WD My Passport for Mac will not backup on my iMac after upgrading to El capitan OS. The icon appears after plugging into USB, but when I right click, "back up now" does not appear. The device does appear in disk utility. It worked fine before upgrade, and my wife's macbook is still running Yosemite OS and the same My passport device works correctly.
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)
my WD My Passport works fine with 10.11. Are you using WD software for backup - don't recognize the "back up now" option.
I have used the drive several times before I upgraded to El Capitan, no problems at all. Now you can see in the photos, my wife's macbook running Yosemite, when I right click the icon, I can choose back up now, and it works perfectly. On my iMac, when I right click the icon, back up now is not a choice.
- A Mac can't natively write to a NTFS formatted drive but there are apps like
Tuxera NTFS for Mac
http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/
Paragon NTFS for Mac® 14
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
- External HDs come formatted NTFS and some may come with an app that allows writing to NTFS formatted drives. You have to update the app to be compatible with El Capitan.
- I suspect that your external drive came with such software and you will have to update the software to work with El Capitan. Go to your drive manufacturer's support site. I think a free update is available
Is this drive used for Time Machine? I'm also not seeing this option if I right click, but I do still see it when I click on the TM menu icon.
One of my Passports is always connected to my mac for TM, so TM does a backup automatically every hour.
No the drive is not used with TM, just a direct back up to the drive. I am using it for two computers.
Forgot to add, if yo go to Disk Utility what is the format? If NTFS you have to update the drivers that allows a Mac writing to an NTFS-formatted drive.
It sound like you are using WD SmartWare to do the backups, in which case that last time this was updated was 1/6/2015, so it may not yet be compatible with 10.11? Looking at the release notes it does mention ElCap:
http://support.wdc.com/download/notes/Mac_WD_Sync_2.0.1.72_SW_Release_Notes.pdf? v=814
The format is Mac OS extended; thanks for the information. I will contact WD
I will contact WD, thanks.
Can you do the backup from within the SmartWare app? Can't check as I always delete vendor specific HD software.
No it does not recognize the drive
So SmartWare in Yosemite can still back up fine to the Passport but in ElCap the drive will mount but SmartWare doesn't like it?
I'm thinking it must be a SmartWare issue, then.
As I said before it seems the drive is formatted in PC format NTFS which a Mac can't write to natively.
The version of the software that was used included software to allow a Mac to write to an NTFS formatted drive. However, that software is not compatible with El Capitan.
That writing software has to be updated to work with El Capitan.
Yes, thanks so much. I have seen so many people having this same issue on many different support and discussion sites.
Yes, that problem surfaced in this Apple forum right after El Capitan was released.
wd my passport not working after El capitan
