Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

Summary: this post aims to hep you solve external hard drive not showing up on macOS issue without much sweat.

  • 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.
  • Hello, I have a massive issue. I have a 2TB mypassport drive that i use with my macbook pro, its the one that fits in the rugged case and is USB 3.0. I went to plug it in to my MPB today and nothing happens, the light comes on in the hard drive and i can hear it running but it doesnt seem to mount on to my MBP, it doesnt show up in disk utilities either. Im running Mavericks on a 2012 2.9GHZ.

- Hello. I have a problem my portable storage, it's not appearing at all in my mac. Not even in the disk utility. Other USBs and External Hard drives work, but this one does not and it happened just recently. someone here can help me get this to work? - CNET Forum
- I'm having problems with my external hard disk. It was working great all until I accidentally disconnected it without ejecting it. Now it won't show up anywhere on my Mac. It's not on Finder or Disk Utilities or even my System Finder. Any help I can get here will be great! - Apple Support

2.Checked a different seagate external hard drive on the Mac pro notebook and the external drive is not showing up in the finder or on desktop. Checked in Finder preferencesGeneraland ensured that “external disks” is checked under (show these items on the desktop.

External hard drive counts for a lot for Mac users in daily. It helps to clean up Mac startup disk, speed up Mac computers, get rid of any further errors owing to insufficient space etc. Usually, no matter you choose USB, SD card, NAS or superdrive for Mac, when you plug in a portable hard drive to your Mac's USB port you will see it mount on the desktop. You can also see it in the Finder in the left-hand column under Devices. However, there are also times that your external hard drive won't show up on Finder or Disk Utilities. What do you do? Here gives you some solutions for reference and we'll feel glad if they are helpful for you.

Solutions to External Hard Drive Won't Show Up on Mac Problem

Actually, as we find the external hard drive not recognized on Mac, we care less about the reasons than how to get portable storage on Mac. If you have a rough understanding about main causes of external hard disk not detected, such as superdrive not working, NAS, SD card, USB not recognized, you're suggested to go directly to the below solutions to fix external hard drive not showing up on Macbook Pro/Air, iMac etc.

Make sure Finder will display drive icons.
Open a Finder window. Select Preferences and the General tab. Make sure the box next to External disks is checked.

Select External Drive.
Go to Disk utility and select the external drive from the left sidebar. Choose verify disc. It will find and correct minor errors.

Check USB Hub.
If you are connecting your hard drive with Mac using USB Hub, check the USB hub first.

Open Disk Utility.
If your external USB drive drive faded or greyed out and unmountable? Connect another external drive to computer. Check whether this external hard drive also not recognized. Do the proper eject from the Finder window list. Restart your computer and connect the external drive.

Navigate to Finder on MacBook/iMac.
If your external hard drive not showing up in Finder but visible in Disk Utility, go to Finder window and view below the favourite list. If the drive greyed Out? Select the drive. It might visible.

Restart your Mac and reconnect hard drive to Mac.
Shut down your Mac and then unplug the power cord and all USB connections. Then wait 30 seconds or 5 minutes before you plug it back in. Now you can turn on your Macbook Pro or iMac and plug the drive to the USB port and open Finder to check your drive.

Passport hard drive not showing up on mac download

Download and Install Some File System.
Some times this issue might happened because of the unsupported drive format. Install some file system integration like Fuse for OS X. Then restart your computer and check the issue 'DVD drive not working' fixed or not.

Connect again to Try.
Connect your Segate external drive or WD passport to Windows computer. Delete the partition and connect back to MacBook Pro.

Main Reasons You Might Want to Know

The external hard drive for Mac not showing up in Disk Utility or Finder may be caused by many factors. But all in all it's usually originated from drive issue, dead USB port, and partition issue. And now let's go into details.

• Drive Issues

1. External storage is attacked by virus.
One of the major reasons that your external hard drive not mounting on Mac is the virus threat. The moment your plug in your it to Mac, it spreads across the entire network of the drive resulting to a data loss. Virus such as Trojan gets to HDD via infected external HDD, networks and from media files. They are usually spread from one HDD to another if you share files.

2. Portable hard drive gets corrupted.
You cannot be too careful to save the data on your external hard drive. Usually the media files on the hard drive may fail to appear when you open it owing to the system power failure or an incorrect ejection of HHD. That means there is a big possibility that it gets corrupted so that your Mac computer won't recognize your portable hard drive. In this case, you can try to format Mac hard drive or switch to another hard drive.

• USB Port Issue

Mac computer doesn't recognize external hard drive may also caused by the dead USB port. If your portable hard drive doesn't connect with Mac computer properly, of course, the it won't show up.

• Partition Issue

External hard drive not mounting on Mac problem may happened because of the partition issue. If you have patitioned a hard drive on Mac OS, there is a big possibility that it would not show up in the Finder. For example, your external storage is partitioned into three parts - but somehow you made one of the parts go away or stop showing up in the Finder. Disk Utility says it is mounted, and it doesn't appear to be marked hidden.

After you have fixed external hard drive not showing up in disk utility or Finder problem, you can utilize your external hard drive like Apple USB SuperDrive to play or burn CD and DVD on MacBook Pro/iMac. Yet, the $79 Apple USB SuperDrive can't help you play DVD on your iPhone 12 or iPads. In case you have the demand to play and watch DVD movies on iPhone iPad on the subway or on the way home, MacX DVD Ripper Pro will help you a lot. With it, you're allowed to 1:1 rip and copy DVD to MP4, MOV, H264, H265/HEVC, etc. or directly bacup DVD movies to iPhone with 350+ profiles provided, no matter your DVD is 99-title DVD, Disney oversized 75GB DVD or damaged DVD, AV DVD, etc.

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.

Hi all, New to this community. I recently (yesterday) bought a new My Passport fo Mac 1tb. I plugged it in last night and it worked great, backing up my data via Time Machine. Unplugged it, and now when I plug it in nothing happens. My MBP won’t recognize it. Any ideas as to what happened? Thanks in advance! Turn On Your Mac And Log In. Plug in your WD My Passport’s USB cable into its Micro USB B port. Then plug the other end into a USB port on your Mac. The WD My Passport gets its power from the Mac and the drive’s LED light will start flashing as it powers up.

This page will analyze why WD My Passport drive won't mount on Mac, and provides 7 possible solutions to this issue.

  • 1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on Mac destop
  • 2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility
  • 3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error
  • 4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive
  • 5. Check the USB cable
  • 6. Check the USB port of your Mac
  • 7. Check for driver update

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.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

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.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac

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.

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

Passport

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. Midi editor for mpd32 mapping mac. 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…'
  • 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.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up In My Computer

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 Big Sur 11/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.
  • 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.

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.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up On Desktop

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

Wd My Passport Macbook

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up On Windows

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.

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Showing Up

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.

My Passport For Mac

Wd My Passport For Mac Not Backing Up

For any questions or suggestions, please email us below.

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Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Keyboard

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