My Passport Air - unable to write to drive after sleep

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

I have an issue with my new My Passport Air drive. When my Macbook goes back from sleep, I am unable to write anything to my external drive, Time Machine cannot backup the HDD. The external drive seems to still be mounted. In order to make everything work again, I need to unmout the drive, disconnect it and reconnect. Really annoying.

I really do not know what to do with this issue.

2

Hello and welcome, 

Be sure to have the Passport connected directly to the Mac USB port, avoid using USB extension cables or USB hubs. You can also try installing the WD Drive Utilities for Mac. Check the link below. 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=224&sid=157&lang=en

3

Thank you for your reply. My drive is connected directly to the Mac USB port and the WD Drive Utilities are also installed. So the issue is somewhere else.

I have found that when I remove password protection for the drive, everything works fine [I had pasword protection enabled and “auto unlock for user” also enabled]. But this is no solution for me.

4

Kenner wrote:

I have an issue with my new My Passport Air drive. When my Macbook goes back from sleep, I am unable to write anything to my external drive, Time Machine cannot backup the HDD. The external drive seems to still be mounted. In order to make everything work again, I need to unmout the drive, disconnect it and reconnect. Really annoying.

 

I really do not know what to do with this issue.

That’s normal, when the computer goes to sleep it does not provide enough power to awaken the drive, only disconnecting the drive or actually restarting/shutting down the computer provides enough power to USB ports.

So not much to do there.

5

Sorry, you are wrong. This is not a power issue - the drive works fine when password protection is disabled. It awakens from sleep, I don’t need to restart the computer! I had few drives in my life - never had to disconnect them.

6

Kenner wrote:

Sorry, you are wrong. This is not a power issue - the drive works fine when password protection is disabled. It awakens from sleep, I don’t need to restart the computer! I had few drives in my life - never had to disconnect them.

Again: That’s normal, not all computers can awaken drives just from resuming hibernation even with no password. This is been debated to death over the last 3 years on these, the Seagate, Hitachi, and iOmega boards. It’s on a per-computer-basis and power settings.

Disable the password if the drive can’t be unlocked from resuming on your computer, as that’s yet another ingredient added into the mix.

7

Have you used the Apple support forum?

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_air

I sugest you try that,  the Apple engineers tmight help you.

8

ThePizzaMatrix wrote:

Again: That’s normal, not all computers can awaken drives just from resuming hibernation even with no password. This is been debated to death over the last 3 years on these, the Seagate, Hitachi, and iOmega boards. It’s on a per-computer-basis and power settings.

Disable the password if the drive can’t be unlocked from resuming on your computer, as that’s yet another ingredient added into the mix.

Again: My Macbook Pro has no issue with awaking ANY drive other than WD My Passport Air with password encryption enabled. 

Disabling the password is not a solution for me, since this is one of the features I require.

9

AlCapone wrote:

Have you used the Apple support forum?

 

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_air

 

I sugest you try that,  the Apple engineers tmight help you.

Not yet, but thank you - I’ll try it.