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Western Digital Passport for Mac

I need to ask if there are any known problems using WD Passport with Big Sur 11.4. When I look into System report I can see the Passport is connected, and is the same when I look in Disc Utility. I also check the drive status in WD security and it passes the status test. But when I press Back Up Now in Time Machine I get the message the disc is not available and under more info it says it is not connected.

I have tried different cables and different USB ports to no avail.


This is the 2nd Passport from Western Digital. The first one backed up a few times before becoming eratic

and the packed up altogether. There had been a few OS updates between first use of the Passport and it failing. WD replaced the drive which came all the way from Poland to the UK


I first bought a Passport to use with a Mac Mini some years ago and it worked a treat. I am puzzled as to why this is giving such grief.

Posted on Jun 25, 2021 3:36 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 25, 2021 7:09 AM

"Erase" means to reformat.

From

Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support


"Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to a USB,

Thunderbolt, or FireWire port on your Mac. If the disk isn't using the

correct format, Time Machine will prompt you to erase it. "

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3 replies

Jun 25, 2021 6:54 AM in response to Keith Barkley

Hi Keith, thanks so much for your reply. I went into System preferences as you suggested and there were 2 passports for Mac. The old one which I removed and then it told me to erase the data on the new one, which puzzled me a little as there was nothing on it as far as I know. The was a warning that if I went ahead I could not retrieve any deleted data. So with heart in mouth I hit erase and after a few moments it started to backup. I just need to wait a few hours for it to complete.


As far as I remember the instructions for the Passport for Mac had no reformatting instruction. I now just need to see if it works reliably. Thanks again

Western Digital Passport for Mac

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