. Change WD Passport drive letter
  3. #3. Remount WD Passport to Mac
  4. #4. Update WD Passport drive driver
  5. #5. Format WD My Passport on Mac

2. How to use WD Passport on Windows 10?

For a new WD Passport: Connect Passport to Windows 10 PC > Open Disk Management and Initialize Disk > Create a New Partition on WD Passport drive.

For a used WD Passport: Connect it to Windows 10 > Open it in File Explorer to use it. If you need more space, delete some useless files on it to free up space.

3. Why is my external hard drive not showing up?

Accordingly, there are many reasons that may cause your external hard drive not showing up. Here is a list of major reasons:

  • The external hard drive is not connected to the PC correctly
  • Faulty USB cable or USB hub
  • External hard drive is not initialized
  • External hard drive is doesn't contain a volume
  • External hard drive has no drive letter
  • External hard drive contains file system error, bad sectors, or virus

For a resolution, follow to External/Internal Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7.

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

What is meant by mounting a WD My Passport drive on Mac?

The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. You can access My passport for Mac drives only when macOS recognizes the format of the drive. This process is called mounting.

However, once your computer fails to recognize that format (also known as file system), the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on Mac computer.

Why is WD My Passport for Mac not mounting?

WD hard drives, including My Passport and Easystore, won't mount on Mac when the disk format is not recognized. Such error could be caused by virus infection, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring data, etc. If the external hard drive won't mount, you can't open this WD My Passport for Mac drive and access your important files.

Here is one typical case from forums:

WD My Passport for Mac hard drive (2 TB) won't mount on my MacBook Air, grayed out in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious for me. How to fix if WD My Passport for Mac not working on Mac? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!

If you haven't got an effective workaround when WD My passport hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility, this page will help. You'll know how to mount the Western Digital my passport drive on Mac again.

How to fix the unmounted WD My Passport hard drive on Mac?

The connected WD My Passport drive should be automatically mounted on the desktop, in Finder and Disk Utility. When it won't mount on Mac as you expect, you can try these methods.

1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop

Sometimes, the My Passport drive is recognized and mounted by the Mac, and you just don't see it. You can go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the 'External Disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' is selected. This will ensure if the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.

But if your WD My Passport drive is not even showing up, it's reasonable that you can't see it mounting on Mac. Then, you shoud check the connections and some hardware issues.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Laptop

2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility

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

But sometimes, you can't mount a hard drive on Mac because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table lost, the directory is corrupted, etc. You WD My Passport for Mac drive won't be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, First Aid.

3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error

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.

Step 2: In the sidebar, select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

Step 3: Click the 'First Aid' button.

Step 4: Click Run.

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

When those methods didn't make any difference and the WD My passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware issues that get involved in the disk connection.

Let's start with some basics factors.

4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive

It's well known that insufficient or no power supply in USB ports could also lead to hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.

5. Check the USB cable

When external hard drive is not showing up on Mac, ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.

6. Check the USB port of your Mac

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

7. Check for driver update

If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that related to this disk problem. The My passport disk driver, a software component, bridges the operating system and the drive to communicate with each other. But the files of My passport driver could be deleted, outdated, or corrupted for virus invasion or misoperation.

So, when the WD My Passport drive is not working or the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, check the disk driver.

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

My Passport Ultra Driver For Mac Os High Sierra

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

Sometimes, WD My Passport for Mac driver, software, and WD disk tool are needed, especially when you want to open a WD My Passport for Mac drive that is locked. You can go to WD official website and download software for WD My Passport troubleshooting and for WD My Passport driver update.

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

However, if WD My Passport for Mac hard drive still won't mount on Mac, the last solutions is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

If you haven't backed up important files, how can you recover files from the WD My Passport drive? It's high time to recover lost data from the unmounted hard drive first.

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

As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended as it's a free Mac data recovery software. It can easily retrieve files from WD Passport drives. This software can recover lost data from corrupted hard drive, unreadable hard drives, formatted hard drives, unrecognized hard drives, unmountable hard drives, inaccessible hard drives, and recover lost data from uninitialized hard drive. You can use this hard drive data recovery software on macOS Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

1. Free download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

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

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Os

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

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

My Passport For Mac Download

Hopefully, you'll get all your files off after the WD My Passport is not working nor mounting.

Step 2: Fix WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting error by reformatting

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

My Passport For Mac Drivers

• Guide to reformat WD My Passport for Mac external hard drive

Conclusion

WD My passport for Mac hard drives always offer quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer. It has amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatiblity with Apple's Time Machine backup software, so that you can store a massive amount of photos, videos, music and documents.

My Passport Ultra Driver For Mac Os 10.10

But the WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting issue will call a halt on all these good things. You need to repair the WD My Passport for Mac that is not working or corrupted first, and recover data with the assistance of iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

Wd My Passport Driver Mac

For any questions or suggestions, please email us below.