Seagate Wireless Plus. Seagate Personal Cloud. Seagate GoFlex Satellite. Seagate Central. Please visit our app support site for articles, videos, and more at the Seagate Media Support (Developer. Seagate Wireless Plus (Gen1) Firmware 2.3 Update This Seagate Wireless Plus firmware provides improvements and fixes to the shipping version of the Seagate Wireless Plus device. Release Notes IMPORTANT: Version 2.1, which can be found here, is necessary before updating to version 2.3. This firmware is not suitable for Seagate GoFlex Satellite.

Newsflash: video files can really bloat up a hard drive. In an increasingly mobile device-oriented world, this scenario only gets worse. It's especially aggravating when your 'hard drive' is only 32GB of flash storage on an iPad (or worse, the 8GB variant of the Nexus 7 Android tablet). But if you're stuck with a low-capacity mobile device, you can add a terabyte or more to it without having to replace it entirely. All this requires is an investment of $200 in a device like the Seagate Wireless Plus.

The Wireless Plus is a portable, battery-powered hard drive with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities and 1TB of storage. It's an update to the GoFlex Satellite drive, which debuted in 2011 with a few hours of battery life and a max of 500GB of data. Devices like the iPad may have bumped up to a whopping 128GB of flash storage in recent years, but that doesn't make transferring video and music to them easier. You still have to sync them through iTunes, quite an arduous process. Android users may not have this particular problem thanks to the ease of drag-and-drop for most devices, but it’s a nuisance there too. Who wants to try keeping all of that media with only 64GB of storage? (We're factoring in 32GB of internal storage with an additional 32GB microSD card—if an expansion slot is even available). When you've got contacts, applications, downloaded documents, e-books, and photos to account for, media like music and movies can sometimes take a back seat.

So there are plenty of obvious use cases for a device like the Seagate Wireless Plus, and the company has given this line of drives a new reboot accordingly. Ars took a look at the new device's capabilities and whether or not it's something you should consider.

A hard drive and a hot spot go out on a date...

The 5 x 3.5 x 0.78-inch Wireless Plus is a tad bit bigger than its predecessor, but both weigh just a little more than half a pound. On the rear, the Wireless Plus has a SATA port that accepts different adapters for various connection types—what's referred to as the Universal Storage Module. By default, the Wireless Plus comes with a USB 3.0 adapter and detachable cable, but you can also separately purchase FireWire 800 or Thunderbolt connectors depending on your usage. As an aside, Seagate’s connection adapters are all universally usable with the company’s Backup Plus and GoFlex portable drives. So if you happen to already own those products or are thinking of investing in the Seagate portable drive family, one adapter will work for all.

The Wireless Plus also comes with a USB-connected wall adapter, though it will charge while it’s plugged into a computer. Unfortunately, there is no car adapter available for the device, which can be a bit of a drawback for parents who were looking to use this device to keep the kids distracted. Also, it can only perform one particular function at a time: it is either a portable hard drive or a streaming device—it cannot be both. You'll also need to turn the device off and on before you switch functions, otherwise it gets a little confused.

Inside the brushed steel chassis, there’s a 2.5-inch, 5,400 RPM hard drive. Windows users can simply connect the Seagate Wireless Plus to their computers and start dragging and dropping files over. Mac users will have to double-click the Mac Installer.dmg located in the Seagate folder on the drive to install NTFS driver software. Also, the drive can not be reformatted or it will not work as intended.

Stream it to me

To stream content from the Wireless Plus, users connect to the Wi-Fi network the device broadcasts, then launch the application and go through a quick set up process. The Wireless Plus will stream HD content to up to three iOS, Android, or Kindle Fire devices, though up to 8 devices can connect to it at once and retrieve less taxing content like photos and documents. The Wireless Plus can also connect to an existing Wi-Fi network and share it with the device that it’s streaming to. These options can be configured in the Seagate Media application (which we’ll discuss more thoroughly in the next section).

As long as your device is connected to the Wireless Plus, you can stream content anywhere in the house, in a car, or even on an airplane halfway around the world. Seagate says that the device can stream to DLNA-compliant devices like consoles and Samsung Smart TVs once it's connected to your home network. It can also stream to the Apple TV via Airplay, though we were unable to properly test this ourselves.

The Wireless Plus advertises that it can last up to 10 hours of continuous playback. We streamed a long playlist of music to a third-generation iPad and several back-to-back videos on a Nexus 7 simultaneously for four-and-a-half hours and the Wireless Plus burned through 66 percent of its battery life. We started it at 92 percent and when we returned it was down to 26 percent, according to the app's built-in battery indicator. While it certainly didn't peter out in the middle of testing, that means it used up about 15 percent of its power per hour, which would have only given it another hour and a half of streaming. That adds up to about six hours—four less than expected.

Playback was smooth on both iOS and Android devices; there was hardly any stuttering on video except at the beginning as it was buffering. Music also played as crisply as if it lived natively on a tablet or phone device. However, playback is limited to certain file types and it differs by platform. Windows Media Player, AVI, and MKV files were not available on either iOS or Android devices, while 3GP files were not playable on the iPad. The iOS version of the app at least encourages users to download the file to their device and find a third-party app that supports the video type, though this defeats the purpose of having an external drive to house all of that media. On Android, it will merely sprout an alert that a file is unplayable if there's no compatible app. Then it simply lets you skip to the next file.

The app

Seagate has given a major overhaul to its iOS and Android application since the initial release of the GoFlex Satellite. It looks sleeker, is much easier to use, and it features some useful settings and options. As we mentioned, the Seagate Media app also allows you to connect to an existing Wi-Fi network so that your devices aren't limited to the Wireless Plus. Annoyingly, both the iPad and Android tablet apps are limited to horizontal orientation while you're navigating through content.

All of the available files are laid out as thumbnails by default, though you can switch to list view and then categorize by data, size, type, or name. When selecting a video or music file, the app will begin playback while photos launch individually. If a song gets stuck in the background, you can hit the Now Playing button to pause, turn up the volume, or skip to the next track. For over-sharers, there is a slideshow option that works well with tablets. There’s even an option to add a background track that's stored on the Wireless Plus device and use different transitions to make the slideshow more dynamic.

On the iPad, selecting a document will ask you if you want to preview or open it in another application. On Android, you’ll simply be prompted to select an application to export it to.

Users can customize the Wireless Plus from the settings, like the name of its wireless access point. There are also options to help extend its battery life, clear its cache, and you can view how many users are connected to it at a time. There’s an option to check for firmware updates or restart the Wireless Plus unit, as well as reset it to factory defaults or view how much storage space is left on the device.

Should you buy it?

The Seagate Wireless Plus certainly offers plenty of space for your media, whether it's music, movies, photos, or other miscellaneous files you might need. It'd be great for family road trips a few hours away or solo plane rides across the Atlantic. It could even act as a portable NAS drive of sorts for traveling business folk. The Wireless Plus proves especially useful for a household with many different devices, and the drag-and-drop method is certainly easier than waiting for iTunes to sync.

You've also got a bit of choice here: the GoFlex Satellite is a few years older than the Wireless Plus and it has a shorter battery life and smaller capacity, but Amazon still offers the device at a lower price (around $160). If streaming for the kids is your main concern, you might consider this predecessor, which also feels more child-friendly because of its chassis.

Good

• Streams HD content to three devices simultaneously; eight for things like documents and photos
• 1TB capacity lets you use limited smartphone or tablet space for things other than media files
• Extremely portable, easy to stow away in your carry on
• Much easier to bring along kids' content without using your device's native storage capabilities
• Swappable adapters means the Wireless Plus can take any type of connection

Bad

• App won't play MKV or AVI files on either Android or iOS devices
• Mac users have to install NTFS driver
• Battery life is a bit shorter than advertised

Ugly

• The price tag—$200 is rather steep for a commodity product

Summary: When plugging your Seagate Backup Plus into a Mac computer, you may find the drive stops working and is not mounting in Disk Utility. Have you been troubled by the issue? This post will give you 7 workable solutions to fix Seagate Backup Plus drive not mounting/working issue on Mac.

Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive is often used for Time Machine backup. But many users reported that they were unable to mount Seagate Backup Plus drive on Mac computers. And some say their Seagate 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 to work with my MacBook Pro anymore. Any idea guys?'

In fact, this issue is very common, especially for those who frequently share the same drive between different computers. This page will help when Seagate Backup Plus drive doesn't work on Mac.

7 solutions to Seagate Backup Plus not mounting/working on Mac

For some reason, Seagate external hard drives could not be recognized by Mac. If you can't mount the Seagate Backup Plus drive in Disk Utility, the hard drive won't work on Mac. And you can't access the data stored on it. So it's very urgent to fix the problem to make it work again.

Here are solutions to the Seagate Backup Plus not working or mounting issue.

• 1. Basic checks like the USB cable, USB port, and power resource.
• 2. Check whether the Seagate Backup Plus is showing up in Disk Utility
• 3. Check if the Seagate Backup Plus drive is mounted in Disk Utility
• 4. Show the Seagate Backup Plus on the desktop
• 5. Repair Seagate Backup Plus drive via First Aid
• 6. Update the software on Mac
• 7. Fix the not mounting or working Seagate Backup Plus drive by reformatting

1. Have some basic checks

Sometimes, the Seagate Backup Plus drive won't mount 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.

• Step 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 fail to mount as it received not enough or even no power.
• Step 2. Make sure the USB cable is not at fault
  Try using a different USB cable to see if that fixes the problem.
• Step 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.
• Step 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. And for Seagate Backup Plus Hub and Expansion Desktop, a power adaptor is required for power supply.
• Step 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.
• Step 6. Check if the format of Seagate hard drive is supported by macOS
  For example, a Windows BitLocker encrypted drive will not be working on Mac originally. Your Mac computer is not able to mount it. To fix the problem, you can plug the Seagate Backup Plus into a PC and then access the drive on Windows.

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

To troubleshoot this problem, you first need to know if this Seagate hard drive is detected by your Mac. Open the Utilities folder in your Applications folder. Launch Disk Utility and check the left pane then. If you can't see the external hard drive in macOS, the drive probably has been physically damaged. In that case, you should send the drive to the local repair shop. Otherwise, you can move to the next 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 should blame the wrong 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.

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 on Mac. First of all, you should make sure the settings in Finder display drive icons on the desktop.

• 1. Go to Finder > Preferences > General tab.
• 2. Select 'External disks' under 'Show these items on the desktop' and then the connected external hard drive will appear on the desktop.

5. 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 below.

• 1. Go to Utilities Disk Utility.
• 2. Click 'View' in the top menu bar (Or click 'View' on the top window). Then select 'Show All Devices'.
• 3. Select the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive from the left sidebar.
• 4. Click 'First Aid' on the top of the Disk Utility window.
• 5. Click 'Run' to perform hard disk diagnostics and fix the not mounting/not working Seagate Backup Plus.

6. Update the software on Mac

Software updates keep your computer and programs secure, deal with quite a few bugs, and provide new features. 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.

Case 1. Update the software on macOS Mojave or Catalina. If you upgrade to macOS Mojave or macOS Catalina, 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.

Case 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'.

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 lost data from the Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive as soon as possible.

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

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is free external hard drive data recovery software. It can easily recover files when the hard drive is not working or mounting on Mac. Also, it canrecover deleted photos and lost data from formatted drives, unreadable drives, corrupted drives, and recover deleted/lost partitions, etc. It's compatible withmacOS Big Sur 11/10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12/10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

• 1. Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on Mac.
• 2. Launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
• 3. Select the Seagate Backup Plus and click the 'Scan' button to scan for all lost data.
• 4. Preview the searching results, choose files you want to get back, and click the 'Recover' button.

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

Step 2: Reformat the Seagate Backup Plus to make it work

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

• Steps to reformat Seagate Backup Plus external hard drive

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.

Bonus Part: Introduction to different Seagate Backup Plus drives

Seagate Wireless Plus Mac Installer Dmg Windows 10

You probably use a Seagate desktop drive like Backup Plus Hub and Expansion. Or you could use a Backup Plus Portable drive like Ultra Touch and Slim. No matter which Seagate Backup Plus drive you choose, it could not work on the Mac for some reason.

Therefore, it's important to know the differences between those Seagate Backup Plus drives. This helps you to use the Seagate Backup Plus drive more correctly and efficiently, and then avoid hard disk corruption.

1. Seagate Backup Plus Hub: This Seagate Backup Plus Desktop drive has large capacities with cross-platform compatibility, which means you don't have to format the drive for both Mac and Windows again. It's an all-in-one data hub and recharging station for tablet, smartphone and camera.
2. Seagate Backup Plus Ultra Touch: Backup Plus Ultra Touch portable hard drives feature password protection and hardware encryption, USB-C compatibility, and file sync. You can't open the Seagate Backup Plus drive on Mac until it's unlocked. Moreover, an NTFS for Mac software is needed to use Backup Plus Ultra Touch on Mac, as it's preformatted with NTFS.
3. Seagate Backup Plus Slim: Seagate Backup Plus is small enough for a loaded laptop bag. It's an ideal external hard drive with easy portability and enough storage space. But avoid dropping your Seagate Backup Plus drive during transportation, in case it's damaged and not working.
4. SeagateBackup Plus Portable: Backup Plus portable drives offer easy-to-use software tools like Seagate Dashboard, so that you can schedule automatic backup and mirror folders easily.

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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 lost data with free Mac data recovery software. iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac 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.

Seagate Wireless Plus Mac Installer Dmg Installer

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