WD Drive Unknown Security State: ff

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

When I open my WD Drive Unlock application, it gives me an error. “Unknown Security State: ff”. How do I fix it? It has all my backup in it and I don’t want to lose them. Please help me !!!

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Hi jonasBernado,

Try to install the WD Security and unlock the drive using WD Security and check if you are able to access the drive after that.

Please refer to the link given below for more information.

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?h=p1&ID=10408&lang=en&p=120

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nope. it does not resolved the issue

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4

Hello Jonas and others. I have the same issue. Open a window with: Unknown Security State: ff. I’ve installed WD Discovery and nothing happened. It descovery others devices as flashdrive…or HD… but the WD My Passport don’t work. A lot of headache!!

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Do you have any update? I have the same issue!

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Hi folks,

The drive was working fine in macOS Sierra until i have installed “Internet Security 2019” from Kaspersky and works fine without the security solution.

Whenever i want to use the drive with KIS installed, i get the FF error code and instantly after the deinstallation of KIS, the drive works fine again! I have upgraded the Firmware to the latest version.

I would like to use both products, the drive and the security solution. Any ideas?

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I have had the same problem when I installed KIS 2019. I have had to uninstall KIS 2019, then install WD Security (Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support (mac) the windows version is on the same web page under “Software For Windows”), remove the password on my External HDD, then reinstall KIS 2019, and then it will recognise my HDD allowing me to access the files on it.

Hope this helps

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i have this problem too
but i can not find any answer !! PLS help !! i want my data

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the solution for me was to deinstall Kaspersky internet security 19 with they deinstaller app, not just removing the dmg app from the program folder. now all works again

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We encountered a raid (Raid 1) failure on a western digital duo (8TB). Raid Status showed “Cannot Access Data” but both drives passed all checks and showed them as being “online.”

The drives were formatted as HFS+J and were being used on a MacBook running OSX Catalina. The duo was less than 2 months old and was connected to a surge protector. All checks for the drives passed but the data was inaccessible. The drives were encrypted using Western Digital’s encryption, and when attempting to unlock them with security app, while connected to macOS it wouldn’t allow a password to be entered, instead only showed “Unknown Security State: ff.”

Everything I could find online was absolutely no help, all it said was to reformat the drives and that the data was lost. I tried connecting the drive through windows but the same errors showed, yet it would allow me to enter in a password, even though the drives wouldn’t decrypt. I tried to remove the password with no luck.

I eventually gained access to the material in the drive by doing these steps:

  1. Used a Windows 10 OS and Downloaded the windows version of WD Drive Security, and WD Discovery.
  2. Removed the lid from the Duo and removed drive #2.
  3. Plugged in the duo and it then would allow me to enter my password. The drive’s contents then became accessible, and the Raid status changed to “Degraded” since it was only running one drive but the data was still accessible.
  4. Removed the password from the drive using WD digital.
  5. Plugged the Duo back into the MacOs operating system and could access the data there as well.

The OS X system was not running kaspersky or any other AV or security software from the last time it was accessed to when it failed. Although I’m skeptical of the latest FireWire update (was done yesterday 3/26/20) had anything to do with it.

I’m assuming the drives will need to be reformatted now but it seems the raid failed or the security caused an issue. Hope this helps.

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