New Release - WD SmartWare Version 1.3.6 for Mac 10.5-10.9 (11/25/13)

I installed v. 1.3.6.1 before I installed Maverick.

When I installed Maverick it gave me a message that WDSmartWare was not compaitible. When I looked at my listing there is an app “SmartWare Uninstall” that has a “X” displayed. Is that  what i was warned about since the app WDSnartWare itself has no “X” applied to it.

I installed Maveriks in my IMac i3, when started I couldn’t find anymore the two external hard disks. One is a WD 1TB HD, and the secon is a Seagate Free Agent Desktop 500GB. None of both is readed from the system. I went in the WD web site to download the program to update my system, because even WD found problems with Maveriks, and when I opened the WD window the only HD was the computer HD. There is a small window saying uopdate the version with 1.3.6  but when you push it it appears the phrase: “The upgrade version is not available at the moment”.

Is anybody can help me? I have all my office story in both External HD copied, and I do not know how to solve the problem.

Thanks in advance.

I am experiencing the same problem on mid-2011 iMac 21.5 Intel Duo 3.06 GHz.  Upgraded to Mavericks 10.9.1 and WD My Book 4TB Duo Thunderbolt Drive is not even recognized on the desktop, in finder or within system.  

Does anyone have a fix?

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Anyone using both a Mac and a Western Digital external hard drive? In November a report was made of a known issue between Mac’s OS X Mavericks and Western Digital external drives. The WD drives were losing data when interacting with Mavericks.

The customer service from WD has been HORRIBLE. They have provided solutions that have failed, and tons of message boards of questions with no viable solution (calling them is no better service - the representatives have not been helpful thus far, and on top of that were sarcastic and rude… AND told me that this issue comes out of my free tech support period when it is CLEARLY a WD-wide issue).

WD’s first attempt was an upgrade to their firmware WD_Drive_Manager_Installer_3_1_0_14… the upgrade remains named as the old version number (what?). After uninstalling and reinstalling… I could see that the version WD_Drive_Manager_Installer_3_1_0_14, still was actually named the older version (v2.3.1). Actually… now if you go to the site to download the new version - it is no longer even a functional link… just text.

Their second attempt was to download “SmartWare” which eliminated most functions to the drive (again, what?). I have a MyBook II… Smartware doesn’t show anything about my RAID drives. NOTHING. The user manual for SmartWare confirmed the lack of existence of any RAID management software function. I removed it. 

At this point I have avoided upgrading to Mavericks simply to safeguard my 2TB of date on my external hard drive. Anyone else using both Mac and WD? Anyone have a solution? I need to upgrade my MAC at some point here. I can keep the WD manager uninstalled, but:

a) I shouldn’t have to do that, and

b) How in the world am I supposed to manage my RAID drive with no utility for it? 

Thanks to anyone who can be helpful.

Louise

Same problem. Downloaded Smartware 1.3.6.1 on my Macbook Air. Click on Update Software and get message “WD update server is currently unavailable”. Apple warns to update software to avoid catastrophes with WD and Mavericks. What gives?

  1. “Backup” and “Retrieve” tabs of the software are unavailable.
  2. Clicking “Update Software” triggers a prompt alerting me that my computer is not connected to the internet even with firewall taken down.
  3. WD My Passport external harddrive can STILL not be read by my mac. I’m not saying data has been deleted. I am saying the mac currently refuses to acknowledge the existence of harddrive when plugged in.

What is wrong here?

I thought this wd software update was supposed to be the fix. Apparenlty not. I am having the same issue as you. Have you heard anything from these people yet?

when I upgrade to mac os x 10.9.3, it  report WD smartware incompatibility.

What does it mean?

Anyone can help?

Thanks a lot!

What is the current status of WD Smartware for those who have upgraded to Mavericks?

I have 4 My Passport Studio 500 GB external hard drives that I use Smartware to decrypt. I just upgraded from OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) to 10.9.3 (Mavericks). I have not yet updated to the latest version of Smartware, and I have not tried to access the drives since updating to Mavericks, from fear of losing data based on the past reports of problems.

Have the problems been sorted out with the most recent version of Smartware, such that it will be safe to try to access the drives now? Or should I continue to wait?

I can’t instalol the upgrade for Maverick…just runs and runs but doesn’t install.  HELP!

Tried it myself, says that it cannot connect to server. Did WD just stop updating this problem? If so, my two WD hard drives are now door stops. I can even get them to come up on one of my WIndows XP machines now, let alone all of my Macs with Mavericks. (I shouldn’t of updated, what an ■■■■■ I was)

So in the future, I will not be purchasing any more WD products because I cannot find or get an answer from these guys about this. Simple as that. I do not have the time to play around with this issue and time is money.

I might as well just get a large capacity thumdrive and go that route.

God I hate computers sometimes, but it is part of my graphics design business.

Sorry about that.

Is there still no solution / update for smart ware for OS X 10.9.5 ?

Can’t belive that Western Digital does not provide any update. Please help.

Pras71 wrote:

Is there still no solution / update for smart ware for OS X 10.9.5 ?

Can’t belive that Western Digital does not provide any update. Please help.

There will be no further SmartWare releases for Mac OSX 10.8 and later.  You will need to either use Time Machine or another third party Mac backup software. 

Ok, then give me a hint how to remove the password of my drive?

On OS X i can’t install the SW so it can’t remove the password. On Windows i can install the tool, but the SW can’t find the volume. So in both ways I can’t remove the passwort to use the drive for installing my time machine backups to my new installed mac book.

What drive are you using?

A My Passport Studio - WDBAAE5000ASL - 00

You actually have a hidden VCD on your studio.  Check out the software below.  This should help you unlock the drive.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/utilitiesstep1.asp?id=wdfMP_Studio&os=MAC

The update says, that I already have the aktual FW version 102. If I try to install the FW anyway the installer crashes.

Is there anywhere the possible to disable the locking permanently from the unlocking tool? I thought this is only possible with the smart ware software.

All you should need to do is install the VCD manager and remove the password.  That permanently unlocks it.  Go to step 2 and download the VCD manager, and install it.

Thank you so far, but at the moment I’m really frustrated.

I tried it on OS X and on Windows 7 but in both cases I get the message that I have to remove the password protection first. Then I can configure the disk. But that’s exactly what I want to do! Remove the password protection permanently. Of course I did the unlocking before running the VCD manager.

So let me summarize waht I did until now:

  1. Tried to install smart ware on my mac → did not work

  2. Installed smart ware on my windows PC → did work, but windows did not see my drive because it is formated for mac

  3. Tried to perform a firmware update → did not work on mac or PC but my drive has the latest FW anyway, probably no problem

  4. Tried to remove the password protection with VCD manager on mac and windows → VCD manager does not work with the drive until password protection is removed from my passport

So with the latest hint we have a kind of dead lock. Need to run the VCD manager to remove the password but VCD manager does not work until password protection is removed ??? Any other ideas?