Password protect a Passport Drive for use with BOTH Mac and PC

Continuing the discussion from Can I use a password and still access on both PC and MAC?:

(that post was so old I couldn’t just add on to it…)

Is the info there still valid? - i.e. I want to use an external “Passport” drive interchangeably on BOTH a Mac and PC so that each has access to the same data while still maintaining password protection on it. I plan to do this by either reformatting to ExFat or getting an NTFS add-on (like Paragon) for the Mac. I’ve read that the drive comes with “Smartware” software that password protects (encrypts?) the drive - but I think that works ONLY on /for a PC.

(This is for offsite video file backup - I don’t necessarily need full blown encryption, but I want at least a password)

It doesn’t concern me too much if I have to use SmartWare on a PC to “lock” and “unlock” the drive so that the Mac can see it. I just want to make sure that if I do so that I can still use the drive on both platforms (I’m also assuming the password protection offered by Smartware is “instant” - i.e. I don’t want to have to wait to decrypt the entire drive on the PC first, before I can use it on the Mac).

I would also like to know if this approach would work whether I leave the formatting as NTFS or change it to ExFat.

Thanks!

Hi, what is the model of your passport? This will determinate if its possible or not.

Hi,

I haven’t bought one yet… I was looking at the portable “Passport” ones but I could also go with a desktop “My Book” version. Unfortunately the WD site doesn’t make it easy to compare…

Hi there, I’m trying to do this with the WD 4TB MyPassport. I formatted it to ExFat using my Mac and I need it to be able to work on both Windows and Mac interchangeably. How do I put a password on?