WD My Passport 2TB SSD and an iMac

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Level 1

51 points

WD My Passport 2TB SSD and an iMac

Hello all, I just bought a WD My Passport SSD 2TB and I am observing a curious behavior. Device is seen and connected, and it is possible to see its contents through Finder. It is also possible to work with it.

The weird things are that after being used for a certain time it is not possible to eject as there is a message some app is using it and as I don’t like to use “Force Eject”, I need to shut down the iMac to remove the device. If the iMac is on sleep mode for a certain time it is shown in the Desktop and in Finder, but SSD content doesn’t appear in Finder, and when machine wakes up, My Passport is seen, you can get its info, but cannot access or even see the content.

I have 2 iMacs and a MacBook Air, running with Catalina 10.15.7, El Capitan 10.11.6 and the laptop with Monterey 12.6.4.

These kinds of issues happen with the Catalina iMac. I already made few contacts with WD support, and they say probability is that difficulty, is being caused by the iMac, and the tests with the other two machines seems to confirm that.

Any hint and/or guidance will be appreciated Thanks Paulo

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 15, 2023 4:32 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

jeffreythefrog

Level 6

14,064 points

Jul 16, 2023 5:42 AM in response to pmonnerat

are you using any of WD's preloaded software on the drive (or installed such software yourself) that supposedly makes the drive "Mac ready"? if yes, that could be the cause of your issue. when you use software from just about any manufacturer for their storage device you run the risk of that same software not being compatible with macOS updates / upgrades. it can cause the software to stop working. at best this will cause you a headache. at worst it can render your data inaccessible. it is always best to use disk utility to erase and format a drive before use to remove any preloaded software.

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Answer 2

Jul 17, 2023 4:59 PM in response to pmonnerat

pmonnerat wrote:

Hi Jeffreythefrog,

Thanks for your reply.

you're welcome.

Yes I used a preloaded software and I am thinking in using Disk Utility, but just submitted your suggestion to WD support to see what they say.

they will probably say I'm wrong. they can charge more for a "Mac ready" drive. :)

The bad thing is that I already copied 1.1 TB to the SSD and formatting will have to do it again

hopefully the fact that you did it once will make it a little easier to do it again.

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Answer 3

Jul 18, 2023 4:45 AM in response to pmonnerat

pmonnerat wrote:

Good morning Jeffreythefrog, followed your suggestion and with Disk Utility, formatted the WD SSD with exFAT

do you need to use the drive with both Mac and windows machines? if not, you should have used a "Mac" format.

please see File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

Thanks and regards Paulo

again, you're welcome. :)

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Answer 4

pmonnerat Author

Level 1

51 points

Jul 17, 2023 4:53 PM in response to jeffreythefrog

Hi Jeffreythefrog,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I used a preloaded software and I am thinking in using Disk Utility, but just submitted your suggestion to WD support to see what they say. The bad thing is that I already copied 1.1 TB to the SSD and formatting will have to do it again

Thanks again Paulo

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