I’m going to start out with one fact that should be taken into account when trying to find a logical reason for the issue:
This problem occurs ONLY with the WD hard drives, and does not occur with Seagate brand drives, nor any other USB 3.0 compatible device.
I have a 12 inch MacBook with one USB C port.
IF I connect a WD drive directly to the USB port (with either one of several USB 3.0 cables with one of USB to USB C converters, or a USB 3 to USB C cable) three separate model WD drives do all actually mount as USB 3.0 drives.
If I connect a USB C hub that supports USB 3.0 & connect the WD drives they always mount as USB 2.0. This is regardless of the cable used to connect the WD drives to the hub, and I literally have tried 7 different brand USB C hubs to date.
In each case, if I plug in my Seagate drive (or any USB 3.0 device) using the exact same cables to the same hubs they ALWAYS mount as USB 3.0. This is even taking into account the fact that the WD drive and the opposing USB 3.0 device or drive can all be connected at the exact same time.
This applies to my “My Passport Wireless Pro” drive as well as non-wireless “My Passport Ultra” and “My Passport” drive.
If there is any doubt I have tried this many hubs, please take a look at the following image…
Note the multiple brands of cables, multiple brands of USB to USB C adapters, 6 different USB 3.0 hubs (I have used at least 2 more than this, but one hub I cannot find the other was returned). And in the event you are wondering, the two that look like the same model are actually 2 different brands:
The silver drive is my Seagate drive that mounts with no issues using any combination of the cables & hubs you see (I have another seagate drive as well as a USB 3 flash drive that also work with all the hubs shown).
It’s really frustrating as I am constantly trying new brands of hubs as I see them become available in hopes one will actually allow me to mount the WD drives as USB 3.0, but each one makes no difference.
Anyone have any idea why none of my WD drives are compatible with any brand of USB 3.0 hub???
