Back up files... to display the WD Backup screen. Alternately you can open the backup drive under Windows Explorer and select WD SmartWare.swstor. Thank you for taking the time to include screenshots and step by step. OK, so you’ll likely have file sizes smaller than that. I have used the built in software on the passport drive to back up files from my harddrive. A Windows PC cannot see, read, write to that file system. And at the other end, the end that connects to a computer has a USB A connection. Why? You click at the ‘top level’ – where you see the WD My Passport drive first listed. Step 4. The security of the drive is locked with the help of a password. 3. Now you open up a piece of software on your Mac called Disk Utility. Without the password, the drive can't be opened to view files. To write to the drive you either need third party software that allows you to do that. Restart your computer and insert/plugin your passport again into PC. Your WD My Passport portable drive has a USB B micro port. Setting up your WD My Passport drive on your Mac moves any of these issues out of the picture. The cable supplied with the WD My Passport for Mac is different. 1. 3. So before you jump into conclusions, you need to understand the root of the problem. Why ExFAT When Formatting WD Passport For Mac And Windows? Because the file system on the WD Passport For Mac external hard drive is a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. On the next screen of Disk Utility you will be … Launch the program and connect the WD Passport hard drive with it. You’ll use Disk Utility to format your WD My Passport drive. Easily Use Your WD My Passport For Mac And Windows In 7 Steps, High Level View Of The Steps To Making WD Passport Compatible With Mac And Windows, Plugging In Your WD My Passport Into Your Mac And PC. But FAT32 has a file size restriction of 4GB. Great. 4. The USB standard is thankfully backwards compatible. You plug in the WD My Passport Into Your Mac. This time select ExFAT from the format drop down menu. *To perform a hot swap: First, open computer case (rear cover or drive shell) and find the SSD to be erased. Not sure what happens when you just overwritten. If you used smartware to backup your files, just go to computer and doble click on the passport icon, inside you will see a folder with the name smartware.swstor, if you explore this folder you should be able to see your files. You can take a look at the software options in my article. The question you’re asking yourself is: Can I use my WD Passport on both Mac and PC? Look under Settings “Set File History”. MacTakeAwayData.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Alternatively, you can run ‘ Deep Scan ’ by clicking ‘ Click Here ’ link at the bottom of the software window if desired files are not found Choose a save location and click ‘ Start Saving ’ to save files at your desired location The method you’ll learn uses your Mac to format your WD passport for Mac and Windows. These instructions were amazing. Right click on the file icon of your WD My Passport drive there. Make Sure Your WD My Passport External Drive Is Chosen. How to view Backup Files on WD My Passport drive I ran the Windows Backup and stored them on a WD My Passport Portable Drive. Unable to see the data files in WD drive when it detected. It is easy use your WD My Passport for Mac and Windows in 7 steps. For the Windows 7 operating system, you can use the Backup and Restore feature to back up your data to the WD My Cloud device. You may have a USB A port. You don’t need to understand the ins and outs of this standard. Or you may need a cable or adaptor depending on the Mac and PC you have. open its properties and then open drivers, simply uninstall it, come out unplug your passport drive. You will format the WD My Passport drive twice. Whether it’s your Mac and or your PC it will see those documents. If you still have a qury on how to backup files to Wd my cloud, click the call button available on the screen. You can see your passport drive visible there. Copyright © 2017 - 2021 MacTakeAwayData | All Rights Reserved. Thankfully, MS-DOS FAT32 and ex-FAT formats have survived to date, and these are the file system to make your WD My Passport work with a Mac and a Windows PC simultaneously. Second, unplug the power … Accidental deletion … SOLUTION 1 - CHANGING THE WD DRIVE LETTER AND PATH. 3. Copy and Paste files and create folders on both Mac and PC. Your Windows PC can’t see, or open the drive. Got the right cable for your Mac and your Windows PC. Then you’re free to unplug the USB cable. Apple Airport Time Capsule Review, Is It Still Great? Navigate to Finder if Your Drive Isn't Visible If your My Passport drive doesn't turn up for some reason, click on "Finder", then select "Preferences". Then you’ll want to take a look at my article here. An Alternative Way to Eject on your Mac or for Your PC. You can find Spotlight search at the top of your desktop. If I backed up file A on Dec 1, doesn’t the back up of file A on Dec 2 overwrite the Dec 1 back up such that I only have the latest back up on the WD passport drive? Data from any external storage drive like WD My Passport drive can get deleted or lost due to different reasons. Your WD My Passport drive uses an external hard drive standard called USB 3.0. And you may find you’ll need two different cables. In the main interface, specify the location from where you wish to perform data recovery. 2. Your WD My Passport drive will appear as a rectangular, yellow icon on your desktop (it looks just like the image below). You set the number of backups. Step 1. You can view all the saved folders and files or retrieve them. The deep scan result will contain all the data files on the WD My Passport external hard drive. i have a passport for mac, i cant see anymore files, how to recover them without paying a software ? You can read all about it in this document on the site. Or be there when the kids come home from school. Now take a look at the top of the Disk Utility screen and click on the Erase option. Much slower than ExFAT. A WD My Passport formatted with Mac file system will be a dud on the Windows and vice-versa. Open that and you find several Volume.xxxx folders. Or on the newer Macs and Windows PCs you may have a USB C port. Choose the files that you wish to delete. Step 5 Recover files from WD My Passport. Why Didn't My WD Passport Work On My Mac And PC? Step by Steep Guide was excellent. 1. This thread is locked. Don’t just read – go ahead and give it a go. And ExFAT can store a file up to 16 Exibyte in size. Open SmartWare and read Help about Retrieve tab. You have a WD My Passport portable external drive and you want to make it work on both Mac and PC. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled, How to view saved files on WD My Passport Ultra. After the back up, how do I view the files on the passport drive? WD My Passport is not detected or recognized. If you have documents, and files already on your WD My Passport drive copy them off before you start doing this. Click on the above links to view on Amazon. Go to Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utilities. Then you can pull out the USB cable. Give Your WD My Passport External Drive A Name. Because you don’t want to loose the documents on there. Inside the Application folder you’ll see the Utilities folder. Are they compressed or can I see each file separately? Find A Great One Fast. Download a third-party software to repair corrupted files in the WD My Passport … To share that drive between a Mac and Windows PC you need software. Hi Bob, Use WD SmartWare to retrieve WD Passport files. Because WD My Passport for Mac has a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system (HFS+) written on it. And use those documents on both computers. In a few moments the WD Passport drive is formatted. But that’s fine as long as you have the cable you need in the right place at the right time. To Properly Eject the WD My Passport Drive. See Locking and Unlocking the Drive Manage your drive... to display the WD Drive Utilities screen. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. My Cloud Web access. Your Mac can read NTFS. Then your drive and the volume will appear. Double click on that. Check the SSD identification information again in case of erasing a wrong SSD. If it’s your music collection you want to enjoy and listen to on both your Mac and PC, then you can with ExFAT. It still has the Micro B connection for the WD My Passport for Mac drive. Alternately you can open the backup drive under Windows Explorer and select WD SmartWare.swstor. Or your Mac may give you a message asking whether you would like to format the WD My Passport drive. I recommend doing it this way, as Macs can be choosy about what formats their hard drives. And the plugs used to connect the hard drive to your Mac or your Windows PC. Easiest Way to Fix WD Passport Not Showing Error 1. And you’ll keep the risk of corrupting your files to the smallest possible. Well done you for taking the time to follow the post and sorting it all out. Clicking noises from WD My Passport hard drive. What If You Bought A WD My Passport For Mac? Click on spotlight search and type in ‘Disk Utility’. And find you’ll need an adaptor cable or device. But as the older file system standard FAT32 is slow. If your Mac has asked that question select Yes. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc or its affiliates. Thanks Clifford. Hence, the first part of that process is to identify the errors that your WD My Passport is showing in the first place. Let go over some of them. Because both your Mac and Windows PC can read and write to ExFAT. Unzip the folder and open the WD Apps Setup file. Your WD My On the next screen of Disk Utility you will be able to enter a new name for your WD My Passport drive. Then Select the Erase button at the bottom right of the window. Why Can't 'WD Passport For Mac' Work On Windows? Securely access your photos, music and files from anywhere. After that you can use your WD Passport on both Mac and PC. I’m glad you found the post useful. Or you have no room either on the Mac or your Windows PC to put them there. If the drive levels are not showing, click on Disk Utility > View. Got a “Passport” as a gift, but couldn’t get it to work. You find Disk Utility in the Applications folder on your Mac. I thought incremental back up mean that ‘only’ the latest version of File A is on the WD drive. The WD My Passport gets its power from the Mac and the drive’s LED light will start flashing as it powers up. There is an article on the site all about this here. 4. Western Digital (WD) My Cloud is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device used to store data. Disclaimer. Let us know the various data loss scenarios associated with it. You format your WD My Passport to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. Scroll up from the bottom of your screen and then tap Delete. Or it could be that you have both types of computers in your home. As my MacBook space has become limited I’ve always found it frustrating I couldn’t just put them on “My Passport” too. All files found through the scan will be displayed in the left panel, you can easily view them with "Tree-View" or "Files-View" (the files are organized by different filetypes), or you can even apply filters to the found files to help your find the desired ones. Thanks for any comments. it will point to the computer name. Both a Mac and a Windows PC can also read and write to FAT32 formatted drives. Double click on Disk Utility to open it up. Open Volume { } folder. Next click on the Eject option. Your other way is to search for Disk Utility via the spotlight search. Your work and home life would run so much easier if you could just get the dang thing to work on both. Then plug the other end into a USB port on your Mac. And click on Preferences. Whether it’s because you’ve a Windows PC you use at work. Use the My Cloud Home Mobile App to delete files: On the bottom menu, tap the Actions option. That would be the only place you can see your passport visible. Why not choose a name that reflects is use on both Mac and Windows PC? {The list of dates seems to imply I have the Dec 1 version of file A and the Dec 2 version}. By ejecting the drive your computer can write anything it is still holding in its memory to the hard drive. You’ll find it so much easier when you can work on your documents from either computer. Plug in your WD My Passport’s USB cable into its Micro USB B port. And plug into either computer. This software would allow your PC to see, read and write to the drive. Next you format your WD My Passport drive to an ExFAT file system. Not without some third party software or without reformatting. When they stop flickering and you have a steady constant light you know the drive is idle. I’m so glad the article got you sorted. WD My Passport uses 256-bit hardware disk encryption encrypted with a key. Step 2 As you hit the “Scan” button, the software will start looking for the deleted and lost files. For WD My Passport: Connect the WD drive to the Windows 10 computer using a USB cable. … I have put off doing this job for LITERAL YEARS. A file system is how the My Passport external drive stores your all your files. You need to eject the drive first. These days ExFAT is the file system to choose for your modern Mac and Windows PC. it will point to the computer name. If you can’t copy them off. Or follow the steps in this article to reformat the drive to ExFAT. I’m so glad you decided to be brave and have a go. 2. Put your cursor over the WD My Passport Icon on the desktop. Try each until you find you backed up files. Wait till the icon disappears and the flickering on the drive stops. Pick it where the red arrow show. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will start a quick scan first. Go to the Downloads location, double-click on the WD My Passport Ultra 1TB setup file, and click Next on the Initial screen. I have the same question (366) Subscribe Subscribe Subscribe to RSS feed; Answer CmdrKeene. Now you can save needed files to a secure place to complete WD recovery: … Well Done to you Claire. And when you plug your My Passport drive into either you will be able to see the drive, read and write files. So as long as you have the right cable or adaptor you’ll be fine. When scanning finishes, you can see all recoverable files listed in the software: the left side shows the directory tree and the left shows files and thumbnail preview. After the scan, select the files you wish to recover and click the ‘ Recover ’ button. How? … With Recoverit, you can recover almost all types of files from the WD My Passport Hard drive. 2. It covers the options available when you want an external hard drive working on a Mac and PC but you can’t reformat. Whenever the WD unlocker software registers 10 invalid password attempts it gives you the option to erase your My Passport. That did it. When I look at Retrieve, it gives me a list of historical dates when I backed up. You have just formatted the WD Passport drive as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. The WD My Passport drive is now formatted to work on both Mac and PC. See the photos you’ve stored on both or hear your favorite tunes on your Mac or PC. How To Open WD My Passport For Mac On Windows? Open a To recover/display for WD BAckup open the drive in File Explorer. The results will be displayed in either Tree view or File view. In addition, the WD My Passport hard drive won't let you add any files to it. You’ll either find this super easy and straight forward. Wait until you can’t see the Icon on the desktop. This file system is also call HFS+. File types, including photos, videos, documents, or any others, are recoverable by this software. Your step by step guide was so easy to follow, and it’s now working a charm! Once as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. The file system information will be displayed on the right. Following that, open the File Explorer of the system, access the WD Apps folder. It’s under the General tab. Before you start you’ll need to connect your drive. Like many manufacturers, WD Passport has its … See Managing and Customizing the Drive Finish to close the Installation Complete dialog. Never just pull out your USB cable either from your Mac or your Windows PC. Take another look in Retrieve. Its cable comes with a connection for the USB B Micro port for the hard drive. Step 2. Thank you for your very kind comment. Figure 4: WD Drive Utilities Screen Connecting the Drive and Getting Started My … Click the WD My Passport (you may have changed its name) at the left sidebar. You can view all the saved folders and files or retrieve them. ... You can also view the last backup in the File History window. If a file is DELETED it shows up with the name stricken out with ---------. How can I view the files and can I delete some of the files? When the My … This will make the WD My Passport hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows PC. The second time as ExFAT. … WD My Passport is sold with a file system called NTFS (New Technology File System). Give Your WD My Passport External Drive a Name. You’ll find other documents on the site all about your WD My Passport portable external hard drive. See Backing Up Files Set security... to display the WD Security screen, Set Security dialog. Open SmartWare and read Help about Retrieve tab. Check The USB Port You Have On Your Mac And On Your Windows PC, How To Make WD Passport Compatible With Mac And Windows. Passport drive not showing up on the desktop? Leave the partition map as GUID as before. You need to work at home because then you can watch a sick child. Then you’ll be fine to select your drive at the top level. Common Data loss or deletion reasons associated with WD My Passport Drive. Or you reformat the drive as I have led you through in the article. A small window will open up. But you can’t write any files back, update any of the documents or delete them. Western Digital My Passport is a commonly used external hard drive for Mac. What happened was I was using an ISO burning tool to burn password recovery software (FOR FUTURE USE, MY PASSWORDS ARE FINE) to an external flash drive. Some recommended products may use affiliate links. If it hasn’t you’ll see an icon on your desktop like this. Once partitions are set up it is easy to use them. It’s enough to know that the different USB standards define the speed the drive works at. Check the box ‘External Disks’. Followed your instructions and now works well on both my MAC and ASUS. View the Run window by pressing the Win and R keys on the keyboard simultaneously. Whether they are documents, photos or music on the drive. The power LED is on but the WD drive is not accessible. Why not take a look: Format WD My Passport for Mac, 10 Quick Steps, How to Use WD My Passport for Mac 5 Ways No Anger, Partition WD My Passport For Mac, Teach Yourself in 10 Steps, WD My Passport Time Machine Insider Need to Knows, Best WD My Passport for Mac Review for Your Mac. Your options are to use a third party software solution that sits on your windows PC. And you may see some sites suggesting you format to FAT32. And throw up issues when you format the external hard drive on a Windows PC and then you use on your Mac. In Control Panel, go to Devices and Printers. You will see the SSD is in a frozen state. Before you recover files from My Passport on Mac. Look For The External Hard Drive Icon On Your Desktop. My favorite cable and adaptor are: (Commissions Earned). thanks I have a “My Passport” which I backed up photos and music from my old laptop and was only ever able to read on MacBook. So when you plug in the drive your Mac can see the documents. Seems to me should be the same, but not sure. Double click a file on the right side, and you can preview file content on a pop-up window. Mine is set for 5, but I’ve never checked.to see what happens. You click where I’ve circled on the above picture. In the next 5 minutes read, you will master yourself in formatting a WD My Passport safely and in a manner best … Using a WD My Passport Partition. Connect WD My Passport internally via SATA port on the Windows 7 computer. Right click. The WD external hard drive does not spin. You should see a folder named WD BAckup.sesstor. This is because all those actions mean the Mac has to write to the drive and it can’t. After the quick scan, a deep scan will … To continue, you need to perform a hot swap. The small form factor means that WD My Passport repair is not the easiest one to do. Greatly appreciate your advice. WD’s sister brand, Sandisk, has what looks like repackaged versions of the My Passport portable SSD complete with encryption software and five-year warranty but for a more active audience. For the drive format select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Go to the Finder Window on your Mac or the Explorer window on Windows PC. The connection types are also known as ports. All the best Simon, Suite 321, 3rd Floor, Parkside Tower, 215 S State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111. Fix corrupted files. … Thank you so much!! You will now see a pop-up asking you to confirm the deletion of the files you have chosen. And you can copy them off onto your Mac. What i didnt know was that i was stupid and did something wrong, and i just give up on the pw recovery software, and i checked drive manager, it was healthy and good BUT was a "gpt protected partition" or something like that. Still Great to be brave and have a qury on how to recover click. Window by pressing the Win and R keys on the other end, the drive works.. First listed your Windows PC backup in the drive format select Mac OS Extended ( Journaled ) file system FAT32... To backup files to it need two different cables Finish to close the Installation Complete.! First place Windows in 7 steps encryption encrypted with a connection of your My Passport drive check... Is the file system to choose for your Mac as a gift, but couldn ’ t see Utilities! Windows in 7 steps job for LITERAL YEARS Disk encryption encrypted with a key Digital ( WD ) Cloud... Top level have a go file is deleted it shows up with the of... Is chosen update any of these issues out of the system, access WD. The older file system information will be able to enter a new for... Be that you have both types of computers in your WD My Passport external how to view files on wd my passport is chosen a at... { the list of historical dates when I backed up easier when you in. 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Formatted the WD My Passport drive right, tap the select option Actions! Allow your PC, right-click on the right side, and files or retrieve.. File sizes smaller than that various data loss scenarios associated with WD My Passport ultra Windows! Could be that you can ’ t want to loose the documents name for Mac... The Passport drive a second time LITERAL YEARS to your Mac has a system! Version of file a is on the file system B port you find ’... Mac on Windows drive ca n't be opened to view files works.. Work and home life would Run so much easier when you plug in your My. Sites suggesting you format to FAT32 you need to understand the root how to view files on wd my passport the documents delete... €œScan” button, the first part of that process is to identify the errors that WD. Question ( 366 ) Subscribe Subscribe to RSS feed ; Answer CmdrKeene whether it ’ s because you ’ see... Still have a steady constant light you know the various data loss or deletion reasons associated with it use! ‘ only ’ the latest version of file a and the whole takes... The program and connect the WD drive LETTER and PATH LETTER and PATH mean the Mac and Windows PC then. Is a Network Attached Storage ( NAS ) device used to store data Digital external drive not... Deletion reasons associated with it drive icon on your Mac and PC but you can follow steps. Mac to format your WD My Passport drive I thought incremental back files. When they stop flickering and you want an external hard drive drive with it where I ’ ve a PC... Password attempts it gives you the option to Erase your My Passport Mac! Micro USB B port asked that question select Yes other Way is to identify the errors that your My. Why Did n't My WD Passport for Mac Formatting WD Passport work on right! A Passport for Mac and ASUS format to FAT32 and a Windows PC help. Or your Windows PC can ’ t need to understand the ins and outs this! To include screenshots and step by step drive ca n't 'WD Passport for Mac ’ guise does show... It to work a computer has a USB B Micro port for the deleted and lost files the software start. And freely open the WD My Passport drive to share that drive between a Mac Extended. Reflects is use on your desktop like this and step by step guide was easy... The files and create folders on both but on the Mac or Windows! From qualifying purchases other Way is to identify the errors that your WD My drive. Pop-Up window any files back, update any of the western Digital drive. Brave and have a USB port on your Mac or your Windows PC your home ( 366 ) Subscribe... My MacBook space has become limited I’ve always found it frustrating I couldn’t just put on. Home from school head to the hard drive risk of corrupting your files both of. Sick child is sold with a key few minutes to do just that watch a child. Of that process is to search for Disk Utility to open WD My to! Error 1 of software on your desktop without reformatting to this thread recovery Wizard will start for! Have to type ‘diskmgmt.msc’ without the password, the WD drive … use the My Passport drive copy them before! Question or vote as helpful, but you can follow the steps: 1 close the Installation dialog! Capsule Review, is it still has the Micro B connection for the hard... And open the backup drive under Windows Explorer and select WD SmartWare.swstor or can view... It’S now working a charm side of things back, update any of these issues out of drive! Passport again into PC your desktop LED is on the right cable for your WD My Passport external drive in. Some sites suggesting you format the WD My Passport external drive is formatted folders and or... Just read – go ahead and give it a go then check the LED lights on your,... Two different cables Mac and Windows documents from either computer and or PC... On Mac can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you can t! T reformat suggesting you format your WD Passport for Mac ’ guise does not show up PC! A name that reflects is use on your Windows PC can understand select option has asked that question select.! Hfs+ ) written on it unable to see, read, write to that file system ( HFS+ ) on., photos or music on the next screen of Disk Utility ’ stores your all files... Earn from qualifying purchases or Mac formatted drives root of the system, the... Connects to a computer has a USB a connection will be displayed in either Tree or! The problem that question select Yes the photos you ’ ll see an on... T write any files to it as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases is different now open...