Customer Ratings & Reviews

The drive itself is nice but security can be a concern in a multiuser environment. Read / Write speeds for me are only limited by the hardware it is connected to. 4K video plays instantly with no delay whether connected via USB 3.1 or 3.0. It also connects via USB 2.0 with no issues. The file transfer speeds are just slower at 2.0. The size and weight are reasonable considering it has a metal housing. My older Passport model was comparable to the size of a smartphone and could easily fit into a pocket. The new model is about twice as thick so that is no longer an option. But this new model has a much larger capacity and much faster performance. The drive comes with software that gives people the option of automatically unlocking the drive when they log into a computer. It says that it is limited to the specific user. However, once the drive is unlocked, there is no way to lock it without ejecting. If someone else logs into the machine while the drive is unlocked, they can access everything on the drive. This could be a major problem whether at home or work if multiple people log into the same computer. If only one person uses the machine, this is not an issue. And the auto unlock feature is pretty nice in that scenario. The drive would be automatically encrypted if stolen or connected to a different computer. But it works smoothly when connected to the proper machine. When it comes to ejecting, it sometimes gets finicky. My computer will insist that it is still in use which makes me wait longer or shutdown just to unplug the drive. It is not doing it as much now but it still happens from time to time even though nothing is running on the drive. For speeds, when connected via USB 3.1, it reads and writes files to my hard drive at about 120 MB/s. For USB 3.0 (on a different machine), I was able to achieve a max burst of 700 MB/s when transferring a 3.5 GB file to an SSD but also slowed down to around 120 MB/s average. It averaged around 30 MB/s when copying the same file to my mechanical drive and to another USB drive. Compared to my older model, I am happy with the enhanced performance. My only major frustration is the security issue requiring it to be unplugged in order to re-lock it.

I own several of these, but my most recent is slow to mount, frankly it doesn’t make me feel confident about my data storage.

Was recommended this external by store associate, however returned due to issues with Mac compatibility.

This is the 4th Passport I've purchased—yes, I need/use them all. The first 3 have been excellent, I love them, and rely on them. I suspect this is just a faulty item and not indicative of the new line of Passports as a whole. It repeatedly over-heated—disconnected, let it cool, used alternate Passport, plugged this one in again—and in the last week of my 6 week ownership, it completely failed. Tested it multiple ways, spent 4 + hrs on phone — on hold, talking with this person then that person answering their pointed questions, following their instructions for testing yet again. Finally got authorization to return under warranty for replacement. "I'l send an email right away with instructions." "Right away" turned out to be another 4 hours. I finally got it sent off yesterday. I trust that the replacement will hold up to the standard set by my first 3.

Still in box not used to date..........................

The disk works well, however the box describes that it has a USB-C cable with a USB-A adapter. Only the USB-C box existed in the box. There was no USB-A. I needed to buy a new cable to connect to my computer with only USB-A ports.

Seems like an excellent b product, but there was no documentation on how to set it up for use it. Online is no help.

Extremely slow. Took like 4 hours to back up my system. I'm definitely returning for something better to suit my needs.

This unit will NOT function with older machines that have older USB or Windows XP OS's

After less than a year of use, the internals failed. All our photos and videos are now locked in and we cannot retrieve them without paying someone to recover them. This is a well known problem with the drives and WD will just tell you "it has failed...get another one." Unfortunately, I didn't find out they were junk until it was too late.

Now, I understand that not everyone has the same uses for hard drives. To be able to get the speed that the USB C cable provides is awesome! I have over 1tb of games loaded on there and there is room for more Steam purchases! Load speed and power draw is very minimal while providing high performance. Of course, your experience may vary depending on how you connect it. It can be compatible with a USB 3.0 port with the included adapter. Not sure if it's backward compatible with USB 2.0 but I'm sure it is. Did not expect to see 4tb in such a small package but after all this is 2018 and WD has an awesome product.

The WD My Passport Ultra 4TB Portable Hard Drive is an excellent choice as an external hard drive. It was very quick to get setup and connected to my computer. It connects into a USB C port on the computer. For a 4TB drive, it has a low profile and a pleasing look. There is an entire suite of software options that you can download to help with space management, security, and backing items up to the hard drive. It performs without any hiccups. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a lot of external hard drive space and solid performance that a drive that will work on any computer.

So this external driver is replacing an older HP external drive - about 10 year old one - and I was told it’s USB3 which it is. But I’m using on an USB3 port on a 2 year old computer with plenty of memory and chip speed and this passport is slower than the 10 year old HP. About 35MBs. WD says the speed in which it will run and what they tell consumers is “theoretical” NOT actual. WHAT!?!

The cable to drive connection is flimsy at best. If you bump the cable even in the slightest, the drive connection is broken. Very poor connection, will not buy this USB-C version again.

I usually stay away from the super huge external hard drives due to a bad experience I had a few years ago with a competing brand. Lets just say my whole music and movie collection was lost due to drive corruption. So now, years later I thought it would be best to make a backup of all of my important files that are spread across multiple drives. 4TB is more than I can fathom filling any time soon. But, it's good to know that it's there to expand to. Now, the best part of this drive is that it is USB-C (backwards compatible as well, so don't worry). I was blown away by the speeds in which my files transferred. While I didn't run any metrics, it was like night and day compared to any external hard drives I have used in the past. The form factor is very sleek (and as those of us down south say, it sure is purty!). It is literally a little bigger than my wallet. Therefore, it will easily fit in a backpack, briefcase or purse. I feel a ton more confident in this drive in its longevity. The key is to always have a backup! And this drive is the perfect one to backup ALL your devices to!!

stop working suddenly , fatal hardware error .....

Was told it was easy to use. Still can’t get it to function right. Haven’t taken time to concentrate on it but it is not as easy as “just plug it in”.

This item was recommended to me saying that's very good but unfortunately it did not work when I plugged it in, ending up returning it and getting a different kind

This drive comes with the USB-C cable and the WD Backup application that allows for a cloud based back-up. Drive connected to my laptop with no issues, the software installation started on its own and completed. The speed feels satisfatory without any noticeable delays.

I got this drive to back up a Seagate 4 TB external HDD. I haven't had the best luck with WD externals in the past (3 others I purchased all crashed within days of purchase), but I thought I'd give this one a shot. I haven't speed tested it or anything, but for my purposes, it works really well. It transferred about 3.5 TB of content from the original Seagate USB 3.0 external HDD to the WD in about 8-12 hours (I was away from the system when it completed download, so I can't say when it completed for sure). Aside from transfer speeds, I like that the included cable comes with a USB type-B adapter. What's more, the adapter has two notches that line up to two grooves on the cable, this helps to lock the adapter into place so it doesn't fall off when you disconnect the cable from the computer. It's a small touch, but one that I appreciate a lot. Overall, great HDD!