'I have a WD My Passport Ultra 1TB portable drive for storing important personal files. Suddenly, the WD Passport ultra is not showing up on my PC and I couldn't access saved data either.
How do I fix My WD Passport Ultra not showing up on my computer?'

Plug it to another USB port. In situations where you are unable to detect your hard drive. My Passport Not Showing Up When Plugged In Mac I Have; My Passport Not Showing Up When Plugged In Mac I Have. Once you are sure that the WD My Passport is corrupted and becomes inaccessible, you had better stop performing any further operation to this external and then you can use data recovery software to get back lost data. WD My Passport not showing up. I had a backup on my hard-drive which I wanted to delete (300GB), so I moved to the trash. Deleting most files seemed to be okay, however, it then got to the applications folder and other system related stuff. This took forever and kept freezing my macbook, which I needed for work.

How do I use the WD My Passport External Hard Drive in a Mac Air? Either keep the HDD in HFS+ format and install HFS+ drivers in your Windows PC or keep the HDD in NTFS format and install. Since then, Time Machine will make automatic, hourly backups, always that your Mac is turned on and the external drive connected. WD My Passport for Mac WDBCGL0020BSL - hard drive - 2 TB - USB 3.0 overview and full product specs on CNET.

When your WD My Passport Ultra hard drive or external hard drive is not showing up, you can neither access nor use the drive on your computer. And don't worry.

Follow this guide, you'll learn the causes and how to fix the WD Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up error on your own.

In shooting another video for Call That Geek, I found that my WD Passport not recognized in the system. This caused an issue as I needed windows 10 to recog. Reboot your Mac computer to see if your WD My Passport drive is not showing up in Disk Utility/Finder or not. Connect the WD My Passport to another Mac or Windows PC, which will find out if it is the incompatible file system of the drive that makes this WD My Passport undetectable.

Here is the complete guide to making your WD Passport external hard drive detected again:

PAGE CONTENT:
Part 1. Check The State of WD Passport External Hard Drive in Disk Management
Part 2. Fix WD My Passport External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Error - 6 Fixes
Part 3. Get Data Off and Format WD External Hard Drive to Work Again

Some of you may also want to learn what causes the wd external hard drive not showing up issue on the computer. Continue reading and check it out.

Why Is My WD Passport Not Showing UP

We consulted many experienced users and IT professionals, and we concluded the causes below. Check out why is your WD Passport Ultra external not showing up:

  1. 1. A faulty USB port/cable, or a damaged USB hub on PC
  2. 2. No drive letter is assigned to WD Passport drive
  3. 3. Corrupted file system or bad sectors makes WD drive unreadable
  4. 4. WD drive driver is out of date
  5. 5. Universal USB controllers drivers are outdated

These causes may also lead to some of your other devices malfunctioning, such as:

So how to fix these errors and make your WD Passport Ultra external hard drive show up on PC again? Follow through the tutorials below to get rid of this issue immediately.

Part 1. Check The State of WD External Hard Disk in Disk Management

Mac

Connect the WD external hard drive to your computer via the USB cable. Follow steps here to check the state of your WD external hard drive in Disk Management:

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, and click 'OK'.

Step 2. In Disk Management, locate and check the state of your WD external hard drive.

Part 2. Fix WD My Passport External Hard Drive Not Showing Up Error

Check the state of your not showing up or not detected WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive and refer to the right fix to make your drive work normally again.

Tips to Remove WD External Hard Drive Not Showing Up/Not Detected Error:

Disk Status in Disk ManagementWorkable Solutions
1. Disk Shows Up, No Drive Letter Fix 1. File system is normal, add new drive letter..Full steps
Fix 2. File system is '*Others', fix file system..Full steps
Fix 3. File system is 'Unknown', sent for repair..Full steps
2. Disk Show Up, Not In File ExplorerFix 4. Contact EaseUS support team for help..Full steps
3. Disk Not Show Up Fix 5. Change a different USB cable/port or PC..Full steps
Fix 6. Update WD external hard drive driver..Full steps

Pick a respective fix and follow the full guide to fix your WD My Passport external hard drive not showing up issue now.

Fix 1. Add New Drive Letter to Make WD Passport External Hard Drive Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up error due to drive letter confliction.

If your WD displays as 'New Volume' with no drive letter in Disk Management, it won't show up in File Explorer. Don't worry.

You can change or add a new drive letter so to make WD passport detectable and accessible again in Windows PC:

Step 1. Press Win + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run dialog, click 'OK' to open Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click on WD drive which fails to show up and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths..'.

Step 3. Click 'Add', set a new drive letter to assign to the WD external drive, and click 'OK'.

If the WD drive has already been assigned with a letter, click 'Change' to choose another letter for it.

After this, restart your PC and check if you can visit the WD external hard drive in Windows File Explorer.

Fix 2. Fix Corrupted File System/Bad Sector That Makes WD External Not Showing Up

Applies to: Fix WD passport external hard drive not showing up due to file system error or bad sectors.

If the system files are corrupted or the WD device contains bad sectors, Windows disk management may detect it as '*Others' or RAW. Your computer may not even able to detect it from File Explorer.

EaseUS partition manager software with its Check File System feature can help. As long as your Disk Management can detect it, you can apply this tool to fix the corrupted file system and bad sectors on WD hard drive.

Follow to see how to fix corrupted system files and bad sectors on WD device:

Step 1. Open EaseUS Partition Master on your computer. Then locate the disk, right-click the partition you want to check, and choose 'Check File System'.

Step 2. In the Check File System window, keep the 'Try to fix errors if found' option selected and click 'Start'.

My passport for mac help

Step 3. The software will begin checking your partition file system on your disk. When it has completed, click 'Finish'.

After this, you can check the drive. If your files were missing, move to Part 3 and apply reliable data recovery software to bring back all your WD external hard drive data.

Fix 3. Send 'Unknown' & Not Detected WD External Hard Disk for Repair

If your WD external hard drive displays as 'Unknown' in disk management, the last thing you can try is to send the disk for repair.

You have two options for this issue:

  • Option 1. Beyond the Warranty: Send WD external disk for repair in a local repair center
  • Option 2. Within the Warranty: Send WD external disk back to its manufacturer

Fix 4. Contact EaseUS Support Team for Help

If your WD external hard drive is detected in Disk Management but not showing up in File History, you have two choices:

  1. #1. Refer to External Hard Drive Shows Up in Device Manager Not in This PC for help.
  2. #2. Contact the EaseUS support team for manual service help.
You may need further help for tough data loss situations like reformatting drive, RAW disk, partition loss, repartition failures and system boot error. Consult with EaseUS Data Recovery Experts for cost-efficient one-on-one manual recovery service. They could offer the following services after FREE diagnosis:
1. Unformat the drive
2. Repair the RAID, RAW disk or operating system
3. Recover lost partition (the one that cannot be recovered by software)

Fix 5. Try a Different USB Cable/Port or PC

When your WD hard drive neither shows up in File Explorer nor Disk Management, you can try to change the USB cable, try another USB port, or a new PC to see if the drive can be read or not.

Step 1. Switch a USB port/cable and replug it to your computer.

If the drive can be read via new a USB cable or on a new PC, then the drive is working fine. The problem is with the USB cable.

Step 2. Reconnect the WD drive via a new USB hub or to a new PC.

  • If the WD Passport drive shows up, it is the damaged USB hub that stops WD from showing up.
  • If the WD passport is not detected either on your current or the new PC, replace the WD drive with a new one.

Fix 6. Update WD External Device Driver & Reinstall BUS Controllers

When the WD Passport drive is not working, it might be caused by the outdated device drivers. So the best way is to update its driver via the following three paths:

#1. Download and Install WD Device Driver:

Step 1. Connect the problematic WD external hard drive to your PC.

Step 2. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 3. Find and expand Disk Drivers, Portable Devices, Universal Serial USB Controllers, or Other devices.

See if the WD external hard drive is shown as an 'Unknown' device.

Step 4. Right-click on Unknown or not working WD external hard drive, select 'Properties'.

Step 5. Go to the Details tab, set Property to 'Hardware Ids'.

Step 6. Right-click the top Value and click 'Copy'.

Step 7. Paste it into a browser and search for the correct device driver.

Step 8. Find and download the correct WD device driver and install it on your PC.

After this, restart your computer. And everything shall work fine with your WD My Passport Ultra drive.

#2. Update WD Device Driver from Device Manager:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Device Manager and right-click the WD My Passport Ultra drive.

Step 3. Select 'Update driver'.

Step 4. Select 'Search automatically for updated driver software', wait for the process to complete.

#3. Uninstall/Reinstall USB Controllers

When the Universal USB Bus Controllers are outdated, it may also stop your WD passport from being detected or showing up. So you can try to uninstall and reinstall USB controllers:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Device Manager'.

Step 2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click on USB controllers of the WD drive, and select 'Uninstall device'.

Repeat to uninstall each USB controller one by one.

Step 3. Restart the computer and Windows will automatically reinstall the USB controllers of your WD drive.

After this, you shall be able to visit and access saved data on your WD Passport Ultra drive normally by then.

Showing
Notice:
If the WD external hard drive is still not showing up in both File Explorer and Disk Management after trying all these solutions, send your drive for repair as shown in Fix 3.
Not

Part 3. Get Data Off WD External Disk and Format It to Work Again

If your WD hard drive shows up and you can access the disk again. Take the last guide in this part to fully protect your files and make the WD external hard drive viable for saving and editing data again.

#1. Get Data Off WD External Hard Drive

Here are two ways that you can fully get files from your WD external hard drive:

  1. 1. Open and copy data from your WD hard drive to another storage device as a backup.
  2. 2. Recover lost files from WD drive with EaseUS file recovery software.

Note that, if you lost some valuable files during the process, don't worry. Professional file recovery software can scan and bring back your files in 3 steps:

Step 1. Choose the external hard drive

Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

Step 2. Scan for lost data

The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. During the scan, you could see more and more data showing up in the results.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

After the scan is over, check the scan results for the desired data. You can preview the file by double-clicking on it. Click Recover and choose another location to save the recovered data.

Remember to save the recovered files to another secure location and then move to the next guide to format your WD My Passport external hard drive to usable again.

Does My Passport For Mac Work On Windows

#2. Format WD External Hard Drive to Usable

Here, you may also let EaseUS Partition Master help. It's easy and efficient in formatting a disk:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.

Step 2. Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3. In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.

Step 4. Invisibility toggler for macro. Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.

After this, you can save the data back to your WD external hard drive again.

Make Your WD External Hard Drive Show Up and Work Now

Wd Passport For Mac Instructions

On this page, we explained why is WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive not showing up on Windows PC and provided 6 practical fixes for you to follow and make the drive show up again.

As a beginner, we suggest that you follow the whole guide one by one. These fixes also work to resolve the same issue on all brands of external hard drive, internal hard drive, USB, or SD card.

Now, it's your turn. Take steps to fix your not showing up WD external hard drive and make it work again without losing any data.

People Also Ask

For further issues related to the WD passport, check the questions and answers below. You'll get a satisfying answer:

1. WD My Passport not showing up on Mac

If you are having a similar issue that WD My Passport external or internal hard drive not showing up on Mac, you can try the following tips as listed here for help: (Some are similar as shown on this page)

  1. #1. Reconnect WD Passport to Mac
  2. #2. Change WD Passport drive letter
  3. #3. Remount WD Passport to Mac
  4. #4. Update WD Passport drive driver
  5. #5. Format WD My Passport on Mac

2. How to use WD Passport on Windows 10?

For a new WD Passport: Connect Passport to Windows 10 PC > Open Disk Management and Initialize Disk > Create a New Partition on WD Passport drive.

For a used WD Passport: Connect it to Windows 10 > Open it in File Explorer to use it. If you need more space, delete some useless files on it to free up space.

3. Why is my external hard drive not showing up?

Accordingly, many reasons may cause your external hard drive not showing up. Here is a list of major reasons:

  • The external hard drive is not connected to the PC correctly
  • Faulty USB cable or USB hub
  • External hard drive is not initialized
  • External hard drive is doesn't contain a volume
  • External hard drive has no drive letter
  • External hard drive contains file system error, bad sectors, or virus

For a resolution, follow to External/Internal Hard Drive Is Not Showing Up in Windows 10/8/7.

WD Passport Ultra

WD MY PASSPORT NTFS DRIVER INFO:

Type:Driver
File Name:wd_my_5113.zip
File Size:4.7 MB
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Using My Passport For Mac On Windows

Passport Ultra Portable.

My Passport For Mac On Windows 10

Passport Not Showing Up On Mac

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Comments are closed.

External hard drives are not only renowned for their data storing capability but also for their portability function. Whenever you connect your external hard drive to the USB port of your Mac computer, it shows up not only on the desktop but also in the Finder menu on the left-hand side under Locations or Devices.

Due to various reasons which are mentioned below, you might find your external hard drive not showing up on Mac. If you have saved all your crucial backup on the external drive, MacBook not recognizing external hard drive can lead to a data loss scenario.

In this article find out:

Why is my external hard drive not showing up Mac?

  • External hard drive corruption.
  • Physical damage to the external hard drive.
  • Faulty USB connector.
  • Problem with Mac USB ports.
  • Hidden external drive.
  • Improper formatting on the external hard drive.
  • Recent macOS Big Sur or Catalina update issue.

Before you move on to find proven ways to troubleshoot external drive not showing up on Mac, let us first know how to recover data from it.

How to Recover Data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac?

Download Remo Recover Mac, a user-friendly tool to recover data from internal and external storage devices like external HDD, SSD, USB, SD card, etc. The tool supports recovery of more than 300 file types such as photos, videos, PDF files, audio files, raw images, Office files. Using this tool, you can easily restore data from MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, WD MY Passport, Seagate external hard drive, and many more.

Steps to Recover data from External hard drive not showing up on Mac:

Download and install Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows)> Launch the tool and click on Recover Volumes/ Drives option > Choose Volume Recovery and select the external hard drive that is not showing up on Mac to restore data from it > Click on Advance Scan button to start data recovery process > After scanning completes, select the files which you want to recover from your external hard drive not showing up Mac > Finally, click Save button to restore the selected files to any location of your choice.

How to Fix External hard drive not showing up on Mac?

1. Connect the External Hard drive Properly

The first and foremost thing to do if your external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to check if the external hard disk is properly connected or not. Once, it is confirmed that the external hard drive is properly connected to your Mac device, then your Mac should easily recognize the external hard drive and the data saved on it.

If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive due to any hardware issues, you can plugin the unrecognized external hard drive into a different USB port of your Mac. It might look like child's play but inserting an external hard disk to another or healthy USB port can help you understand whether the issue is pertaining to the hard drive failure or USB cable.

2. Fix issues with the USB cable

Your external hard drive not showing up on Mac can be due to the USB cable or HDMI cable connecting the external hard drive to your MacBook Pro or Air.

  • Accessing data from an external hard drive on Mac is dependent on the USB cable. If the USB cable is not properly connected to your device then, Mac won’t recognize the external hard drive.
  • If your USB cable is damaged, then fixing it becomes a priority to access your external hard disk on Mac. Hence, make use of a different USB cable to connect the external hard drive to a Mac computer.

Quick Note: If your MacBook is having USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, then use USB-C to USB adapter to connect the external hard drive to your Mac.

3. Reset Mac computer

Resetting a Mac machine can reboot a few system settings to its default and ensure any issue with respect to it is resolved. This can also help you fix the external hard drive not booting issue due to Mac operating system. To Restart your Mac;

Go to the Apple menu and click Restart. (or) Press and hold the power key until a dialog box displays and hit the Restart or press R key.

4. Change Preference Settings

My Passport For Mac On Pc

One of the reasons why the external hard drive does not show up on Mac is due to Preference settings. If you have not allowed your Mac to access the external hard disk in the preference setting, then Mac won’t show up external hard disk on the desktop. To allow your Mac to show up the external hard drive, edit the preference setting using the below steps;

  • Open a Finder window.
  • Go to Preference and select General.
  • Under “Show these items on the desktop”, check the External disks option.

In most cases, this method will resolve your issue of external hard drive not showing up on Mac desktop or Finder menu.

If your Mac not recognizing external hard drive despite performing the above steps or if this preference setting is already set up, then move down to the below section.

5. Use different Mac or Windows PC

If you still find your Mac not recognizing hard drive then, try connecting the external hard disk to a different Mac system, sometimes there might be a problem with your Mac computer itself.

Connect your external hard drive to a different Mac to find out whether it is mounting on it or not. If the external HDD is mounting on the new or different Mac, then the problem is with your old Mac. In case, if the external hard drive not showing up on both Mac devices, then connect it to a Windows computer.

Quick Note: If your external hard drive is accessible on Windows 10 but not on Mac, then the external hard disk is formatted for Windows computers and not for Mac systems. Check out this article on how to make an external hard disk compatible with Mac.

6. Use Disk Utility

Can't See My Passport On Mac

Once you find out that the Mac device is not responsible for the external hard drive not showing up issue. Follow the below steps to run the first aid utility to fix external hard drive corruption.

Wd My Passport Not Showing Up On Mac

  • Navigate to Go > Utilities > Applications > Disk Utility
  • If your external hard drive appears in the Disk Utility, right-click on the drive and select Mount. This will make your external hard drive option available on the desktop and in the Finder menu. Thus, you can access all your files present on the external hard drive.

    (Note: If the Mac has already mounted your external hard drive (volume) then, the option Unmount will be displayed.)
  • If the drive is not accessible then, the Mount option will be greyed out.

    (Note: To repair your inaccessible or not showing external hard drive Run First Aid.)
  • Now, choose the First Aid option and click Run.

  • After running the First Aid, if the Disk Utility detects any issues or errors on the external hard drive then, click Repair Disk.

Using this method, you can easily repair minor corruption and access an unrecognized external hard drive on Mac. In case, if the first aid utility fails to repair the external hard drive or SSD, this indicates the following 2 reasons;

A) Your external drive is severely corrupt or broken: If First Aid Disk Utility fails to repair the drive, it could be due to the RAW or broken drive. The file system registry that holds the information of the data present on the drive gets broken or damaged then, Mac does not recognize the external hard drive.

B) The external hard drive file system is not compatible with Mac: External hard drive or USB is formatted using a file system that your Mac cannot read. For example, if an external hard drive is formatted using the NTFS file system then, no Mac computer can read or write the external hard drive. In the same way, if the external hard drive or USB is formatted with the HFS+ file system then, no Windows operating system can support it.

ExFAT and FAT32 are the two most common file systems that can be easily supported by both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Now, the last thing to do to fix the external hard drive not showing up on Mac is to format it using the compatible Mac file systems like exFAT, FAT32, HFS+, or APFS.

7. Format unrecognized External hard drive

Formatting the external HDD on Mac leads to a data loss scenario. Before you format your external hard drive to exFAT, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), FAT, or APFS file system, it is suggested to recover data from it using Remo Recover Mac.

Remo Recover (Mac/ Windows) is designed with advanced scanning algorithms to effortlessly recover files from corrupt, unrecognized, formatted, or inaccessible external hard drive on Mac. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows and Mac operating systems including the latest Windows 10 or Mac Big Sur.

To format external hard drive not showing up on Mac:

  1. Navigate to Disk Utility
  2. Select the external hard drive not showing up on Mac and click the Erase option
  3. Now, give a new name to your external hard drive (optional)
  4. Click the Format button to choose the format type you want to perform on it. (Select exFAT if you want to make sure it's compatible with PC and Mac, otherwise, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is probably the best option)
  5. Click on the Erase optionand wait until the Disk utility function removes all the files present on the external hard disk and then reformat it with the selected file system.

Conclusion

My Passport For Mac Help

In most cases, editing the Preference setting to show the external hard drive on the desktop fixes the issue. However, if the external hard drive is corrupt then, you should repair it using First Aid utility or format it with compatible Mac file systems like exFAT or APFS.