WD My Passport 4TB won't work on USB 3.0 port, but does work on USB 2.0 port

Hi,

I bought 2 x WD 4TB My Passport drives (WDBYFT0040BBK-0A) about 3 years ago. They were working fine for a long time but lately they’ve been acting up.

They’d keep disconnecting and reconnecting when plugged in. Now they won’t show up at all. Sometimes if I keep disconnecting and re-connecting them they’ll work, but then they might stop again soon after.

Then I switched the cable to the USB 2.0 port and they work fine (although slower, obviously). Swapped back to the USB 3.0 and still not working.

I’ve tried many cables and 3 different PCs, same story - only work on USB 2.0 ports.

I have two WD Elements portable hard drives also. Both work fine in USB 3.0 ports. This proves the problem isn’t the cables or the ports.

I tried uninstalling the drives in Device Manager, restarting the PC and reconnecting. Didn’t work.

I’ve seen this problem reported on several forums, but never found a solution.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks!

Hi,

I would like to inform you that the drive is compatible with the interface:
USB 3.0
USB 2.0

I would suggest you to try with a different USB cable and test the drive health status through WD Drive Utilities.

Title: How to install WD Drive Utilities( For both Windows and MAC)
Link: [Error]

Hi Neha_07,

Thanks for your reply.

I tried a different USB cable (several, in fact) but all had the same results.

I ran the drives through the WD Drive Utilities tests. All passed. Screenshot attached.

I know you said the drive is compatible with USB 3.0, but it doesn’t appear to be. For either of my My Passport drives.

What else can I try? What’s the next step?

Thanks,
Dneville

Hi Neha_07,

I’m still waiting on a reply.

What’s the next thing I should try?
This seems like a known issue.

Thanks!

Hi Neha_07,

I’m still waiting on a reply.

What’s the next thing I should try?

Thanks!

Hi Neha_07,

What’s the next thing I should try?
This seems to be a known issue.

Thanks

Does anyone have a solution to this?

Thanks!

Hi I hope you still require the solution.
I have the Same 4TB drive. I think WD should mention that it needs power from the USB port.
I am selling my drive now I was just searching for which port it supports so that if the person buying it faces the same problem I can tell him which port. I stumbled upon this link on google.

So I had the same exact problem on my ASUS vivobook laptop. After losing data(be careful you might lose data) I figured out the problem. I had 1 TB WD elements and then I added this 4TB.

It kept disconnecting but would reconnect back. in an instant but when writing data got corrupted and i lost an entire 1.5 TB of Data.

Then I realized that some Laptops and Motherboards give out max 5 Volts of Power to all the USB ports Combined.

So if you use any other port for a hard disk then only the large capacity HDD drives will face shortage of power.
Infact they both connect properly and only face a problem especially if you copy from 1 External HDD to another.

Then I purchased this USB adaptor https://www.amazon.in/QuantumZERO-External-Powered-USB-Ports/dp/B011OSM2KW?&linkCode=ll1&tag=rajsanand-21&linkId=529bd2004dd0f8702c4403e4b18d3c89&language=en_IN&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

This comes with a power adaptor that gives you almost unlimited power. You can charge phones and connect any amount of hard drives.

When My Desktop crashed I got an Old Stand By desktop. This is when I figured the problem. The old ones have lesser power boxes.
And less USB ports.
There I figured that only when I connected the second external HDD the 4TB one stopped working the 1TB power requirment was not as much so it remained connected.

Then when removing the “powered” USB hub once I got a slight shock when I touched the USB port that connect to the PC/Laptop.
I realized this was leaking power.

Then I figured out that charging my Phone on this also damaged it. My LG phone did not come with a charger so I started charging on this Hub as it supported fast charging.

So then I decided that my new laptop would get damaged so I dumped the USB Hub and I swapped my External HDD with an external SSD drive of 1TB.

Now since the External SSD was a Type-C port I think that gets a dedicated power not shared with the USB ports.

So now my 4TB started working fine without the need of the Power adaptor backed USB hub.

So to sum it up.

Either only use the external 4TB alone or if you must use it with another external Drive that can be an SSD drive.
If you need to us more than 1 external HDD then you will have to buy a USB hub with a power adaptor. Find a good quality one I think potronics has one which is around 50% costlier but is worth the money.

But this external power adaptor requirment does restrict Mobility. I used to carry a 3 plug Belkin Spike Buster with me. Which is even more cumbersome.
But it is a good measure since in public places power could be unsafe. The Spike buster will protect you devices. and also you can use the Laptop and this power hub and still have one plug free for another device which is generally used to charge someone else’s phone. Cause when I was using this power plugs were scarce in cafes now every table has 1 .

Hope this helps.