Oh no! It’s a disaster your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air is out of space. What now?
Western Digital today introduced new My Passport and My Passport for Mac hard drives, which are equipped with up to 5TB of storage. The drives are the slimmest 5TB options in the WD brand. Ready to use out of the box, you can start transferring files, saving memories and backing up right away. The My Passport for Mac drive works with Apple Time Machine, and included WD Security software helps protect your data. You can also check the box to ‘Back Up Automatically’ if you would like your Mac to kick off a backup when your WD My Passport backup drive is connected to your Mac. You can kick off a Time Machine backup straight away, when your My Passport drive is connected to your Mac, by heading to the top of your desktop and selecting the Time Machine Symbol. The WD Quick Formatter program prepped the Windows-formatted My Passport Essential for the Mac use in just a few clicks. The drive also ships with WD SmartWare, a utility that lets you choose the.
You needsomewhere to offload some of those files and fast.
And you should really have a backup of everything you’ve on your Mac while you’re about it.
Because thelast thing you want is your documents, videos and photos to vaporize into thinair if your Mac fails.
You’reintrigued by the WD My Passport for Mac. But will it work? And is it the bestchoice for you and your Mac?
MacTakeAwayData Rating: 8/10
Why you Want the WD My Passport for Mac
Why you Might Pass on the WD My Passport for Mac
Verdict on the WD My Passport for Mac
Made and built for a Mac user, the Western Digital My Passport for Mac works seamlessly on a Mac.
Sure the WD My Passport is a basic external hard drive. It does have some nice features.
Features likethe Western Digital software. Software that allows you to import your photosand documents from your social media. And from your cloud storage accounts.
Plug it inand use the drive as a back up destination for Time machine.
Or as aplace to store extra documents, videos, photos or your iTunes music.
And if youget yourself a larger drive you can create sections on the drive so that youcan do both.
If you’reusing your WD Passport for Mac to off load files from your Mac. Think aboutgetting two.
It’s never a good idea to only have the one copy of your files.
YouTubeVideo on the WD Passport for Mac Drive.
What’s new?You’ll want to watch this 51 second YouTube video. You’ll find a nice intro tothe My Passport Mac updates.
Western Digital’s Latest My Passport Drives
Video Credit: First L00k
*Disclosure:This article contains affiliate links. And at no extra cost to you this siteearns a commissions through image links, Amazon button and text links shouldyou buy.
Feel free to take a look at the My Passport for Mac on Amazon at this link
WD MyPassport for Mac Review
What is theFor Mac bit about?
The best bit about the WD My Passport is that it made for you the Mac user. What does that mean?
There’s no need for you to worry about how to make this drive work with your Mac. Because is already set up. Formatted to be compatible with your Mac’s operating system.
There’s something called HSF+ which is also known as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. And the My Passport Mac as shipped is already set up that way.
HSF+ iswhat your Mac is expecting to see when you plug in an external drive.
You can breathe a sigh of relief. Because when you buy this drive and plug it in, your Mac will understand it.
The My Passport for Mac will work with the following Mac operating systems: Mojave, Hight Sierra and Sierra.
Share theMy Passport for Mac with a Windows PC
If you wantto share the My Passport for Mac drive with a Windows PC, the drive will needreformatting. A Windows PC will not be able to see a HSF+ formatted drive.
You can choose when you format to make the whole drive shareable with a Windows PC. Or a part of your drive shareable.
AvailableDrive Sizes on the WD My Passport for Mac
You’ll find the Western Digital My Passport for Mac comes in 2TB, 4TB and 5TB sizes.
The larger sizes are useful if you’ve lots of photos to store.
Or want toget a larger drive that you can split up into sections.
For exampleyou may want one section for your documents. Another section where you canstore your Time Machine backups.
And perhaps a third section to store files you’re sharing between a Mac and a PC.
Plugging inYour WD My Passport for Mac
The WD My Passport for Mac is a USB 3.2 Gen 1 external drive. Your Mac knows how to talk to USB 3.2 Gen 1 drives.
In the MyPassport Mac box you’ll be happy to find there are two USB cables.
Why two?
One that has a USB A type connection at the end if you’ve an older Mac with a USB A port.
The othercable is for your newer Mac. A Mac with USB C Thunderbolt ports.
So nomatter the age of your Mac, with this drive Western Digital has you covered.
What about if you’ve a Mac with USB C / Thunderbolt connections only?
Luckily the USB standard is backwards compatible. And your Mac with its Thunderbolt ports will store files, backup to. And read from an external hard drive that is USB 3.2 Gen 1.
Thunderboltexternal hard drives are pricey.
And the fact is that unless you’ve a lot of 4k videos. Or you’ve a great collection of very large photos you’re unlikely to need the speed of a Thunderbolt drive.
The Western Digital My Passport for Mac drive also supports USB 3.0 and 2.0 for those older Macs and MacBooks.
The MyPassport Mac’s Power Needs
Your WD My Passport for Mac uses its USB cable for power. And this means your Mac’s battery (when not connected to external power).
Your Mac’spower cable when plugged in, powers both your Mac and the Passport for Macdrive.
The beauty of this is, that theres no need for you to carry a separate power cable.
This meansone less cable to remember to bring with you.
Or carryone around in your back pack.
Or take onewith you abroad when you’re on a trip.
Or worryabout finding a US plug or adaptor for the drive.
WesternDigital Passport for Mac Amazon User Views
Releasedonto the market in 2016 the WD Passport for Mac drive is popular. And is has soldwell for Western Digital with many fans that like the drive.
Why not take a look at the reviews on Amazon? (Commissions Earned)
Click on this link to view the WD My Passport for Mac page.
Head downto the bottom of the page.
There youcan select the most recent reviews and take a look at the individual starratings.
Is the WesternDigital My Passport for Mac Portable?
Yes, the WDpassport for mac is portable. A handy size that fits easily in the palm of yourhand.
But you’llneed to remember that these drives aren’t at all rugged.
As amechanical drive it has moving parts inside.
A knock or a drop from any significant height means you’ll have damaged your My Passport Mac drive.
When using,you’ll find it best to put your Passport for Mac on a level, solid surface.
![How How](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134111192/412643370.png)
Movingdropping or shaking the drive while it is active risks you loosing your files.
Size of TheMy Passport Mac Drives
You’ll find the 2TB sized at 4.22 in by 2.95 in by 0.44.
4TB and 5TB drives are a little thicker at 4.22 in by 2.95 in by 0.75 inches in size.
This means you’ll find that they could all quite happily fit in your pocket.
Yet you’llfind them still convenient to carry around.
Weight of theWestern Digital My Passport for Mac
You’ll see the 2TB weighs 0.27 lbs.
The 4TB and 5TB drives weigh in at a heavier 0.46 lbs.
No matterthe drives capacity you’ll find the WD Passport for Mac very transportable. Andcan fit in a large pocket or your backpack or your purse.
But whenyou take the My Passport Mac drive with you, it’s best to invest in a carrycase to protect the drive in transit.
My favorites are the: (Commissions Earned)
Or for something a little better
The Lacdo Waterproof and Shockproof Carrying Case
The Look ofthe Passport for Mac
Only available in dark blue.
A little disappointing. As you won’t find the attractive, bright lollypop colors of the non for Mac My Passport drive.
How Do I Use Wd My Passport For Mac
Nonethelessthe My Passport for Mac drive’s case is a bit different to the usual.
About half of the outside cover has a glossy dark blue finish. The other is matt with a diagonal design.
Unfortunatelythe glossy side shows fingerprints. And is a bit of a magnet for dust andscratches.
If you’dlike to keep your Western Digital My Passport drive shiny and clean. I wouldn’tjust throw it in your back pack. Or in your large purse where your keys couldscratch the outer cover.
Another reasonto keep it in one of cases I mention above when you’re not using.
WD MyPassport for Mac’s Shape
The WD Passportfor Mac drive has distinct corners.
How To Use Wd My Passport For Mac Instructions
Some peopledon’t like this look and find it too angular. What do you think?
Connectionsand LED Light
You’ll find a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 port.
And asingle LED activity showing light. A light to help you know what the MyPassport Mac drive is up to.
Lightsteady means the drive is idle.
Flashingquickly means the drive is active writing or reading from the drive
A slowflash means the drive is on standby.
WD My Passport for Mac Speed Test
Here you’llfind usb.userbenchmark.com speed tests. This site allows individual users to recordand upload their own test results.
You get a resultbased on all the Western Digital My Passport drives tested. And there are morethan 6,413 benchmark tests for the WD My Passport drive. The findings are:
- 1.7 mb/s for the small file write speed
- 63.2 mb/s for the large file write speed
The My Passport is consistent in use in various real word conditions. These results show you that the WD Passport for Mac drive is a good performer. If not the fastest in its class. You can view the latest results at this link.
Passportfor Mac Comes with WD Discovery Software
When you buy the Western Digital My Passport for Mac drive it comes preloaded with Western Digital‘s software.
This software allows you to import the photos held on your social media accounts. It connects to your accounts such as Instagram and Facebook.
And your cloud storage such as Google drive and Dropbox. You can then bring in your documents, videos and photos. And save them onto your My Passport Mac external hard drive.
Perfect asit allows you to have a separate copy of your uploaded files in your hands.Just in case the worst happens to your cloud storage. https://renewarch501.weebly.com/microsoft-for-mac-downloads.html.
The WesternDigital software also includes software to manage the hardware encryption. Andset a password for the My Passport drive. As well as providing you with theWestern Digital drive utilities. Through these utilities you can reformat thedrive, and check the drive health.
Apart fromthe social media software which is very useful.
The otherfacilities such as encryption of your drive and its backup. Along with passwordprotection are available as part of your Mac’s operating system.
And should you have a failure of your Mac for any reason. You’re going to want to get to your backup. And without having to fiddle around with the Western Digital software.
Last Words
I hope you enjoyed my article “Best WD My Passport for Mac Review for You’re Mac”. There’s a lot to like about this WD My Passport for Mac. And it makes it easy for you to connect to your Mac.
You’ll findother WD My Passport articles on the site. Do take some time to browse them byclicking on these links.
You have a WD My Passport portable external drive and you want to make it work on both Mac and PC.
Whether it’s because you’ve a Windows PC you use at work. And when you’re home it’s easier for you to continue your work on your Mac.
Or
You need to work at home because then you can watch a sick child. Or be there when the kids come home from school.
Or it could be that you have both types of computers in your home. Your work and home life would run so much easier if you could just get the dang thing to work on both.
The question you’re asking yourself is: Can I use my WD Passport on both Mac and PC?
The answer is Yes.
And in this article I aim to inspire you to do just that.
Learn the few steps it takes to set up your WD My Passport for Mac and Windows.
High Level View of the Steps To Making WD Passport Compatible with Mac and Windows
- You plug in the WD My Passport Into Your Mac
- You format your WD My Passport to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system.
- Next you format your WD My Passport drive to an ExFAT file system.
- After that you can use your WD Passport on both Mac and PC.
And the whole thing takes only a few minutes to do.
____________
Plugging in Your WD My Passport Into Your Mac and PC
Before you start you’ll need to connect your drive.
You’ll either find this super easy and straight forward. Or you may need a cable or adaptor depending on the Mac and PC you have.
Your WD My Passport drive uses an external hard drive standard called USB 3.0. You don’t need to understand the ins and outs of this standard. It’s enough to know that the different USB standards define the speed the drive works at.
And the plugs used to connect the hard drive to your Mac or your Windows PC. The connection types are also known as ports.
Your WD My Passport portable drive has a USB B micro port.
Its cable comes with a connection for the USB B Micro port for the hard drive. And at the other end, the end that connects to a computer has a USB A connection.
That end looks like this.
What If you Bought a WD My Passport for Mac?
The cable supplied with the WD My Passport for Mac is different. It still has the Micro B connection for the WD My Passport for Mac drive. But on the other end it has a USB C port.
Check the USB port you have on your Mac and on your Windows PC
You may have a USB A port. Or on the newer Macs and Windows PCs you may have a USB C port. And find you’ll need an adaptor cable or device.
The USB standard is thankfully backwards compatible. So as long as you have the right cable or adaptor you’ll be fine.
My favorite cable and adaptor are: (Commissions Earned)
1. USB C to Micro B Cable, QCEs
2. Apple USB-C to USB Adapter
Click on the above links to view on Amazon.
Got the right cable for your Mac and your Windows PC. And you may find you’ll need two different cables. But that’s fine as long as you have the cable you need in the right place at the right time.
How to Make WD Passport Compatible with Mac and Windows
The method you’ll learn uses your Mac to format your WD passport for Mac and Windows.
I recommend doing it this way, as Macs can be choosy about what formats their hard drives.
And throw up issues when you format the external hard drive on a Windows PC and then you use on your Mac.
Setting up your WD My Passport drive on your Mac moves any of these issues out of the picture.
Side Note:
If you have documents, and files already on your WD My Passport drive copy them off before you start doing this.
If you can’t copy them off. Or you have no room either on the Mac or your Windows PC to put them there.
Then you’ll want to take a look at my article here. It covers the options available when you want an external hard drive working on a Mac and PC but you can’t reformat. Because you don’t want to loose the documents on there.
1. Turn on Your Mac and Log In.
Plug in your WD My Passport’s USB cable into its Micro USB B port. Then plug the other end into a USB port on your Mac.
The WD My Passport gets its power from the Mac and the drive’s LED light will start flashing as it powers up.
2. Look for the External Hard Drive Icon on your Desktop.
Or your Mac may give you a message asking whether you would like to format the WD My Passport drive.
If your Mac has asked that question select Yes.
If it hasn’t you’ll see an icon on your desktop like this.
Your WD MyPassport drive not showing up on the desktop?
Open afinder window. And click on Preferences.
Check theboxes ‘Hard Disks’ and ‘External Disks’
Now you open up a piece of software on your Mac called Disk Utility.
You’ll use Disk Utility to format your WD My Passport drive.
You find Disk Utility in the Applications folder on your Mac.
Inside the Application folder you’ll see the Utilities folder. Double click on that.
Then double click on Disk Utility.
Your other way is to search for Disk Utility via the spotlight search.
You can find Spotlight search at the top of your desktop.
Click on spotlight search and type in ‘Disk Utility’.
Double click on Disk Utility to open it up.
3. Make Sure your WD My Passport External Drive is Chosen.
You click where I’ve circled on the above picture. You click at the ‘top level’ – where you see the WD My Passport drive first listed.
A small arrow head to the left of your My Passport external drive shows the levels.
If thedrive levels are still not showing, click on view on the top left of your DiskUtility pop up window.
Then openup the view menu and click the box to show all devices. The drive and the volume.Then you’ll be find to select your drive at thetop level.
Now take a look at the top of the Disk Utility screen and click on the Erase option.
4. Give Your WD My Passport External Drive a Name.
On the next screen of Disk Utility you will be able to enter a new name for your WD My Passport drive. Why not choose a name that reflects is use on both Mac and Windows PC?
For the drive format select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
And the Scheme is GUID Partition Map.
Click on Erase.
In a few moments the WD Passport drive is formatted.
You will format the WD My Passport drive twice. Once as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. The second time as ExFAT. This will make the WD My Passport hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows PC.
5. Choose the WD My Passport Drive A Second Time.
Double click on Erase.
6. Then Select the ExFAT Format.
You have just formatted the WD Passport drive as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. This time select ExFAT from the format drop down menu.
Leave the partition map as GUID as before.
Then Select the Erase button at the bottom right of the window.
Several short moments later you’re done.
The WD My Passport drive is now formatted to work on both Mac and PC. And when you plug your My Passport drive into either you will be able to see the drive, read and write files. Copy and Paste files and create folders on both Mac and PC.
CUTEPDFCutePDF is one of the most sought after free print to PDF solutions, and has an easy name to remember! Advantages:.It supports the ability to merge multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document.The created PDF document will still have the same format and layout of the original document.The features are easy to use.Disadvantages:.It does not maintain formatting of excel or word documents.It does not support to add encryption to PDF files.#7. For instance, it can convert other formats to a PDF document with highly quality, and maintain the same layout and format of the original document, with a customized specific path to save the output file. Free pdf for mac. It works as a stand-alone interface that can work with ghost script to help you create a PDF file without buying writer software.
7. Ejecting your WD My Passport Drive
Never just pull out your USB cable either from your Mac or your Windows PC. You need to eject the drive first.
By ejecting the drive your computer can write anything it is still holding in its memory to the hard drive. And you’ll keep the risk of corrupting your files to the smallest possible.
To Properly Eject the WD My Passport Drive.
My Passport For Mac Drivers
1. On your Mac. Put your cursor over the WD My Passport Icon on the desktop.
Right click. Next click on the Eject option.
2. Wait until you can’t see the Icon on the desktop.
3. Then check the LED lights on your WD My Passport drive. When they stop flickering and you have a steady constant light you know the drive is idle.
Then you’re free to unplug the USB cable.
An Alternative Way to Eject on your Mac or for Your PC
![How to use wd my passport on macbook pro How to use wd my passport on macbook pro](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134111192/564402665.jpg)
Wd Passport For Mac Instructions
Go to the Finder Window on your Mac or the Explorer window on Windows PC. Right click on the file icon of your WD My Passport drive there.
Choose Eject.
Wait till the icon disappears and the flickering on the drive stops. Then you can pull out the USB cable.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why Didn’t My WD Passport Work on My Mac and PC?
WD My Passport is sold with a file system called NTFS (New Technology File System).
A file system is how the My Passport external drive stores your all your files. Whether they are documents, photos or music on the drive.
Your Mac can read NTFS. So when you plug in the drive your Mac can see the documents. And you can copy them off onto your Mac.
But you can’t write any files back, update any of the documents or delete them. This is because all those actions mean the Mac has to write to the drive and it can’t.
To write to the drive you either need third party software that allows you to do that.
There is an article on the site all about this here.
Or you reformat the drive as I have led you through in the article.
2. Why Can’t ‘WD Passport For Mac’ work on Windows?
The version of the Western Digital external drive sold in a ‘For Mac’ guise does not work on Windows. Not without some third party software or without reformatting. Why?
Because the file system on the WD Passport For Mac external hard drive is a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. This file system is also call HFS+. A Windows PC cannot see, read, write to that file system.
To share that drive between a Mac and Windows PC you need software. Software that translates HFS+ into something the PC can understand.
You can take a look at the software options in my article.
Or follow the steps in this article to reformat the drive to ExFAT.
3. How to Open WD My Passport for Mac on Windows?
Because WD My Passport for Mac has a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system (HFS+) written on it. Your Windows PC can’t see, or open the drive.
Your options are to use a third party software solution that sits on your windows PC. This software would allow your PC to see, read and write to the drive.
You can read all about it in this document on the site.
Or you can reformat the drive to ExFAT and freely open the WD Passport without any special software on it.
4. Why ExFAT when Formatting WD Passport for Mac and Windows?
Because both your Mac and Windows PC can read and write to ExFAT.
What does this mean?
Copy your documents onto an ExFAT formatted WD My Passport drive. And plug into either computer.
Whether it’s your Mac and or your PC it will see those documents.
And use those documents on both computers. If it’s your music collection you want to enjoy and listen to on both your Mac and PC, then you can with ExFAT.
Apr 29, 2019 WinRAR 5.71 for Mac OS WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files. Sep 30, 2019 WinRAR is available in over 40 languages. There is also a 64 Bit version availabe.The command line version RAR is available for Linux, FreeBSD and MAC OS X. WinRAR for Windows costs USD 29.00 for a single-user license. We use a volume pricing system that gives our customers better prices the more licenses they buy. WinRAR for Mac offers you the benefit of industry strength archive encryption using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key of 128 bits. It supports files and archives up to 8,589 billion gigabytes in size. It also offers the ability to create self extracting and multi volume archives. Our software library provides a free download of WinRAR 5.40 for Mac. The software is sometimes distributed under different names, such as 'WinRAR Windows 7', 'Winrar Mac', 'WinRAR help'. The software is included in System Tools. The latest installer that can be downloaded is 496 KB in size. Winrar for mac free.
Both a Mac and a Windows PC can also read and write to FAT32 formatted drives.
Why didn’t I suggest that?
And you may see some sites suggesting you format to FAT32.
But FAT32 has a file size restriction of 4GB. OK, so you’ll likely have file sizes smaller than that.
But as the older file system standard FAT32 is slow.
Much slower than ExFAT. And ExFAT can store a file up to 16 Exibyte in size.
These days ExFAT is the file system to choose for your modern Mac and Windows PC.
Last Words
I hope I inspired you to take the 7 steps to set up your WD My Passport for your Mac and for your Windows PC. You’ll find it so much easier when you can work on your documents from either computer. See the photos you’ve stored on both or hear your favorite tunes on your Mac or PC.
Don’t just read – go ahead and give it a go. It is easy use your WD My Passport for Mac and Windows in 7 steps.
You’ll find other documents on the site all about your WD My Passport portable external hard drive. Why not take a look: