why isn't my usb port reading my passport?

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Level 1

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why isn't my usb port reading my passport?

I've had a WD My Passport for a couple of months. I had begun to upload my ITunes to it to free up some memory on the Macbook, but have had to put it on hold for the past month. I just tried to connect it today and it won't show up in Finder.

My daughter-in-law has a macbook (2013) and hers reads the Passport just fine. My usb port reads thumb drives, etc just fine. Has there been an update to the Maverick operating system that won't let the passport work? That's the only thing I can think of that has changed in the past month or two.

Thanks for any suggestions!!

Flamingojoe

MacBook (13-inch Late 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jul 15, 2015 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jul 15, 2015 11:48 AM in response to flamingojoe

Look in the App store for the history of updates, I doubt a recent one has stopped your disk from working but it is one possibility.

System information also shows all installed updates (open the Apple menu whilst holding 'alt'). Sort by date if you want to investigate them.

USB disks can require a lot of power, the OS should inform you when it cannot supply enough to a device. Try other ports, and other cables if you have them. Remove all other devices & reboot.

Open Disk Utility & check that the disk is visible. If it is damaged or an odd format it may not automatically mount. Compare it to the other Mac.

Also double check that the option to show external disks is enabled. 'Finder > Preferences, General tab'. Enable the option to show external disks on the Desktop to be sure it is not mounting. Check the Sidebar options too so that it shows external disks. The 'DEVICES' heading is clickable in the Finder sidebar, be sure to click that to see if it is simply collapsed.

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Answer 2

flamingojoe Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 15, 2015 12:12 PM in response to Drew Reece

It doesn't look like the operating software has updated recently. I have tried all the other suggestions to no avail...still without my passport working...

I would worry about the power consumption if the passport hadn't worked fine when I was using it before. Could it need more power now that I have quite a few audio files on it?

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jul 15, 2015 2:03 PM in response to flamingojoe

More data should not cause more power to be required 🙂

OS X is usually good at informing you when a device requests too much power over USB I just thought it was one possibility that you should consider.

Are you the only user logged in? Log out others if you are using fast user switching.

On the other Mac can you check what format the volume is?

Disk Utility will show that if you select the volume (it is indented below the disk in the sidebar). The info should be at the bottom of the window (e.g. Mac OS Extended or NTFS etc).

You can also try booting into recovery mode to see if this disk appears in Disk Utility on the troublesome Mac - that is a separate OS & could indicate some software or other fault on the main OS.

Hold cmd+r at startup to enter recovery mode (assuming you have a recovery partition). Select Disk Utility & try to examine the disk again.

Safe mode is another way to isolate parts of the OS from causing issues

Safe mode - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Limited graphics performance in OS X recovery or safe mode - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203889

Just reboot to go back to a normal boot, be aware that somethings will fail to work in safe mode - that can be normal, test what you can & post the results here please.

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