Format Seagate Backup Plus For Mac

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Seagate Backup Plus Hub – Unboxing. The Seagate Backup Plus Hub is available in both a Windows and Mac format as well as several sizes from 4TB to 8TB. Our evaluation unit was an 8TB Windows version which comes out of the box in the NTFS format (the Mac version comes in the default HFS+ format).

Summary: When plugging your Seagate Backup Plus into a Mac computer, you may find the drive stops working and is unmountable in Disk Utility. Have you been troubled by the issue? This post will give you 4 workable solutions to fix Seagate Backup Plus drive not mounting/working issue on Mac.

A large number of users reported that they were unable to mount Seagate Backup Plus drive on Mac computers, orSeagate Backup Plus couldn't work on Mac after plugged in. Here is a real example:

'I really need your help. My Seagate Backup plus just stopped getting detected (led not working anymore) with my MacBook Pro 2016 model (with USB Type C to USB 3 connector) suddenly. It was working fine 1 month before. I tried this backup disk with a Windows computer and the LED light is working in that case but I am not able to get it work with my MacBook Pro anymore. Any idea guys?'

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In fact, this issue is very common, especially for those who frequently share the same drive between different computers. Now, let's walk you through the solutions to fix the Seagate Backup Plus not mounting/not working issue on Mac.

6 solutions to fix Seagate Backup Plus not mounting, not working on Mac

Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive is often used to back up important files. If the Seagate external hard drive is not recognized or detected by your Mac, you can't mount it in Disk Utility and access the data stored on it. So it's very urgent to fix the problem to make it work again. Now follow the solutions as below.

Solution 1: Have some basic checks

Sometimes, the Seagate Backup Plus drive could not be mounted on Mac is due to the bad USB port or cable. Thus, once the Seagate Backup Plus drive stops working, you can first do some routine checks as below.

  1. Check if the cable of the Seagate Backup Plus drive is connected properly to your Mac. If the drive isn't properly plugged in, it will fails to mount as it doesn't received enough power.
  2. Make sure it's the USB cable at fault. Try using a different USB cable to see if that fixes the problem.
  3. Check if the USB port is damaged. Plug the Seagate Backup Plus into another USB port if you have another one. Otherwise, insert another external storage device in this USB port.
  4. Check whether the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive is powered properly. In general, the current of USB port 2.3 and 3.0 are enough for the most external portable hard drives. But sometimes this amount of current may be insufficient while the drive is spinning up. In this situation, you can try to connect the Seagate Backup Plus with a USB Y cable if you have one.
  5. Access the drive on other Macs. Connect the Seagate Backup Plus drive to another Mac computer to see whether it works on that one or not. If the drive works on another Mac computer, there is something wrong with your Mac computer rather than the drive. What you should do is to ask for help from Apple support.
  6. Check if the format of Seagate hard drive is supported by macOS. For example, if the drive is a Windows BitLocker encrypted drive, your Mac computer is not able to recognize it. To fix the problem, you can plug the Seagate Backup Plus into a PC and decrypt the drive on a PC.

Solution 2: Check whether the Seagate Backup Plus is showing up in Disk Utility

Open the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. After you launch Disk Utility, if the Seagate Backup Plus is not showing up on the left pane, the drive has been physically damaged. In that case, you should send the drive to the local repair shop. Otherwise, you should move to the next solution.

Solution 3: Check if the Seagate Backup Plus drive is mounted in Disk Utility

If the Seagate Backup Plus is mounted in Disk Utility, you can leave out the problem with the device. Instead, you should blame the computer settings or outdated computer. Fortunately, it's easy to fix these issues. Just try solution 4 and solution 5. If the external hard drive is greyed out in Disk Utility, it's not mounted. You can try right-clicking the Seagate Backup Plus and choose the 'Mount' button. If that doesn't work, the drive has some file system problems. Please follow the solution 6 to repair the problem.

Solution 4: Show the Seagate Backup Plus on the desktop

If the Seagate external hard drive is mounted in Disk Utility, but it still doesn't show up or work on Mac. First of all, you should make sure the settings in Finder display drive icons on the desktop.

Step 1: Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab.

Step 2: Select 'External disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' and then our connected external hard drive will appear on the desktop.

Solution 5: Update the software on Mac

Software updates keep your computer and programs secure, deal with quite a few bugs and provide new features. The out-of-date software can cause a variety of issues. It's possible that the operating system will become sluggish and the connected device may not function properly. Fortunately, you can easily update the software on Mac.

1. Update the software on macOS Mojave. If you upgrade to macOS Mojave, you should choose 'System Preferences' from the Apple menu, then click 'Software Update' to check for updates. If any updates are available, click 'Update Now' to install them.

2. Update the software on earlier macOS versions. Just launch the Mac App Store, click the 'Update' tab on the top and then choose the 'Update All'.

Solution 6: Repair Seagate Backup Plus drive via First Aid

Seagate Backup Plus not mounting issue on Mac can be caused by file system problems. Disk Utility's First Aid is a built-in tool on Mac to deal with errors related to disks, such as file system corruption. So you can try to fix the unmountable/corrupted Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive in Disk Utility by following the steps as below.

Step 1: Go to Utilities > Disk Utility.

Step 2: Click 'View' in the top menu bar (Or click 'View' on the top window). Then select 'Show All Devices'.

Step 3: Select the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive from the left sidebar.

Step 4: Click 'First Aid' on the top of the Disk Utility window.

Step 5: Click 'Run' to perform hard disk diagnostics and fix the not mounting/not working Seagate Backup Plus.

Solution 7: Fix the not mounting or working Seagate Backup Plus drive by reformatting

If First Aid failed on the external hard drive, it might have some serious errors that are beyond its reparation capability. In that case, you need to recover data from the not working Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive as soon as possible.

1. Recover data from the unmountable/corrupted Seagate Back Plus

iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is free external hard drive data recovery software that canrecover deleted photos, recover data from formatted drives, recover data from unmountable drives, recover data from corrupted drives,recover deleted/lost partitions, etc. It's compatible withmacOS 10.14/10.13/10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

1. Download and install iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery on Mac.

2. Launch iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery.

3. Select the Seagate Backup Plus and click the 'Next' button to scan for all lost data.

4. Preview the searching results, choose files you want to get back, and click 'Recover' button.

Here is a short video tutorial which shows you how to recover data from unmountable/corrupted external hard drives:

Step 2: Reformat the Seagate Backup Plus

After recovering data from the unmounted Seagate Backup Plus, you can now go to Disk Utility and reformat it without worrying about data loss.

1. Launch Disk Utility from Utilities and click 'View' in the top menu bar. Then make sure the 'Show All Devices' is ticked.

2. Select the unmounted Seagate Backup Plus. Click Erase on the top of the window, and follow the on-screen steps to reformat it.

If unfortunately, you can't reformat the Seagate Backup Plus drive, it must have physical issues. In this case, you have to look for help from a local data recovery company.

Conclusion

No matter what caused Seagate Backup Plus not mounting, working or readable issue on Mac, such as logical problems and physical damages, the most important thing is to back up important data or recover data with free Mac data recovery software. iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery is a powerful and reliable data recovery tool on macOS which supports various external drives, including external hard drives, SD cards, USB flash drives, etc.

If you have any suggestion to solve this issue or experience some question when using iBoysoft Mac Data Recovery, please feel free to let us know.

In Apple support communities a number of Mac OS X users have reported that their Mac machine won’t show up Seagate Backup Plus drive. There are various reasons for this. This article gives you a brief idea about the reasons behind this problem along with the solutions.

Seagate backup plus not appearing on Mac…...

Why Seagate Backup Plus for Mac Not Recognized?

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Below are the causes for Mac not recognizing Seagate backup plus.

  • Problem with USB ports
  • Recent OS update issue
  • System failure
  • Virus infection
  • Motherboard issue
  • External drive damage or corruption etc.

So it is suggested to check whether the power cables are connected properly or not. If so then uninterrupted power supply may not transmit power. Try by connecting the Seagate drive to all ports of Mac machine if not working then connect it to some other system and check whether it works.

If it is working well then recover your important files, documents, audios, videos, photos from Mac external hard drive. And, try the troubleshooting techniques explained in the Part 2 section of this page.

In case, your Seagate Backup Plus drive is not detected in other systems then immediately recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive that is not detected on Mac using Remo Recover; because chances are there that you may lose data while fixing undetected Seagate backup plus drive. So, it is suggested to backup your data from Seagate backup plus drive before you start resolving the issue.

And, is this regard Remo Recover can help you. It will easily recover even your pictures from an external hard drive on Mac machines that is not showing up. This software can recover data from all Mac OS X including High Sierra, macOS Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, etc.

Part 1: Recover Data from Seagate Backup Plus Drive That Is Not Detected on Mac with Remo Recover Mac

Get the free download of Remo Recover (Mac) software on your Macintosh and install it. Next, follow the below step-by-step instructions to recover data from Seagate backup plus drive that is not recognized on Mac OS X.

Mac OS X 10.5 - Leopard
Mac OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard

Steps to recover data from unrecognized Seagate backup plus drive on Mac with Remo Recover:

1. Connect your Seagate backup plus drive to the software installed Mac, launch Remo Recover (Mac) tool and click the Recover Volumes/Drives button on the main screen.

2.Next, click on the Volumes Recovery button to recover data from Seagate backup plus drive volumes.

3. Select the connected Seagate backup plus drive, followed by all its volumes and click “Next”.

4. If you wish you can specify file types to recover from the Seagate plus drive. Else, hit the Skip button to select all file formats by default.

5. The data recovery software deep scans the selected Seagate backup plus drive and lists all recovered files.

6. Preview recovered data and Save your required files on the Mac machine’s internal hard drive (HDD).

Note: Don’t save recovered files onto the same Seagate backup plus drive from where it is retrieved.

Now, you have your data safely recovered from the Seagate backup plus drive. So, you can start fixing Seagate backup plus drive that is not detected on Mac.

Part 2: Fix Seagate Backup Plus Drive that is Not Detected On Mac

Step 1:

  • OpenDisk Utility and check if the external hard drive is faded or grayed out and uncountable?
  • If so then connect another external drive or pen drive. This drive also grayed out and not recognized then do a proper eject from Finder Windows list
  • Then restart the computer and connect the external drive again

Step 2:

  • On Mac, go to Disk Utility and choose the external drive from the left sidebar. Then click on verify disc. This will help you to find and correct the minor errors

Step 3:

  • Go to Mac’s Finder Menu and select Go to Finder
  • Then type Seagate drive path which appears under Disk Utility and checks whether it will display your drive.

Step 4:

  • Start Mac
  • Go to Settings
  • Select Finder Preferences
  • Then under the General tab select the external hard drive in Show these items on the desktop
  • Now reinsert the drive and check

How Do I Format Seagate Backup Plus For Mac

Step 5:

  • Open Mac
  • Go to Applications then toUtilities
  • Click on Disk Utilities
  • From that change the format of Seagate external drive that is compatible with your Mac OS

How To Format Seagate Backup Plus For Macbook Pro

Step 6:

Format Seagate Backup Plus For Time Machine

If any of the above methods didn’t help you to solve the problem, then install the fresh OS X and try. Or else connect Seagate drive to any Windows computer, delete the partition and connect back to Mac Pro.

I hope your issue is resolved by using the above techniques. In case, if you have tried any other technique and successfully fixed the Seagate backup plus drive that is not recognized on Mac then you can Leave a Reply and share your solution here.