I’m trying to back up using a new 2TB My Passport.
It connected to the pc but the message says ‘ Please make sure your drive is connected and accessible’ - it is!
I’ve checked everything via the device manager and disc management and all looks good.
I think I’ve exhausted every help topic, but can’t find a solution. Has anyone else had this problem?
Just delete all WD utilities and software that operates in the background. My Passport for Mac disconnected repeatedly while I used Time Machine. Here’s my narrative; though long-winded, the details are, for me, enlightening:
Issue: Failure to successfully use macOS “Time Machine” backups on a consistent level of attempts, either pre-set times or for manual requests. The failure was listed as “The backup disk being repeatedly ejected or disconnected while backing up.”
Narrative: I experienced issues with Western Digital’s 4TB My Passport for Mac, under a “3-year limited warranty,” purchased new through an eBay distributor in September 2025, containing the portable hard drive and a USB (A) to USB (Micro B) connection cable. The incident was logged via Western Digital: 251112-002757.
Additional software came pre-installed within the portable hard drive’s system which operated behind the scene, including “WD Security,” “WD Unlocker” and “WD Drive Utilities” among others.
Hypothesis: It was this software that ultimately caused the issues, to wit: failure to successfully use macOS “Time Machine” backups on a consistent level of attempts, either pre-set times or for manual requests. The problem, i.e., “backup disk ejected or disconnected from Mac while backing up” was experienced always after the “initial” backup (either during reboot or each subsequent backup attempt), but always after the screen saver and display settings put the system ASLEEP for periods of inactivity.
Initial Solution: Change the power-saving setting in macOS to “never” put the system asleep. However, Apple’s macOS Sequoia 15.7.2 utilizing “screen saver” and “display” settings is designed to optimize the mac system’s power-saving and hardware protection features.
While this initially worked in preventing a “disconnect” during a Time Machine backup, I’d have to leave my system running full-time. After researching on the Internet, I found multiple sources complaining about the WD security software causing similar disconnect issues.
Once Western Digital technicians Travis, Oliver and John walked me through a series of FAILED resolution attempts over a two-week period, they were kind enough to walk me through deleting said WD utility software, believing that, if deleted and my system could do backups without disconnecting and, if I could get to this point while returning my “screen lock,” “screen saver” and “display” settings back to the previous “sleep” settings, this would prove the WD utilities were interfering with the backups.
Once I deleted all “utilities” including “WD Discovery,” “WD Unlocker” software which appeared to provide necessary data to enter password protection, my system began working consistently.
This proved my hypothesis: the WD software conflicted with the macOS Time Machine when I utilized the “sleep settings.”
