WD Passport for Mac not Backing up Via Time Machine

[JohnMaldaner]

I have not been able to get automatic backups to work with My Passport for Mac. I get an error message stating "Time Machine couldn't complete the backup to My Passport for Mac. The backup disk is not in MAC OS Extended (Journaled) format, which is required."

However, when I use Disk Utility to view the details of this disk, it says it IS in that format!! So, why isn't it working? And, most importantly, how do I get it to work?

The reason I bought the version explicitly for the MAC was to avoid this sort of issue!!

 

[Fishrrman]

I would take the brute force approach -- erase the entire backup drive and start over.
But... that's just me.

Q. Is there any "proprietary software" from WD installed on the drive? Such as password protection, etc. ...?

 

[mfram]

Maybe the partitioning is in MBR format for some reason? I think TM wants the partitioning to be in GPT format. You'd have to repartition and erase the disk to change that.

 

[JohnMaldaner]

I would take the brute force approach -- erase the entire backup drive and start over.
But... that's just me.

Q. Is there any "proprietary software" from WD installed on the drive? Such as password protection, etc. ...?

I contacted WD support. This is what they suggested, too!

Unfortunately, Disk Utility could not erase and reformat the drive. I shared screen shots of error messages. WD support suggests I get an RMA and return the drive. It is within warranty.