Backup tab greyed out since update to 1.6.0

WD External Drives WD Portable Drives
1

I have just upgraded the WD software to 1.6.0 (which took ages) and now find that the ‘Backup’ tab is greyed out.  In the absence of any means of obtaining support from the company by e-mail, could anyone here suggest anything?

Since buying this external hard drive I have had several problems and there seems to be no means of getting help via e-mail.  I apologise for sounding negative, but had I known what I now know I wouldn’t have bought it.

2

Whilst fiddling about with WD SmartWare, I disovered that if I click the ‘My Passport’ icon in the ‘Home’ tab, the backup tab becomes functional again.

Sorry to have bothered you all with this, and perhaps my discovery may be useful to others.

I have to say that I am not at all impressed with the software that came with this drive, nor with the company’s support.  I shall not be buying WD again.

2 Likes
3

Yup that’s the trick on the new version

4

Done!

5

Same thing happend to me.  However, it doesn’t matter how often I select the “My Passport Essential”  drive to activate the “backup” and “retrieve” tabs, the next time I open the software, they are grayed out again.  Any ideas why?

6

Yes, this also worked for me, but I had to click on “My Book Essential” icon (must be different hardware). Thank you for saving me the time needed to call the contact number.

Like others, I am extremely unhappy with this external drive. I thought I had contineous back ups running, but NO. When my old PC died and I bought a new one, the data files on WD Drive were not current. Thank goodness I also back up important data files on a flash drive. I will purchase Western Digital equipment of any type in the future.  

7

Whoops! I meant to type that I will NOT buy WD equipment in the future. Keeping this external driver software updated and the back ups running has been a real chore. :-( 

8

I’m having the same issue too but I don’t see the "My Passport’ icon in the ‘Home’ tab.  There must be a way to make this software more friendly for users…

9

Not only is the product crappy the support is too…  One week and no response!

10

It worked after I clicked on “My Book Essential” icon.  I was looking for a tab to click on as those images just look like images and not a clickable item or something you would click on.

11

I found a solution to this problem and I thought the same thing as you guys did. I thought it was faulty coding and/or low quality external hard drive. I turned off my “turbo” option for SuperSpeed USB 3.0.

I have a USB 3.0 turbo option that comes with the motherboard feature. I have a X79 Sabertooth ASUS motherboard and I simply went and turned off the turbo option which is supposed to increase the data transfer rate between the usb 3.0 device and the computer. YOu may not have this option in particular but what you need to be doing is look for anything such as a program or a setting with your usb 3.0 device settings and make sure that it is in a normal type state or default state of 3.0 usb speeds. This worked for me.

Thanks.