How to Fix WD My Passport for Mac Drive Not Mounting/Working?

Table of Contents:

• 1. A quick way to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error
• 2. How to fix the unmounted WD My Passport hard drive on Mac?
• 3. What does it mean by mounting a WD My Passport drive on Mac?
• 4. Why is WD My Passport for Mac not mounting?
• 5. FAQ about WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting

This page will analyze why WD My Passport drive won't mount on Mac and provides 7 possible solutions to this issue.

A quick way to fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not mounting error

If WD My Passport for Mac hard drive won't mount on Mac, the fast solution is to reformat the hard drive. But reformatting will delete all data stored on the hard drive, and most of the time, many important files are stored on the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

If you haven't backed up important files, how can you recover files from the WD My Passport drive? It's high time to recover lost data from the unmounted hard drive first.

Step 1: Recover data from the unmountable My Passport hard drive

As for Mac data recovery, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended as it's a free Mac data recovery software. It can easily retrieve files from WD Passport drives. This software can recover lost data from corrupted hard drive, unreadable hard drives, formatted hard drives, unrecognized hard drives, unmountable hard drives, inaccessible hard drives, and recover lost data from the uninitialized hard drive.

You can use this hard drive data recovery software on macOS 12 Monterey/macOS 11 Big Sur/Catalina 10.15/Mojave 10.14/High Sierra 10.13/10.12 Sierra and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7 and on M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max Mac.

1. Free download, install, and launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery. For the first-time installation, this software requires you to allow Full Disk Access and enable system extensions on Mac.

2. In the user interface, find and select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive. Then, click the Search for Lost Data button to search for all lost files on this drive.

3. Wait until the whole scan process is completed. You can pause or stop the process, and start recovery when it is still ongoing. But for the best data recovery results, it is recommended that you wait for the scan process to be finished.

4. When the scanning is done, you can sort or filter found files by different parameters if necessary, then click the Preview button to preview the wanted files and check if they are corrupted.

5. Select files or folders you want to recover by ticking the checkbox of them, and click the Recover button. 

6. Save the recovered files to another destination. You can either save those files to your Mac hard drive or another external storage device if necessary. Just remember, do not save the recovered data to the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive you just scanned, otherwise, it will cause permanent data loss! 

Hopefully, you'll get all your files off after the WD My Passport is not working or mounting.

Step 2: Fix WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting error by reformatting

After getting lost files back, you can fix WD My Passport for Mac hard drive not a mounting error by reformatting without worrying about losing data. This will reset the WD My Passport hard drive.

How to fix the unmounted WD My Passport hard drive on Mac?

The connected WD My Passport drive should be automatically mounted on the desktop, in Finder and Disk Utility. When it won't mount on Mac as you expect, you can try these methods.

1. Show the mounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive on the Mac desktop

Sometimes, the My Passport drive is recognized and mounted by the Mac, and you just don't see it. You can go to Finder > Preferences and confirm if the "External Disks" under "Show these items on the desktop" is selected. This will ensure that the external drives connected to this Mac are allowed to show on the desktop.

But if your WD My Passport drive is not even showing up, it's reasonable that you can't see it mounting on Mac. Then, you should check the connections and some hardware issues.

2. Force Mount the WD Mac hard drive in Disk Utility

You can go to Utility and see if this hard drive appears in the left sidebar. If your WD My Passport for Mac drive for Mac is not mounting but is grayed out in Disk Utility, you can right-click and select the "Mount" button to force mount the hard drive. However, if this external hard drive is corrupted, the "Mount" button will not be available and you need to try the next solution.

But sometimes, you can't mount a hard drive on Mac because of internal disk errors like file system corruption, partition table loss, directory is corrupted, etc. Your WD My Passport for Mac drive won't be recognized by your Mac in these cases. Fortunately, you can fix the hard drive not mounting issue with the native disk repair tool, First Aid.

3. Run First Aid to fix WD My Passport for Mac not mounting error

First Aid is a Mac built-in tool to verify and check minor problems with a hard disk. Whenever you can't mount a WD hard drive or My Passport for Mac is not working, First Aid should be a good disk repair tool.

Step 1: Go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/, then click Continue.

Step 2: In the sidebar, select the unmounted WD My Passport for Mac hard drive.

Step 3: Click the "First Aid" button.

Step 4: Click Run.

If Disk Utility reports that the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive appears to be OK or has been repaired, you're done. Otherwise, this WD My Passport drive has been corrupted. You have to retrieve your data from this corrupted hard drive as soon as possible.

When those methods didn't make any difference and the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting still, you need to check some hardware issues that get involved in the disk connection.

Let's start with some basic factors.

4. Check the power supply of the WD My Passport for Mac drive

It's well known that insufficient or no power supply in USB port could also lead to a hard drive not mounting issue. Therefore, you should make sure the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is getting the appropriate power. If the drive came with a Y-cable, use both USB connectors. Moreover, do not connect the drive through a USB hub, connect it directly to the Mac. Make sure the power adapter is connected directly to a wall outlet, not to an extension cord.

5. Check the USB cable

When the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac, ensure the cable is properly connected to both the drive and computer. Then try connecting your WD My Passport for Mac hard drive with a new USB cable if you can fetch another one.

6. Check the USB port of your Mac

If the problem still continues, try using a different USB port. Perhaps your Mac has two USB ports - the back and front ones. Assuming the My passport drivers are plugged in the front USB port, try to insert the drive into the back USB port.

7. Check for driver update

If the hardware seems to be OK, let's check the software that is related to this disk problem. The My Passport disk driver, a software component, bridges the operating system and the drive to communicate with each other. But the files of My passport driver could be deleted, outdated, or corrupted for virus invasion or misoperation.

So, when the WD My Passport drive is not working or the external hard drive won't mount on Mac, check the disk driver.

Step 1: Click the Apple icon and select "App Store…"

Step 2: Click Update (NOT UPGRADE!) to install a specific update or Update All to install all available updates.

Sometimes, WD My Passport for Mac driver, software, and WD disk tool are needed, especially when you want to open a WD My Passport for Mac drive that is locked. You can go to WD official website and download software for WD My Passport troubleshooting and for WD My Passport driver update.

What does it mean by mounting a WD My Passport drive on Mac?

The WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is specially designed for Mac mini computers, iMacs, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. You can access My Passport for Mac drives only when macOS recognizes the format of the drive. This process is called mounting.

However, once your computer fails to recognize that format (also known as file system), the WD My Passport for Mac hard drive is not mounting on the Mac computer.

Why is WD My Passport for Mac not mounting?

WD hard drives, including My Passport and Easystore, won't mount on Mac when the disk format is not recognized. Such errors could be caused by a virus infection, sudden power failure, sudden power outage, unwanted interruption during transferring of data, etc. If the external hard drive won't mount, you can't open this WD My Passport for Mac drive and access your important files.

Here is one typical case from forums:

WD My Passport for Mac hard drive (2 TB) won't mount on my MacBook Air, grayed out in Disk Utility. I have 1 TB of family photos on this hard drive, which are very precious to me. How to fix if WD My Passport for Mac not working on Mac? Any data recovery solution? Thanks a lot!

If you haven't got an effective workaround when WD My passport hard drive fails to mount in Finder or Disk Utility, this page will help. You'll know how to mount the Western Digital passport drive on Mac again.

Conclusion

WD My Passport for Mac hard drives always offers a quick and easy way to expand the storage space of your computer. It has amazing features like cloud storage, password protection with hard drive encryption, and compatibility with Apple's Time Machine backup software so that you can store a massive number of photos, videos, music, and documents.

But the WD My Passport for Mac drives not mounting issue will call a halt on all these good things. You need to repair the WD My Passport for Mac that is not working or corrupted first, and recover data with the assistance of data recovery software from iBoysoft.

FAQ about WD My Passport for Mac drive not mounting