Software Update - WD SmartWare Version 1.6.0 for Windows (5/9/12)

I have also this kind of problem.

But I have much more files to save, with a lot of large files.

Files are said to “pending”, I wait, and I wait, and I wait … and it doesn’t save anything at all.

The proccess WDBackupEngine.exe seems having strange behaviours. Some times it doesn’t use ressource, some times it uses 50 or 90% of CPU time (and at this moment it doesn’t save anything)

I am having the exact same problem as not so lucky lucky_phil.  After upgrading from 1.5.4.5, which was working fine, the switch to 1.6.0 has not been pleasent.  It has taken over my CPU and like others, the Outlook.pst file is not consistenly getting backed up.

I can repeatedly replicate the problem whereby Windows Task Manager’s Resource Monitor indicates that WDBackupEngine.exe is utiilizing CPU Usage of 25% and then jumps to 50% and remains there.  Here are my benchmarks…



                                                                                                                                                                    CPU Usage

After a fresh re-install                                                                                                                **     0%**

Execute WD Smartware

                   - During Backup                                                                                                          ** 0% - 4%**

                   - After Backup                                                                                                             0%** **



Open Outlook                                                                                                      Remains at:       0%

Close Outlook                                                                                     Spikes to and stays at:    25%

STOP Backup                                                                                                       Remains at:    25%
START Backup                                                                                  Spikes to and stays at:    50%



Reboot                                                                                                                     Begins at:    25%

Open Outlook                                                                                                      Remains at:    25%
Close Outlook                                                                                   Spikes to and stays at:    50%

Requires reboot to bring it back down to…                                                                               25%

But the next time you open and close Outlook it jumps back up to and remains at:           50%       

I wouldn’t wish ill will on anyone but at least I (and the technical support staff) know I am not alone. 

Hopefully this matter will be addressed in the near term but until then I am backing up all my personal files to a USB stick.



I’ve had my 2TB My Passport for about a month and I am pleased to see this update as I was on verge of ditching the WD SmartWare due to the performance issues.

I installed the 1.6.0 update yesterday, and already I am running into issues where over 470 files were NOT being backed up. This morning (spending MORE of my time to determine if I can TRUST WD Smartware) I have determined that part of the problem is due to having ENCRYPTED folders and files.

Previously these files WERE getting backed up with no problems, so I tried UNENCRYPTING these few folders and then RENECRYPTING them again, and it “seems” that most are now backed up.

After doing this I STILL HAVE 44 files that are not getting backed up, even some new ones I created this morning.

Also in the ‘View Files’ dialog that shows the files that are not being backed up I am finding contrary to the Help information  that the columns CANNOT be SORTED like  the help file states. A minor but annoying bug.

THE BIGGER ISSUE here is how can I TRUST this software if it still is not backing up older files that it was backing prior to this 1.6.0 update?

The 1.6.0 update is a step in the right direction but it seems there are several remaining issues that need to be resolved so I don’t have to spend yet MORE OF MY TIME trying to get a RELIABLE backup.

PLEASE WD, FIX THIS.

EDIT: I have confirmed this on my Windows 7 Service Pack 1 x64 machine: WD SmartWare 1.6.0 NO LONGER MAKES BACKUPS OF ENCRYPTED FILES! Can someone please VERIFY?

Edit Sunday May 13th: I’ve resolved this. After seeing that msiexec.exe ran all night long and after watching shadow copies reach 2981, I have UNINSTALLED WD Smartware. I’ll chalk up all the hours upon hours of time lost over the last 3 weeks since installing WD Smartware to a learning experience.

In my case I have more than 58,000 files pending, for an amount of more than 580 Gb of data.

After about 1 year of waiting a fix, still no solutions

Why is the USER MANUAL that is available on the WD SmartWare 1.6.0 UPDATE page still the OLD 1.5.x version?

When will the updated manual be available?

I’m still trying to figure out why I have several GB of files automatically EXCLUDED from the backups? I have a data drive E: that should be completely backed up yet WD SmartWare shows me that 6.3 GB is EXCLUDED. How do I find a file list of which ones are excluded?

Here’s another issue with WD SECURITY after upgrading to WD Smartware 1.6.0 on a Win 7 x64 machine, I CANNOT SET A PASSWORD in WD Security. This is t he first time I want to set a drive password (now that Smartware does not backup encrypted files) but I cannot type in the full password which is about 7 characters long.

I’ve spent MOST OF MY SATURDAY figuring out why Smartware no longer backups encrypted files and trying to get a drive password put on. :manmad:

I upgraded Smartware to v. 1.6.0 two days ago. I was training this version near 24 hours and my conclusion is, that this version is not working properly. Files, I have changed, are not backuped instantly, but only after full backup.

WD Backup Engine is working all the time, using 13-25% CPU and doing nothing(in my mind).

I will try come back to previous version but I am afraid of unknown problems.

I have the same problem. Waht can I do? I have never ever signed in with a usee mane and password…?! I can not create a new one …

I am confused as to what this 1.6.0 software update entails.

If I right click on the “WD Quick View” icon in the bottom right corner, I can select "About WD Quick View"and I see:

Version: 1.6.0

WD Quick View: 3.1.7.4

WD Drive Service: 1.6.0.4

When I open up WD SmartWare and select the “Settings” tab and then the “Set Up Software” button, I see in the lower left corner:

About your software

Product Name: WD Smartware

Version: 1/2/0/8

  So just what is being updated with this 1.6.0 release???

This release is eating up my CPU time.

WDSmartWare.exe is using 55% to 85% of my CPU at any given time.

And every now and then a WDDriveService.exe pops up.

  I now also see 6 seperate process running on my computer:

WDDMService.exe, WDDMStatus.exe, WDDriveService.exe, WDRulesEngine.exe, WDSmartWare.exe,WDSmartWareBackgroundService.exe

Why in gods name is there 6 process’s running to do a backup of a drive???

I have 2 Passport USB drives.  One is an Elite (650g) and the other an Essential (1TB).

After installing the update the Elite was reconized and the Essenential was not.

Today I am doing a back on the Elite (have not gotten to the Essential yet). I backup my D drive.

I never use the Catagory Backup.  I use the file/folder backup and select only the files/folders I want to backup.

I do not see the File/Folder selection anywhere on the UI interface as it was before.

How do I know it is doing a File/Folder backup if I cannot see the File/Folder as before this upgrade???

This is awful software. This is a step backwards. And there is no documentation for this stuff.

You have made major changes in the User Interface and there is no documentation…!!

I am very dissapointed in WD.

Does anybody know if this upgrade does File/Folder backup…???

i loaded 1.6.0 and now have no backup to my Outlook .pst files and Windows 7 64 bit power management sleep mode does not run.  I can manually go into sleep mode but can not schedule sleep mode.  if i go under services and shut down WDBackup services sleep mode works correctly.  Can anyone give any advice.  i have spent my entire Saturday loading and removeing 1.6.0 and redoing the backup on the drive and still have the same issues.

A few further thoughts.

From looking at Windows Explorer my main PST file has now been backed up twice more.  I don’t know why it works some times but it takes a very long time ie hours with Outlook closed whereas it was minutes on SW 1.5.4.5.  I’ve tried disabling the anti virus and firewall but these don’t seem to make any difference.

SmartWare 1.5.4.5 started backing up files the moment the computer was switched on.  I presume this was the activity performed by WDFME.exe, with all the resource hogging problems.

It appears that with SW 1.6 the backing up is not commenced until SmartWare has been opened, eg from Quick View.  This is an important difference – the process is hardly automatic and continuous if you have to switch it on.

[EDIT 17 MAY 2012.  This morning WDBackupEngine.exe and WDRulesEngine.exe started when the computer was switched on, and did the same after a restart, so this may have been resolved.]

If I leave SmartWare open it seems to wait until it has completed the Categorisation phase and moved to Welcome before it starts any backing up. This may take some time – tens of minutes or more (I wonder if it’s stalled over the PST files).  However, if I exit SmartWare before Categorisation is complete it backs up the non-PST files immediately.

From checking Task Manager it appears that WDDMStatus.exe and WDDriveService.exe start when the computer is switched on but WDBackupEngine.exe, WDSmartWare.exe and WDRulesEngine.exe only start when the SmartWare is turned on.  Selecting Exit SmartWare closes WDSmartWare.exe, but leaves the other processes running so that backup will continue. WDSmartWare.exe is the main resource user for me during Categorisation (perhaps those PST files again), although it does allow other processes to run, but falls back to a low level when Categorisation has finished.  WDBackupEngine.exe drops back to 00 CPU and modest RAM when it has finished backing up.

On what might be a trivial point, has anyone else noticed that the names are missing from the Backup etc tabs from time to time?

I am not sure what you mean by Names in the Backup tab.

I only see the the drive I am backing up on the left side (my D drive) and the Passport drive on the right side.

Both sides show the Categories only.  If you click on the little arrow in the middle of the screen the the Advanced window opens up and allows you to check or unchecked Categories.

I still want to find out if this update still does File/Folder backups as the previous software did.

Western Digital…Can this software do File/Folder backups? If so how?

For me it is no sense to try Smartware until it will be repaired. Now I am trying Genie Timline. I will write if the results will be good.

Hi dcline,

If you open SmartWare from Quick View there should be five tabs labelled Home, Backup, Retrieve, Settings, and Help.  Sometimes I have found that some or all of these tabs are blank, ie they have no names displayed.

You will see from my post that I only have 5 services running including WDBackupEngine.exe which you don’t appear to have but excluding WDDMService.exe and WDSmartWareBackgroundService.exe.  I’m running XP and I presume you are running something else.

My Help tab says version 1.6.0.  My Settings tab says version 1.6.0 until I click the Passport icon to remove the greying from the Backup and Retrieve tabs.  It then says nothing about version number.

My Backup tab has a ‘switch to file backup’ button but I haven’t tried to use it.

Hello Watchful,

I am running XP SP3.   I have never seen a 5th tab called HELP.  I have a small blue box with the letter “i” in it on the far right.  If I click on it I get a screen that opens and says Help. There is an About button and when clicked it says WD SmartWare version 1.2.0.8.   I am amazed at the differences in screens between similar systems and we have no documentation to tell us anything.

I have just powered up my pc today and have not connected my Passport Essentials USB drive yet. My CPU is being consumed (90%) by WDSmartWare.exe.   When I look at Task manager I now have the previous 6 processes running I mentioned and the WDBackupEngine.exe is there now. Total of 7 processes. But only the WDSmartWare is consuming the CPU. I will wait a little while to see if SmartWare settles down before connecting my Passport Essentials drive.  Last time I tried to hook it up the SmartWare sw did not see it.

I used to have a “switch to file backup” as well.  Now it is gone.

I’ve given up now.

Version 1.6.0 seemed to work OK with one user on my Windows 7 64 bit system.

However, once I logged out and logged in with a different user (both admin ids) the backup software ran at 50% constantly even after stopping the backup - after it had completed backing up.

I have uninstalled SmartWare and will use Retrospect instead.

Good luck everyone.

Hello dcline,

There is some documentation at http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705054.pdf but it is out of date (Feb 2011).  The screenshot at Figure 7 sounds like the one you describe.  Mine has a fifth tab for Help as well as the small ‘i’ button.

It sounds as if your update to 1.6 has not taken place correctly.  ‘Update’ is a misleading word because it does not require any previous version and it is better to uninstall earlier versions completely before you start – see my post on page 1 of this string for what I did, and even then it still has faults.

I find WDSmartWare.exe uses a lot of resources when ‘categorising’ but, unlike WDFME, does allow other services to run.  I’ve found that if the overall SmartWare package is working correctly I can ‘Exit SmartWare’ (which closes WDSmartWare.exe) and leave the backup running in the background which saves resources.

dcline wrote:

I am not sure what you mean by Names in the Backup tab.

I only see the the drive I am backing up on the left side (my D drive) and the Passport drive on the right side.

Both sides show the Categories only.  If you click on the little arrow in the middle of the screen the the Advanced window opens up and allows you to check or unchecked Categories.

I still want to find out if this update still does File/Folder backups as the previous software did.

 

Western Digital…Can this software do File/Folder backups? If so how?

Dude easy with the caps…

You are not running the latest version of Smartware and yes that version does allow for file/folder backup

If you want WD support you can contact them directly on their web

Sorry for the large yellow words,but this software deserves it.

When I see the problems that others are having and the problems that I am having - you sometimes have to vent your anger.

I had the ability to do File/Folder backup before the 1.6.0 upgrade.  Then it disappeared.  Then it would not even see my Passport Essential drive. And you tell me I am not on the latest SmartWare…!

An “Upgrade” should not do that. 

This is “Retrograde” software.

And I do not like being a beta tester for their non-primetime software.

I have uninstalled it.

Thank you.

Not to rub salt into a wound, but I have done the same things you have and have also been terribly disapointed in the help received from the ‘techs’ who should know about these things and have either solutions, or at the very least an explanation as to why things aren’t working and perhaps telling us that they know about these problems we are all complaining about and are working on solutions so we know help is on the way.