How do I recover files from an outdated Western Digital external drive on Mac?

You recover the files from your Time Machine backup.

It's never a good idea to use any storage utility that ships with an external drive. The Mac does not benefit from them and they can be problematic, as you are finding out now.

The age of the drive suggests that the hardware may be failing and causing this problem.

Does the Mac have access to any of the files on the drive, i.e. can the Finder browse through the folders and files?

If so, you should pull as much data as possible now, before the drive just goes away.

Pcgerardi wrote:

I have an approx 10yr old Western Digital external hard drive, message says developer needs to update smartware.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

https://support-in.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/30039/~/wd-smartware-end-of-support

The problem is, WD ended its support for WD Smartware in 2020, 5 years ago!

"Support for WD Smartware has ended and is no longer covered under our software support lifecycle. You may continue to use your product and related applications. Software purchases, licenses, updates and technical support are no longer provided for WD Smartware."

If you cannot access the files on the drive without a WD Smartware software or driver update, you might look here, https://support-in.wd.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads especially at the WD Drive Utilities and the Driver section to see if any of those might help you out.

I don't see how your problem is an Apple product issue, I think you should be asking on a WD forum or be in touch with WD support and see if they can offer a solution to the problem you are having.

Your WD is a third party product, not an Apple product. It is the responsibility of the developers of third party products to ensure their products are compatible and when then decide to drop support it is up to them to advise that. It seems WD has done exactly that and now 5 years later you are asking about it?

Huh?