"My Passport WD not working on Mac: How to get it to show up"

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Introduction

In your day-to-day life, you may often need to connect your WD My Passport hard drive to your Mac to transfer files. However, with frequent use, you might find that the files you want to transfer aren't showing up on your Mac. This can be frustrating when you need access to important content on the external drive. Don't worry – we'll show you five practical methods to solve this headache today.

How do I resolve issues with my WD Passport not working properly?

The WD Passport not showing up on Mac is a common and frustrating issue, but hopefully, these four solutions can assist you:

1. Check the USB Connection Carefully

Step 1. Make sure you are using a standard USB cable (USB 3.2 Gen 1 cable). If not, replace the cable and connect your WD My Passport drive to the Mac computer.

Try another USB port. Sometimes when a USB connection is glitchy, the software gets stuck on the port. Try plugging it into a different USB port on your Mac to see if it will connect easier.

Step 3. Click the “Finder” menu at the top of your Mac screen, and select “Preferences” from the drop-down menu. Click the “General” tab and make sure the checkbox next to “External disks” is checked under the section “Show these items on the desktop”. Then, click the “Sidebar” tab and check the box next to “External disks.”

Step 4. Now, check to see if you can access the My Passport external drive on your Mac.

2. Update Finder Preferences

Step 1: Click the Finder menu.

Step 2. In the destination disk, click on “Preferences,” and then select the “General” tab.

Step 3: Then select “External Drive,” making sure that your flash drive is connected to your desktop.

Click on the external disk.

Your WD Passport external hard drive should appear on your desktop screen after completing these three steps.

3. Fixing Western Digital Hard Drive Errors

Step 1: Launch the Disk Utility application.

Step 2: Then click on your WD drive.

Step 3: Choose First Aid, review the Disk Utility window, and then click Run.

4. Check if the WD drive is formatted in Disk Utility

If all the above steps fail, and your WD Passport is still inaccessible, it means that your data might be corrupted, and the only way to fix it would be to format the drive. Formatting will result in loss of all your data, which is not what you want. However, there are ways to recover data from a formatted hard drive.

After safely backing up your data, you can proceed with the following steps:

Step 1: Click on "Disk Utility," and in the sidebar on the left, select "WD My Passport for Mac."

Step 2: Click “Erase” at the top of the Disk Utility window.

Step 3: Once all the information is entered, you can erase your disk.

How to Recover Lost Data – With the Help of Software Tools

If your disk is formatted or you are unable to access it with important data (like files or images) on it, I would recommend a fantastic Data Recovery Wizard tool for Mac.

Data Recovery Software is a professional tool for Mac data recovery. It helps retrieve your data from an emptied Trash, accidentally deleted files, or data lost due to other reasons in just three simple steps with unlimited saving. Select the hard drive to scan for deleted files and preview all recoverable files.

Step 1: Select the scanning location

Launch the Mac Data Recovery Wizard, select the hard drive, SSD, SD card, USB flash drive, or TF card from which you lost your data, and click "Start to Find Lost Files" to begin scanning.

Note: Before you recover data, it is recommended that you click “Disk Backup” from the left sidebar and create a backup for your Mac to prevent further data loss. After the backup, the software can restore data from the Mac backup, and your computer can write new data again.

Step 2: Filter Lost Mac Data

The software will automatically scan for lost data on your MacBook or iMac. After the scan is complete, you can filter the required data using the "Type" and "Path" buttons.

Step 3: Recover Lost Data or Files

Preview the files and then click on the “Recover” button to save the lost data to another location.

Conclusions

When your Mac fails to recognize Passport WD hard drive, the issue can be tricky to resolve. You may follow the above steps to fix it. Alternatively, you can use a powerful data recovery tool to easily recover lost or deleted data.

One of the handy features offered by Data Recovery Wizard is its ability to recover deleted data. You can easily restore various types of files or documents, such as Word, Excel, photos, and videos. It eliminates the need for preparing an additional disk with sufficient storage space before the recovery process. It is highly efficient and time-saving.