My Passport for Mac Icon stays amber

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Lightpath48 Senior Member • Posts: 4,124
My Passport for Mac Icon stays amber

I bought Apple's 1 TB Passport hard drive from Best Buy on Saturday, initialized it through Time Machine (El Capitan OS), and it worked like plug & play. Since I have almost 300 GB of photos it took most of Saturday afternoon and evening to do the initial update.  For a while in the afternoon the icon on the desktop did turn green, but then went amber again and hasn't changed back in 48 hrs. The unit is presently asleep.  A number of backups do appear in its folder starting on Saturday, adding quite a few throughout the past 48 hrs. But the amber icon has me puzzled.  An Apple store tech person told me it means the last backup isn't completed yet, and it should go off. But on for days?  Doesn't seem right.  Any suggestions?  Thanks

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Corkcampbell
Corkcampbell Forum Pro • Posts: 15,221
I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital. I don't think Time Machine initializes drives - did you use Disk Utility? Or, did El Capitan add this feature to Time Machine?

I have four drives using Time Machine and the icons don't change color, although I'm not using El Capitan. I manually tell TM when to backup, which is usually when something important has been added to the computer(s). I don't have TM hard drives permanently attached to the computer, although I have in the past. Even then, I kept TM turned off until I felt the need for a backup.

I do think that TM is taking a long time to finish your backup. Since I haven't had your problem, perhaps it is El Capitan-related. Sorry I couldn't offer better help.

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Lightpath48 OP Senior Member • Posts: 4,124
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.
1

Corkcampbell wrote:

I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital. I don't think Time Machine initializes drives - did you use Disk Utility? Or, did El Capitan add this feature to Time Machine?

I have four drives using Time Machine and the icons don't change color, although I'm not using El Capitan. I manually tell TM when to backup, which is usually when something important has been added to the computer(s). I don't have TM hard drives permanently attached to the computer, although I have in the past. Even then, I kept TM turned off until I felt the need for a backup.

I do think that TM is taking a long time to finish your backup. Since I haven't had your problem, perhaps it is El Capitan-related. Sorry I couldn't offer better help.

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"Knowledge is good." Emil Faber

Yes, the drive is Western Digital, with a label "My Passport for Mac".  When I first plugged it into the USB port, I was asked whether I wanted to choose that drive for Time Machine, and I clicked Yes.  It immediately went into a backup, and has been doing them automatically, since. The backups don't take as long now, as initially.  It's just a little annoying, to always see that icon amber on my desktop.  I ran a search on the question, and other mid-2011 iMac owners in discussion boards post the same question. Maybe it's a bug? Dunno.

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Howard Moftich Veteran Member • Posts: 7,979
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

I'd plug it into another non-El Capitan Mac and check it.  Could certainly be a bug in the WD firmware.

Perhaps checking the Console log will tell you something (or one of the verify* subcommands from diskutil, or fsck, etc etc)

daveybm Regular Member • Posts: 101
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.
2

I too have had this problem, I don't know what causes it but I know how to solve it,

!st click on your yellow icon, right click get info

2nd when the get info screen appears, click on the small Time Machine icon at the top of the column

3rd use cmd and c ( copy )

4th click on yellow icon

5th use cmd and v (paste)

All then should be back to normal

Dave

YNWA

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Howard Moftich Veteran Member • Posts: 7,979
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

All you're *actually* doing is cut-n-pasting the *ICON* from the amber version to the green version.  Not really solving or understanding the issue.

noirdesir Forum Pro • Posts: 12,653
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

Howard Moftich wrote:

All you're *actually* doing is cut-n-pasting the *ICON* from the amber version to the green version. Not really solving or understanding the issue.

Since the backups appear to work fine, I think the underlying issue is the Finder not properly applying (refreshing) the volume icon. If you use the colour of the icon as a help in not accidentally ejecting the Time Machine drive, then copying the icon is a valid workaround. If you use the colour of the icon as a check whether TM is working, then it is not solving the problem. But I wouldn't recommend this, as TM might have problems despite the icon having the right colour. To see if TM is working, you either have a good enough memory that you would notice if the menubar icon hasn't changed to active for a while or you just click on it from time to time to check for the time of the last backup.

Lightpath48 OP Senior Member • Posts: 4,124
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

noirdesir wrote:

Howard Moftich wrote:

All you're *actually* doing is cut-n-pasting the *ICON* from the amber version to the green version. Not really solving or understanding the issue.

Since the backups appear to work fine, I think the underlying issue is the Finder not properly applying (refreshing) the volume icon. If you use the colour of the icon as a help in not accidentally ejecting the Time Machine drive, then copying the icon is a valid workaround. If you use the colour of the icon as a check whether TM is working, then it is not solving the problem. But I wouldn't recommend this, as TM might have problems despite the icon having the right colour. To see if TM is working, you either have a good enough memory that you would notice if the menubar icon hasn't changed to active for a while or you just click on it from time to time to check for the time of the last backup.

Backups are successfully occurring.  TM is working.  I copied the green color to the icon. Thanks, for the help.

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johnbandry Senior Member • Posts: 1,463
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.
1

daveybm wrote:

I too have had this problem, I don't know what causes it but I know how to solve it,

<snip>Dave

YNWA

A better fix is to open Finder preferences (click on desktop, cmd and ,), go to the General tab, deselect "External Disks" under "Show on desktop" and then select it again. All should then be well (at least, for a while).

It appears to be a minor bug in El Capitan.

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John Bandry

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Lightpath48 OP Senior Member • Posts: 4,124
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.
1

johnbandry wrote:

daveybm wrote:

I too have had this problem, I don't know what causes it but I know how to solve it,

<snip>Dave

YNWA

A better fix is to open Finder preferences (click on desktop, cmd and ,), go to the General tab, deselect "External Disks" under "Show on desktop" and then select it again. All should then be well (at least, for a while).

It appears to be a minor bug in El Capitan.

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John Bandry

That worked, John. Thank you.

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ArchibaldTheGrim New Member • Posts: 6
Re: I don't understand. Apple's Passport? I think you mean Western Digital.

Lightpath48 wrote:

johnbandry wrote:

daveybm wrote:

I too have had this problem, I don't know what causes it but I know how to solve it,

<snip>Dave

YNWA

A better fix is to open Finder preferences (click on desktop, cmd and ,), go to the General tab, deselect "External Disks" under "Show on desktop" and then select it again. All should then be well (at least, for a while).

It appears to be a minor bug in El Capitan.

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John Bandry

That worked, John. Thank you.

Thanks, It worked. I couldn't work out why my wife's "partition" had a green icon and I had a yellow. sleepless nights!!!  Thanks google for highlighting this thread and Thanks to you forthe correct answer.

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