WD my passport not mounting on macbook

Having the same problem. WD 2 TB My Book Studio worked perfectly until I upgraded to Yosemite. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Need to urgently retrieve the data that is on the disk.

I have recently received clear confirmation from WD that the MyBook Studio ÂŁTB is not fully compatible with Yosemite and that they have no known plans to create a patch as the last Firmware update was in late November 2013. Below is the response.

Thank you for feedback on your replacement.
To answer your first question, unfortunately Smartware is incompatible with Mac OS 10.10
We have tested this at our lab earlier today, to double-check this.
It is unlikely that a firmware update that makes Smartware compatible with Mac OS 10.10 will be available soon as the latest firmware update is from November 25th 2013,
but i can’t say this with certainty.

By any means you could still use Time Machine to back up your drives.
I have included a link that shows how you can retrieve files that have been backed up with Time Machine in Mac OS 10.10:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18837

Also you have the possibility to manually drag and drop files form your computer onto your drive ( drive can be found in "Finder’ ).

Not surprising that it’s a 10.10 issue, since my “My Book Elite” works when I boot under 10.6 and crashes the system under 10.10 Fortunately I wasn’t using it as a TimeMachine disc Unfortunately it’s files I need. I will keep watching and hoping WD issues a patch

I encountered perhaps a similar problem tonight.  I’m still running 10.9.5. 

My 2GB WD MyPassport was last successfully connected to my Macbook about two months ago (I use it almost exclusively for Time Machine backups).

I tried using it tonight but the main partition no longer mounts.  A small exfat parition mounts, but I can’t seem to fully verify that parition from disk utlities. 

Here’s how it looks via Terminal:

/dev/disk1
   #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
   0: FDisk_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1
   1: Windows_NTFS ExFatPaws 200.5 GB disk1s1
   2: Apple_HFS Paws 1.8 TB disk1s2
cherbourg-2:~ xxxxx$ diskutil verifyVolume /Volumes/ExFatPaws/
Started file system verification on disk1s1 ExFatPaws
Error: -69673: Live file system repair is not supported
cherbourg-2:~ xxxxx$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1s1
Volume ExFatPaws on /dev/disk1s1 mounted
cherbourg-2:~ xxxxx$ diskutil mount /dev/disk1s2
Volume on disk1s2 timed out waiting to mount

Is this similar to the other mount troubles that people are having or are my troubles likely just due to the drive dying and/or being corrupted?   I never had troubles with the drive in the past.  I updated to 10.9.x months and months ago and did several successfully TM backups to the drive since that initial upgrade.  

It’s a portable drive and thus no ac adapter.  WD Support, please don’t just tell me to try a different cable or port.  In other threads people tell you those solutions don’t work and then you disappear.  

Unfortunately NOTHING worked, tried everything including WD support. Sadly I lost all my data and my extrenal disk was replaced as it was under guarantee.

I had the same issue. Unable to mount WD Passport  (1 TB , apple formatted) when using Yosemite 10.10.1.

Tried work laptop (windows), chrome book. Nothing worked. They tried an old MacBook Pro running 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) and hey presto ! the WD passport drives were recognized, mounted and opened without a problem. Bottom line, there is hope. Beg, borrow or steal a Macbook pro running 10.8.5 or similar (from a friend or a Tech Service firm) and you should be able to access your data. Hope this helps.

Same issue with my MacPro. Will there be a firmware link one day ? I did take my WD drive to Fry’s Electronics who has Macs running 10.8.5 and the drive mounts just fine. So should we not buy WD products in the future since **bleep** doesn’t work when you upgrade your OS? My OWC raid drive didn’t fail!!! Hmmmmm


John, thank you very much for your detailed report.

I don’t think we should accept that WD drives can be damaged by a Mac OS update, and WD ignore it for months after the OS is released. This is not the first time this happens with WD drives. It is as if their products are not tested on Macs.

While it might not be the main OS on the market, Mac is a major system, used by millions of privates and professionals. We rely on WD drives to store our work and personal memories. We cannot accept they are gone forever because of incompatible software, not addressed for several months.

I own nearly all WD drives (six external and two internal), and one of them is currently not recognized by my Macs. I’m trying to understand if it is a software of hardware fault. What I know for sure is that I can no longer trust WD drives. I can understand a problem, but cannot forgive the repeated lack of care for the customer’s precious data.

Paolo

Is removing any WD software from the Mac a solution? If the drive is reformatted using Drive Utility, and you don’t use WD Drive Utility, are WD drives compatible with Yosemite?

Paolo

Hello WD Community,

I have the same problem I guess. I was using my WD USB 3.0 Passport for a year without any problems, it was working on Windows, on Mac, or even on my TV to watch movies from the drive. 

I started experiencing issues with the Passport after upgrading my Mac Pro to Mavericks (now updated to Yosemite, still doesn’t work). At first I had to unplug the drive then plug it in again, then it appeared in Finder. After a while it didn’t show up at all, not in Finder nor in Disk Utility. 

I was running a virus scan on it, it’s clean. I was thinking maybe there is a problem with my USB port in the Mac, but everything else shows up in my finder through both USB ports (external drives, USB stick). Then I thought the problem is with the cable, but the drive works just fine with a laptop running with Windows, or on my TV. 

I don’t know what could be the problem, but it is very frustrating. Hope you can help me! 

I can see there is a lot of people on the forum here having the same problem. 

i have had this problem for about a year now ?, i’ve almost abandoned my ‘Thunderbolt Duo’ because it wasn’t mounting no matter what

i was searching like a fool on google THUNDERBOLT problems ( a lot of people have it with Thunderbolt Display )

WD Customer service asked if i have ALSO changed cable (i didnt want to spend money on a cable, not knowing if it was going to work)

but today i went to buy a newer cable (my problems started at some point with Os 10.9.xx) when i moved to a new home, i had to unwrap the old TB cable from my desk (it was bent in different places, like frozen-shaped)

today i plugged the new cable (i got the shorter one this time 0.5m)

 

so far, half a day, restart, standyby, sleep, hybernate, shut down (i tried it all)

the unit comes always back online and alive, readily, no data loss

i’m not saying go and buy a new cable, but if you have a similar situation, and you have the chance to ‘borrow’ someone else new cable and see if it works for u, it might

( i suspect, but might also be fantasy,  that those guys who report, a new thunderbolt cable solves the Thunderbolt Display issue,  is it any different from 1-2 year old cables ?, did they make new firmware 1.2 + new tb cables ? )

my 2 cents

:slight_smile:

IF at any time my drive will disappear again (kind of endlessly unmounted-hybernated) i will post here.

 Thunderbolt Duo 4tb NOT mounting on iMac with Yosemite

UPDATE: 1 Day after ALL GOES SMOOTHLY

UPDATE:  5 Days later, NO PROBLEM :slight_smile:

1 Like

Well I am also having an issue with My Passport which is no longer being recognized on my MacBook Pro or either of my iMacs and is no where to be found in Utility.  

From reading all these previous messages and the number of people having issues, it appears hopeless that I will recover my files and clearly WD drives are not the way to go.  I have 4 My Book external drives which also eject “whenever” without me doing anything.  As a photographer and professional, this is total BS with the money being spent on storage.  If WD cannot figure out why this is happening and blaming operating system upgrades, then they shouldn’t be selling so called drives for Mac.  I can’t risk not being able to access my files.

My Passport for Mac worked fine on my old MBP (running Snow Leopard), but after buying a new MBP with Yosemite already installed, it either wouldn’t show at all or if it did show the computer ejected it without me doing anything, sending out a message which said ‘disk not ejected properly’.

However yesterday, it suddenly worked and backed up 2GB, a bit slowly but nevertheless it completed the backup, which I then checked and it was fine.

Now today, the computer won’t recognise My Passport again. So what is going on I have no idea.

I hope this helps you all a little 

I have solved the problem - at least for my new MBP with Yosemite already installed. I noted that my new MBP has USB 3.0 port/cable and my old MBP with Snow Leopard (with which 2TB My Passport worked perfectly), has USB 2.0 ports. SO I bought a USB 2.0 hub and voila!! It now works perfectly every time on my new MBP with Yosemite. In fact it works better than it did with the old laptop. So, it may be worth you all trying a USB 2.0 hub


I was facing the same oblem while trying to connect my WD hard drive 
 after many attempts I use the utiltily driver for WD passport on my iMac. It suddenly start showing the hard drive. The format I used was exFAT. 

My WD drive had a Tuxera NTFS format and was not mounting on my Mac. I contacted WD support and learned WD doesn’t officially support Tuxera NTFS. So I went to Tuxera website, downloaded a driver and - voila! - everything works now!

WD My passport for mac wouldn’t show up.  Disk Utility recognized the drive; however, it wouldn’t mount or unmount.  Tried all suggestions and none worked for me.  I decided to search out how to mount and unmount a drive via Terminal mode and it worked!  You will go to Utilities/Terminal.  Type diskutil list to find out your disk # (mine is disk2s2)  Next, I unmounted just to be sure - _ diskutil unmount /dev/disk2s2 _    Next I remounted - _ diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2 _   and it worked!  The drive popped up on the desktop immediately and all files are fine.  There must be something with the OSX that cannot mount and unmount; however all the files were just as I left them and the disk was not corrupt as some have suggested.  Here is the website where I found instructions
   http://osxdaily.com/2013/05/13/mount-unmount-drives-from-the-command-line-in-mac-os-x/  

Tried this but didn’t work.  Running ‘diskutil list’ has My Passport listed (listed as /dev/disk2), but when I try to run ‘diskutil mount /dev/disk2’, it times out.

I’m starting to consider bringing my macbook to the Apple Store and have them revert back to 10.9.

I have an older 1T My Book Home Edition which worked thru most of the upgrading from Lion to Maverick.  I had stop using the WD Manager because of compatibilies with OS X.  I recently updated to Yosemite, and the External “Home Edition” would not mount, some times, and would not dismount, sometimes.  I had to switch off the power manually to the drive to get it to allow my 2009 vintage iMAC to shut down.  Anyone else has the simular proble?  Will I damage the drive by shutting down manually?  Are there solutions to this offer from WD?  Apple offers little help.  Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

This is  $$$$ issue. Apple charges BIG $$$$ for licensing to use the source code. Guess WD figures not enough $$$$ to support Apple users on old equipment. And Apple doesn’t care about WD.

Be great if compassionate computer nerds wrote a open OS.