Summary: Tutorial to make Mac recognize Seagate Backup Plus drive when it's not showing up on Mac. You'll know how to fix when Mac doesn't detect Seagate Backup Plus drive. If necessary, you can also recover data from the unrecognized Seagate Backup Plus drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

Seagate® Media Sync for Mac. Copy and synchronize your media files with your external drive. Seagate® Media Sync for Windows. Copy and synchronize your media files with your external drive. Current Dashboard users can effortlessly back up content as well as share and save media on social networks with legacy backup software.

Seagate Backup Plus drives are great external hard drives for Mac and PC. And there are many options like Ultra Touch, Slim, and Portable. However, many users report that the Seagate Backup Plus for Mac is recognized, or the external hard drive is not showing up on Mac at all.

Here is an example:

I use a Seagate 2TB Backup Plus Portable HD as my Time Machine backups drive and it had been working fine. Since I upgrade to Yosemite (maybe coincidental?) the HD is no longer recognized by my MacBook Pro. I can see the light on HD so I am sure it is getting power. I searched for all day but no Seagate firmware update available (attempt to update shows it to be current) and no other help available from Seagate 'support.' Can anybody help me cuz I'm really in need of the files on this drive？

- Post from Apple Communities

In this case, you can't see files on the external hard drive or access them at all. So, it's important to know why and how to fix when Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up on Mac.

Why Seagate Backup Plus drive not showing up on Mac?

Actually, it's a common issue that the Seagate Backup Plus drive is not recognized or detected. And sometimes the external hard drive even greyed out in Disk Utility. The reason for this issue is various. And here are some possible causes for this problem.

The causes for Seagate Backup Plus drive not detected issue could be:

• A recent macOS update or software update, which could cause many types of incompatibility.
• The hard drive is encrypted or password-protected, especially for Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch hard drive.
• Faulty connections such as the wobbly USB port and broken USB cable.
• Power supply failure, especially when MacBook is in low power mode and external hard drives requires extra power resource.
• The outdated disk driver that appears if you haven’t updated your software and hardware for a long time.
• Virus infection that comes from recently downloaded files, applications, patch, etc.
• External drive hardware errors like bad sectors.
• Other unknown reasons.

Then how can you fix the problem that Seagate Backup Plus Drive is not recognized/showing up on Mac?

First of all: Have some basic checks

Once your Seagate Backup Plus drive is not recognized on your Mac computer, you can try some routine checks first.

1. Re-plug the Seagate Backup Plus drive and verify if the drive light is on. Desktop Drives typically require a power adapter.
2. Try a different USB port or cable to see whether the USB port or cable is bad.
3. Connect Seagate Backup Plus drive to another Mac or PC and see if it is compatible with it.

All checks seem to be OK? Then you can fix this issue with the following solutions one by one.

Show Seagate Backup Plus drive in Finder and on Mac desktop

For many Mac users, when they say Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up, they mean their drives can't show up in Finder or on Mac desktop. In this case, you can try to show your Seagate Backup Plus drive through resetting Finder Preferences.

Step 1: Go to Finder >Preferences > Sidebar.

Step 2: Tick 'External disks' in Sidebar tab to show external hard drives in Finder.

Step 3: Shift to the General tab.

Step 4: Check 'External disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' and you’re your connected Seagate Backup Plus drive will appear on Mac desktop.

Check if Seagate Backup Plus drive is showing up in Disk Utility

After setting 'External disk' to show up in the Finder or on desktop, your Seagate Backup Plus drive is still not showing up on Mac? You need to check if the Seagate Backup Plus drive is showing up in Disk Utility.

Scenario 1: Seagate Backup Plus drive shows up in Disk Utility

If Seagate Backup Plus drive is listed in Disk Utility, then you can have a relief because it means your drive has no serious hardware problem. And you can follow the below solutions to fix the unrecognizable Seagate Backup Plus drive.

a. Mount Seagate Backup Plus drive

Sometimes, external hard drives cannot be automatically mounted on Mac. But you still have a way to mount Seagate Backup Plus drive manually in Disk Utility:

Step 1: Open Disk Utility.

Step 2: Right-click the Seagate Backup Plus drive from the left sidebar and then click the Mount button.

b. Repair Seagate Backup Plus drive via First Aid

If the above method doesn't work, it might refer to some file system errors on the Seagate Backup Plus drive. You should check and verify Seagate Backup Plus drive by First Aid.

Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.

Step 2: Choose the grayed-out Seagate Backup Plus drive.

Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.

Tips: You can also download Seagate's software like Seagate Dashboard to diagnose and repair disk drive errors.

c. Reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive

If First Aid fails to correct errors on Seagate Backup Plus drive, the last choice is to reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive. But reformatting will erase all data stored on Seagate Backup Plus drive. If data stored on the external hard drive are important for you and you don't have any backup, you'd better recover lost data from the unrecognized Seagate Backup Plus drive at first with Mac data recovery software, like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

Step 1: Recover lost data from Seagate Backup Plus drive

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is a free Mac data recovery software that can recover data from Seagate Backup Plus drive efficiently, whether the drive is unrecognized, formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, unmountable, or unreadable. It also can recover deleted files from emptied Mac trash. This data recovery tool works with macOS 10.15/10.14 /10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

Seagate Mac To Windows

Tutorial to recover lost data from Seagate Backup Plus drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

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

2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.

3. Select the drive you want to recover lost data from and click 'Scan' button to scan for all lost data.

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

Step 2: Reformat Seagate Backup Plus drive

1. Launch Disk Utility.

2. Select the Seagate Backup Plus drive on the left part of the window.

3. Click the Erase on the top of the Disk Utility window.

4. Complete the related information (name, format, scheme), then click Erase.

Scenario 2: Seagate Backup Plus drive not showing up in Disk Utility

If Seagate Backup Plus drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, unfortunately, your Seagate Backup Plus drive may have some physical problems. In this case, you'd better send the drive to a local data recovery service and see if they could help. What's more, you can contact Seagate Backup Plus support team for disk repair and replacement service.

Bonus part: ways to use Seagate Backup Plus drives on Mac

Seagate Backup Plus drives are available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 5TB. And usually, the Seagate Backup Plus drive is formatted with either exFAT, FAT32 or NTFS. That’s to say, you can use Seagate Backup Plus drive for different aims. For example, you can use Seagate Backup Plus drive for Time Machine Backup, or you can simply use it to free up space for Mac internal hard drive.

How to use Seagate Backup Plus drive to back up files on Mac?

Different from Windows computer, you can download Seagate software like Toolkit to back up and sync files directly. On Mac computer, you can follow these steps to back up files like photos, documents, and videos on Mac.

Step 1: Plug in your Seagate Backup Plus (It could be Ultra Touch, Slim, and Portable) to your system.

Step 2: Choose Yes when Mac asks you 'Do you want to use your Backup Plus as a destination for Time Machine'.

Or you can manually open Time Machine from your Menu Bar (or from System Preferences), choose Select Backup Disk, and then select Seagate Backup Plus Drive for Backup.

Tips: If you newly bought a Seagate Backup Plus drive for your Mac which is NTFS (Read-only on Mac) formatted, you need to reformat it as HFS+ or exFAT before you use it on Mac. Or you can download an NTFS for Mac software, then you can use the NTFS external hard drive both on a Mac and PC.

Summary :

Are you looking for Seagate backup software to back up your important files for data protection? This post will walk you through 3 backup tools – Seagate Dashboard, Seagate Toolkit, and a third-party backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker. Read this post to learn some details.

Data loss is a fairly common phenomenon, which might be caused by some reasons including hard drive failure, power outage, system crash, virus, mistaken operation, etc. To avoid data loss, you might choose to create a backup for your important files.

If you are using a Seagate hard drive, a Seagate backup software is required for file backup. Well then, which one should be used for you to back up your disk data? You come to the right place; some useful tools will be listed in this post.

Seagate Backup Plus Software: Seagate Dashboard

When you search for “Seagate backup software” in Google, you will find one search result – Seagate Dashboard. This backup program is preloaded on every Seagate Backup Plus drive.

With Seagate Dashboard, you can easily back up PC data and restore your data. In earlier versions, it also enables you to back up mobile content to your storage device and the cloud, save and share your social media. The following figure shows you these features:

How to Use Seagate Dashboard to Back up Your PC Files

This Seagate backup software is compatible with Windows and Mac. To use it, you need to connect your Seagate Backup Plus to your computer, and find this program on the disk. Then, click the file (.exe for PC, .dmg for Mac) to install Seagate Dashboard.

After running this Seagate Backup Plus software in your PC, you will find it offers you the Protect option (only for Windows). When you open it at the first time or you haven’t created a backup of data, two options will be given: Protect Now and New Backup Plan.

Once you click the first option, this Seagate backup software will automatically begin backing up all of you non-system files at once and continuously save changes whenever you make them.

The second option allows you to schedule your own custom backup, for example, set up a continuous backup, regular scheduled backups (monthly, weekly, daily or hourly) or take a one-time snapshot of all your files and folders.

All in all, if you have a need to back up all your data to your Seagate Backup Plus drive, please click Protect Now. Depending on the amount of data that required backing up, this could take quite a while. To automatically back up specific sets of files or folders, take full advantage of the second option.

Seagate Dashboard Not Working

Seagate Dashboard is useful to back up your PC files, however, some users are complaining this free Seagate software is not working. Here is a list of errors or messages that you might encounter:

1. Unknown Error
2. Missing ATL100.dll or Dbghelp.dll.
3. Initial Job Pending
4. Dashboard freezes after starting your first backup.
5. Backup appears to hang at a certain percentage
6. Connect a Seagate Dashboard enhanced to activate features.
7. Error 1920. Service Seagate Dashboard/Mobile Backup Service failed to start.

If you are also bothered by the issue of Seagate Dashboard not working, you can go to this its official website to get solutions. But troubleshooting is troublesome, so you can choose another backup tool, MiniTool ShadowMaker, to back up your files on a regular basis. We will show it below.

Seagate Toolkit

In addition, Seagate has another own backup software and it is Toolkit. It is designed to back up your files, keep your data synced and manage security for Seagate & LaCie self-encrypting drives. Similarly, it can be used on PCs and Macs provided that computer meets the requirements:

1. Windows® 7 Service Pack 1 or higher; 1 GB RAM
2. macOS® 10.10 or higher; the Sync Plus activity requires macOS® 10.11 or higher

To use Seagate Toolkit, you need to open your Seagate Backup Plus drive, download and install this Seagate backup plus software. Then, you can use it to automatically back up non-system files and folders including personal files, documents, music, pictures, video, etc. For more information about this backup software, you can read the official introduce on Seagate Toolkit.

Conclusion: Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit

After learning so much information on these two pieces of backup software from Seagate, you can clearly know both of them can only be used to back up non-system files (don’t support Windows operating system backup).

Besides, the operations are not easy-to-use enough; even many backup issues appear (especially Seagate Dashboard). Moreover, you can only use them to back up your data to a Seagate Backup Plus drive.

What if you want to back up Windows or disk data to a hard drive, not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive? In the following section, you can know the solution: use MiniTool ShadowMaker, a third-party backup software for PC backup.

Seagate Backup Software: MiniTool ShadowMaker

As a free backup software designed by MiniTool, it is worth recommending. It can be a powerful alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit since it offers you more and flexible backup choices to back up your Seagate external hard drive, including:

1. Back up files automatically based on your needs via 2 methods – create an image for files and sync files.
2. Back up the entire disk and selected partition for backup.
3. Clone your disk to another one.
4. Back up your PC to an external hard drive, USB drive, NAS, etc. and back up hard drives from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, ADATA, Samsung and more.
5. Back up Windows operating system including Windows 10/8/7/, etc. so that you can restore your computer to an earlier date in case of system breakdown.

Simply put, MiniTool ShadowMaker can be the best Seagate backup software. With these powerful features, you can back up and restore your PC in a breeze. So, take this program for a try by clicking the download button below.

How to Back up Files Automatically

As mentioned above, Seagate Toolkit and Seagate Dashboard support automatic file backup. Additionally, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to achieve your aim. So, how can you back up files automatically? Here is the guide.

Step 1: Decide a Backup Mode

Seagate Hard Drive Software For Pc

1. Open MiniTool ShadowMaker.
2. Keep using the trial edition.
3. Click the Connect button to continue. To create a remote backup, an IP is required.

Step 2: Choose Backup Source

1. Under the Backup page, click Source to choose the backup type - Folder and Files.
2. Then, choose the files you want to back up. After that, click OK.

Step 3: Choose a Destination to Store the Backup File

1. MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to back up your PC to an external hard drive (not limited to Seagate Backup Plus drive), USB flash drive, NAS and more.
2. Choose one based on your needs.

Step 4: Configure Automatic File Backup Setting

1. To back up files automatically, click Schedule in the Backup
2. After turning this feature on, specify a time point so that this Seagate backup software can back up your important files regularly.

Step 5: Run Backup

1. Go back to the following interface.
2. Click Back up Now to start the backup at once.

How to Back up Windows 10/8/7

In addition to file backup, you may want to back up your Windows operating system since system might crash commonly because of virus, mistaken operation, disk failure, power outage, etc. To ensure the PC can run as usual, a system image is useful to revert your system to a previous state.

But as mentioned above, the built-in Seagate backup software doesn’t support system backup. Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a supplement.

Step 1: Run this free backup software to start a local backup.

Step 2: By default, MiniTool ShadowMaker backs up system required partitions. Here, you won’t need to choose the backup source. Then, decide a destination to save the system image.

Step 3: After that, begin a system backup immediately by hitting Back up Now.

How to Back up Hard Drive via Disk Cloning

Other than the above features, MiniTool ShadowMaker gives you a powerful feature to back up your entire hard drive – Clone Disk. This can help you to transfer all the content of the source disk to another hard drive for disk backup.

Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Enter the Tools page, click Clone Disk to go on disk cloning.

Step 3: Select the disk you need to clone and decide the disk you want to clone to.

Step 4: Then, this Seagate hard drive backup software will start performing the cloning operation. Depending on the amount of the source disk, this will take a while. For backup, you need to shut down the PC and remove the target disk after completing cloning.

Which One Should Be Used for PC Backup

Now, three pieces of Seagate backup software are introduced in this post. Well then, which one should be used for PC backup?

Seagate Dashboard and Toolkit are designed to back up your important files to Seagate Backup Plus drive. If you prepare another hard disk from other brands, these two tools don’t support. Besides, both of them require you to register before backup. In short, the built-in Seagate backup plus software is not flexible and powerful.

By contrast, MiniTool ShadowMaker not only backs up files automatically but also backs up Windows OS, partition and disk. Incremental & differential backup are supported, meanwhile, disk space management can be enabled. Above all, multiple backup methods are offered – image, sync, and clone.

In a nutshell, it is an excellent alternative and supplement to Seagate Dashboard and Seagate Toolkit. To protect your PC well, we strongly recommend using the third-party Seagate backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker. Also, you can share it with your friends on Twitter.

Bottom Line

Now, we have shown you three pieces of Seagate backup software to back up your hard drive, just choose one to start a backup for PC protection. Should you have any question, please inform us by leaving a comment or sending an email to [email protected]. Of course, any suggestion is also appreciated.

Seagate Backup Software FAQ

1. To update the driver of your Seagate external hard drive, go to Device Manager.
2. Right-click the disk from Disk drives to choose Properties.
3. Under the Driver tab, click Update Driver.
4. Browse your computer for the downloaded driver software and complete the driver update by following the on-screen wizards.