The WD external hard drive simply doe does not show on the computer. I don't know the cause of the issue, but it is disturbing me. I am lacking in many things because I have really important stuff saved in my passport Ultra and want to open is as soon as possible. WD external disk my passport not showing up? Try this: WD hard drive not recognized on MAC fixes. Files deleted or removed from my passport? Lazesoft Data Recovery for Mac would show files that were removed by what kind of causes when the deleted files were not overwritten by new files. Also read: 5 free file recovery software for mac.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Free

I have reached out to WD Customer Support and exhausted all troubleshooting suggestions with them. Since my device reached End of Support in 2013, there really isn’t anything more they can do. Maybe someone else has seen this issue and might be able to help! I’m pasting below all of the troubleshooting steps I performed based on my interactions with WD Customer Support.

Since I submitted my Incident, I have upgraded my iMac to macOS Big Sur version 11.3. And the issue remains the same.

There is no error to capture in a screen shot, because the device is not recognized at all. When connecting it to the iMac, it spins on, like it should, and the tiny light comes on, but nothing happens on the iMac to actually recognize the device.

I am including a screenshot of Disk Utility, where you can see that nothing appears for the device. You can that a different Western Digital device is connected correctly, it is a 3TB device that is formatted as 2 volumes, one for regular use, and one used specifically for Time Machine Backups. Please note that I have connected the 3TB device into the same USB port on this iMac as the one I have currently plugged the My Passport into, and the USB port functions correctly with the 3TB device.

The My Passport drive was accessible and functioning properly approximately 2 months ago on my old 2009 iMac running OS X El Capitan. I just recently tried to connect it to my new late 2020 iMac, and it will not connect, just like many others who I’ve read that are having the same connectivity issues since using macOS Big Sur.

There is no physical damage to the My Passport device. And as stated above, it connected properly to my old iMac. I have not tried another USB cable, because 1) it is a special cable that is needed to connect this My Passport device, and 2) it worked just fine with my old iMac.

I went through all of the steps that were possible in the article/link you provided. I will provide a response for each step listed in the article. 1) There is no power adapter, it gets its power from the USB cable connected to the iMac. 2) As stated above, I did not change out the cable because it is not a standard USB cable and the device worked fine on my old iMac. 3) I have tried multiple USB ports on my new iMac and the results are the same, and other devices function properly in each of those USB ports. 4) I turned off the iMac, let it restart, waited a full hour, and then retried connecting the device, and it still did not work. 5) As I already stated, it worked on my old iMac. I do not agree, that there is any issue with my new iMac, every other device, including a Western Digital 3TB device, all work correctly. I am not contacting Apple about this issue, this is a Western Digital My Passport issue. 6) Since it showed up correctly on my old iMac, the device has not failed.

Summary :

WD My Passport Ultra is very popular. But many users encounter WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue in Windows 10/8/7. This article will show you how to fix WD My Passport Ultra not recognized Windows 10/8/7 issue in very simple steps.

Do you know what WD My Passport Ultra is? WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of portable external hard drives manufactured by Western Digital. It is favored by many Windows users.

However, while it is an excellent external hard drive, users also encounter some issues such as WD My Passport Ultra not showing up, WD My Passport Ultra not detected and WD Passport not recognized.

If you encounter these issues, take the following solutions to fix it right now.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Computer

Solution 1. Plug It into Another USB Port

You can connect the WD My Passport Ultra to your PC with another USB port. Sometimes, it is not because your drive is problematic, but the port you’re using to connect it.

If your WD My Passport drive can be recognized after plugging it into another USB port, it indicates that your USB port is not working. In the same way, you can also plug it on another computer to see if that works.

Solution 2. Change USB Cable

The second quick fix to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue is to change a different USB cable. WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue can be caused by faulty USB cable.

So before you try fixes target to your WD My Passport Ultra disk, you can try using a different USB cable and then check if it appears. If not, please go on with the fixes as below.

Solution 3. Change Drive Letter

The cases to WD My Passport Ultra not detected or recognized can be different. If you find that WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer, you can assign it a drive letter.

Here are two free ways that you use to assign a drive letter for your WD My Passport Ultra. One is using Windows built-in Disk Management. Another way is to try using a third-party WD My Passport Ultra partition manager – MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

If you have the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10/8/7 issue, you might as well try this simple fix, especially for users who find that the WD My Passport shows in device manager but not My Computer or This PC.

Now I will show you the two ways to change drive letter one by one.

Change Drive Letter with Disk Management

Disk Management is a Windows built-in disk partitioning tool. It has some basic features for users to manage disks and partitions on their computer such as format partition, shrink partition, delete partition, change drive letter, convert basic disk to dynamic and so on.

So, you can change drive letter with Disk Management. And here are detailed steps.

Step 1. Open Disk Management.

Here are two ways for you to open Disk Management in Windows 10.

• Press Windows + R, input msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right-click the Windows Start menu and select Disk Management.

Step 2. Assign a drive letter for the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

1. Select the WD My Passport Ultra drive on the main interface of Disk Management.

2. Right-click it and choose Change drive letter and path….

3. Click Addto add a new drive letter for the USB drive.

4. Then click OK.

After that, you can go back the main interface to check if you can access your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Although Disk Management can help you change drive letter, its features are limited as it lacks many basic but essential features.

However, if you not only want to change drive letter but also need a partition manager to manage your drive in an all-rounded way, it is recommended to use the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Change Drive Letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is an all-in-one WD partition manager. It can help you not only change drive letter, but also it enables you to move/resize partition, extend partition, split partition, wipe partition on your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

You can also utilize this tool to check file system, convert MBR to GPT without data loss, copy disk, and convert FAT to NTFS and so on.

To change a drive letter with this marvelous tool, you should download this tool firstly. You can download the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button.

Then follow the simple steps as below to change drive letter with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

Step 1. Select a partition.

1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
2. Choose the target WD My Passport Ultra drive.
3. Click Change Drive Letter after selecting the partition.

Step 2. Change drive letter.

1. Choose a drive letter from the drop-down menu.
2. Then press OKbutton.

Step 3. Apply the operation.

Click Apply on the upper left corner to allow the pending operation.

After that, you can go to This PC to see if the WD My Passport Ultra drive appears.

Apart from assigning drive letter, you can make use of its other features to manage your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Solution 4. Reinstall USB Controller

A Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller is a chip or device that enables the computer to communicate with USB devices. You can check the USB controller in Device Manager.

When there is a yellow exclamation mark next to Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller, it means that the device driver is not installed correctly. In this case, your USB devices cannot be recognized by your PC. This could be the reasons for your WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.

How to fix my passport not recognized error? Don't worry. You can reinstall USB controller to fix WD my passport not detected issue.

Step 1. Open device manager Windows 10.

Wd My Passport Macbook

• Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.

Step 2. Start reinstalling USB controller.

1. On the main interface of Device Manager, expand the category of Universal Serial Bus controllers.

2. Find the controller through which the external hard drive is connected.

3. Right-click on it and select Uninstall.

4. Restart your computer and check if the WD My Passport not recognized issue has been solved.

If this fix doesn't work, try the next solution.

Solution 5. Update WD Device Driver

Corrupted or outdated driver could lead to the WD My Passport not detected or recognized issue. And some users reported that updating device drivers resolved their WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue. So if you have the same issue, why not have a try?

You can follow the detailed steps as below to update the WD device driver and fix WD My Passport not recognized Windows 10 issue.

Step 1. Open Device Manager in Windows 10.

• Press Windows + R, type msc in the dialogue box and press Enter.
• Right click Windows Start menu and choose Device Manager from the list.

Step 2. Find the Unknown device in Device Manager.

1. To find it, you can expand the Disk Drives, Universal Serial Bus controllers, Other devices, or Portable Devices to check.

2. Right-click on it and select Properties.

Passport Hard Drive Not Showing Up On Mac Drive

Step 3. Update driver software.

1. Click on the tab Details.

2. Click on the drop-down menu and choose Hardware Ids.

3. Right-click the first code and choose Copy to copy the code.

4. Paste it into the search engine to download the drivers.

5. After downloading the drivers, right-click on the drive again and choose “Update driver”.

6. Choose the Browse my computer for driver software from the pop-up window. Now navigate to the driver you downloaded and saved on your computer. Then install it.

If you find this complicated, you might need a piece of driver updater software. This kind of software will scan for and list drivers that need updating or replacing. So you don't need to find it manually, which is very convenient.

There is a great amount of driver management software on the Internet. You download one by yourself. Be sure to choose a reliable one.

Solution 6. Run Anti-virus Software

You may find it weird but it is true that some time malware or viruses can give rise to WD My Passport Ultra not detected issue.

You may perform a virus check on your computer and run anti-virus software to kill virus firstly.

If your WD hard drive still doesn't show up or cannot be detected after trying the above fixes, you may check if there are physical issues on your WD My Passport drive. You can also send it to hard drive repair center to check some physical errors may have occurred to your device.

If your disk is under warranty, you may contact the Western Digital for replacing it.

About WD My Passport Ultra

WD My Passport Ultra is a kind of external hard drive. With its sophisticated design and large capacity, it grabs people’s attention.

There are three kinds of capacities for WD My Passport Ultra. They are WD My Passport Ultra 1TB, 2TB and 4 TB. So, you have enough disk space to backup and store various files like photos, videos, music and documents if you are using the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Besides, WD My Passport Ultra is formatted for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 operating systems. You don't need to reformat it unless you want to use it on other operating systems.

My Passport Ultra Drive is manufactured with proven real WD components, which is durable and of assured quality. And with up to 4TB of storage and a 3-year limited warranty, you can use the storage for years to come.

Bottom Line

After trying the above fixes in this post, have you fixed the WD My Passport Ultra not detected Windows 10 issue? If you come across WD external hard drive not recognized Windows 7/8/10 issue, try the above fixes.

If you have better solution toward how to resolve WD Passport not recognized or detected issue or if you have any question, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you can contact us via [email protected].