I cannot get Quickbooks to backup under 1.6.0 either (“Access is Denied”). Nor will any pst file be backed up (“File Pending Backup” …what, for 5 day?!). Nor will any files that have any special characters in them (“The Parameter is Incorrect”), such as (, - , etc. And I have a hundereds of songs that have these in their file names so iTunes is effectively not backed up either. None of these were issues with the previous software and firmware versions. I have spent countless hours on all these issues and after reading all these threads as well as all the complaints I gathered from Google seacches, I am astounded at the lack of a formal statement from WD that, at the very least, says something like: “we have a problerm with 1.6.0. Yes, we should never have released this in the first place but we are aware of the problem and will have a new version out very shortly that addresses the myriad issses that 1.6.0 has”. But alas, if they haven’t done so on this issue, they surely won’t on future issues so back to Costco goes my My Passport Essential (thanks to their 2 year return policy)
DO NOT INSTALL WD Smartware 1.6.0. I updated and after I did my CPU utilization by WD processes took 100%–all the time. Plus I started a Backup (as directed) on a relatively small number of folders with just a few GBs and 24 hours later it was still trying to copy files. I then went to check on my Passport drive and found that for months WD had only been randomly backing up files from the folders I had selected in the Backup by Files option. I opened a ticket two days ago and have heard nothing. I just uninstalled WD Smartware and am giving up.
Well after fighting with the “new and improved” WD Smartware v 1.6.0 all day as well as not hearing back from the supprot center I’ll be doing 3 things…
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NEVER BUYING A WD PRODUCT AGIAN, It’s quite clear to me that Western Digital doesn’t give a **bleep** about its customers if they dont even bother testing their own updates before releasing them.
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Getting rid of my MBL
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Recommending that no one buy WD EVER!!
something told me I should have gone with seagate but i ended up picking WD because i was recommended by a
colleague ha what a mistake that was.
WD SmartWare uses way too much CPU time. Upgraded to 1.6.0.19. It brought my PC (HP Envy 17 with i7-2630QM 4 cores) to near stand still, even when no external drive is connected. I have wasted so much time trying to figure out what the problem was . . . . Just can’t begin to express my frustration. Finally just uninstalled all WD smartware and my PC is running smoothly again.
I couldn’t agree more. I bought my drive so that I’d be able to backup all the computers on my network and this device has been nothing but a really big headache.
Have the My Passport Essential 250G and had the same problem of the Backup and Restore Tabs disabled after installing the 1.6.0. Thereafter, made two other attempts going through the entire update process even after erasing the drive and starting from scratch. Encountered the same disabled Backup and Restore tabs.
I found an older WD update installer and and now running 1.4.1.1 and am now back up and running.
Quickly updated to 1.6.0.2 . Application runs exceptionally slow. Tabs do not indicate they are selectable (with the normal highlights. Response is so slow, I do not know if the tab was selected or not. Running a T61, dual CPUs at 2.2GHz each.
THAT’S IT… I’VE HAD IT!
Been fighting this FAR too long. Went through two drives, multiple (an understatement) calls to support, multiple uninstalls & reinstalls, upgrades & retrogrades, WAY TOO MANY HOURS trying to beat this thing into submission. It’s hopeless. Do I sound bitter? YES!
My biggest regret? That I recommended WD to a friend back when I first bought it & it was working OK… or I THOUGHT it was working OK 
Goodbye WD.
The Cloud or Seagate… where do I go next???
I was on 1.5.4.5 version. Saw this update and thought lets update it. The main reason being the old version was a CPU hog. WD release notes for 1.6.0 claimed to reduce this. So wanted to try.
To my utter dissatisfaction, the CPU usage remained high - 50% and consistently high. The even worser problem is that the files backuped by old version were not recognized by this version. It was being categorized as “System Files”. Meaning they cannot be retrieved. I had 80GB worth of backup which is now not accessible… THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE WD!! This is not even a complicated use case. Same software product not being able to see that files were already backed up and only backup the rest of them. This is very basic stuff that WD should have tested before releasing it.
The first thing I did next was to uninstall WD SmartWare. It feels like I got my PC back. Its so much faster now.
I am in market for a better backup/sunc software. Any recommendations welcome!
Here are my observations meaning problems with 1.6. as of 6/25/12
1. After installing 1.6 backups became intermittent.
2. Some files would backup when created but would not backup on modification.
3. Some files would not backup on creation nor when modified.
4. The Home tab would show file categories and cumulative file size on the PC. After clicking on the My Book icon all files on the PC became “Excluded”.
5, File counts between PC and My Book don’t match.
I called WD support. I worked with them for nearly 2 hours on the phone. We uninstalled and reinstalled the software. No change. We updated Java and Flashplayer. No change. WD support suggested formating the My Book or deleting all the files and starting over.
I opted to deinstall 1.6 and reinstall 1.5.0.17. The problem is FIXED!!!
Major problems with 1.6 !!!
WD Support tried their best but it’s unfortuanate that they have heard “No Problems with 1.6”.
Good luck!
Wayne
wow only took about 20 attempts to register…
hi all, first post here, i am running xp with smartware 1.6, ever since i updated the software my cpu is going mad and my drive isnt even plugged in and also when i do try and backup my pst files are not backed up.
has there been any resolution to this or shall i just go back to the previous version
thanks all
I had a WD tech guy remove the 1.6 and he installed 1.5. It doesn’t have all the same problems, but it still eats up CPU and I’m not convinced it backs up ALL the files. the file count doesn’t always match on the hard drive and the back up drive. My suggestion. remove WD software and get a cheap (probably free) basic back up program. Next time buy a hard drive from a company who cares enough about its’ customers to not pass out **bleep** update software.
Just installed a new Passport on my laptop but the backup tab is greyed over and I can’t find a switch/button to give me access to set up backups by file rather than category. How do I change this? Thought I had installed the full version of WD’s software which came on the drive. No?
hi, you need to click on the passport drive pic in the home tab and that should show backup as not grey, then click backup and start backup in blue writing bottom right of screen
@peterfossi i reckon you are right, i have gone back to 1.5.4.5 i think it is, and when i unplug the drive and close the smartware in the bottom right of the screen my cpu is still running at around 70-80 %, so i just shut it done in ctrl alt del, processes
not very good though, i have got WD drives in my pc as they have always been trouble free, but its very dissapointing that they have such poor software and support
I’m a new user on version 1.6. I agree with WATCHFUL that the “non-backup” or “file pending backup” is actually not an error. It is a design architecture, although I’m not sure if it is the best design. It is very confusing. But once u understand the concept, it is a matter of accepting.
My own experience is this → ALL my files are BACKED UP eventually, including ALL the pst files. What I encountered is that ALL my files are backed within the minute I connect the device, EXCEPT the open PST files. Like WATCHFUL said, all files are initially backed up, but why “error” appears because SW are not able to back-up open PST files. So when does it back-up ? My own experience is that it is about 12-15hrs AFTER Outlook is closed. WATCHFUL indicate about 24hrs, but I don’t experience that long. However, I question the need to wait > 12hrs after Outlook is closed for SW to start backup. But for me, for now, since I understood the way the software works, I’m ok with it.
Since updating to 1.6.0, no new files or modified files appear to have been backed up at all. It worked fine before the update but when I check to see what files are there on the My Passport external hard drive, there are no files with dates after the date I did the software update.
Wish I hadn’t updated it, but now I don’t know how to get back to the previous version. Have emailed Customer Support but no reply yet.
The backup tab tells me I have over 100 Gb of files not backed up. I clicked on View Files and the reason it gives for not backing them up is “The system cannot find the path specified”. I’m not even sure what this means. I haven’t changed anything other than this WD software. Tried switching from Category Backup to File Backup but it still doesn’t work.
At least I know I’m not the only one experiencing problems but this seems to be a different problem.
Any advice on restoring the previous version?
Dowloaded 1.6.0 to my ps W7 Home Premium with WD My Book Elite. Initially both the C drive and My Book appeared greyed out and the Backup and Retrieve taps were inactive. I finally discovered that I had to click on the MyBook icon to activate things. However, the back-up is being treated as a fresh back-up, i.e. the files already stored on MyBook have been categorized as “Other files”. Will I be able to delete these from my K drive when the back-up completes?
@mickeyg i had a copy of the smartware files still on my passport drive which were loaded when i got it.
have a look in the drive in my computer and see if you have got the setup files in a folder on there. i uninstalled the 1.6 version in add/remove programs in control panel and installed the older version.
mine was in a folder called WD apps for windows and i used wd smartware setup (x86) as i have 32 bit xp
i am still not totaly happy with this version as even when the drive is not plugged in and i close smartware in the taskbar, if i go to ctrl alt delete and look at processes there is still several WD processes running fragging my cpu
i have a copy of the file if there is a way i can get it to you
@rumin all i have worked out is if you go into the WD smartware.swstore folder you can see all your backed up files. i kept messing around with different versions until i found one i liked and then deleted everything after that folder and ran the backup from scratch
