My Book 8tb and 4tb external drives randomly wake up from sleep when not in use

If your **WD My Book 8TB and 4TB external drives** are **randomly waking up from sleep**, even when not in use, you're not alone—this is a common issue due to how external drives interact with the OS and background services.

Here’s how to troubleshoot and potentially fix it:

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### 🧠 Why This Happens

External drives can wake due to:

* **Indexing services** (Windows Search, Spotlight on macOS)

* **Antivirus scans**

* **Backup services** (Time Machine, Windows File History)

* **System telemetry/polling**

* File explorer or background apps **probing drive status**

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### 🔧 Fixes for Windows Users

#### ✅ 1. **Disable Drive Indexing**

* Right-click the external drive > **Properties**

* Uncheck **“Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed”**

* Click **OK**, then **Apply changes to drive and subfolders**

#### ✅ 2. **Adjust Power Options**

* Go to `Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings`

* Click **Change advanced power settings**

* Under **USB Settings > USB selective suspend setting**, set to **Disabled**

* Under **Hard disk > Turn off hard disk after** – set to a desired time (e.g., 10 minutes)

#### ✅ 3. **Disable Windows Search from Accessing External Drives**

* In **Services.msc**, find **Windows Search**

* Set it to **Manual** or **Disabled** *(if you don’t use search indexing)*

#### ✅ 4. **Prevent Antivirus/Defender from Scanning the Drive**

* Add your external drives to the **exclusion list**:

* For Windows Defender: `Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Manage settings > Add or remove exclusions`

#### ✅ 5. **Turn off File History**

* Go to `Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Automatically back up my files`

* Turn it **Off** if enabled

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### 🛠️ Additional Tools

You can use **Process Monitor** from Sysinternals (Microsoft) to **trace exactly what wakes the drive**:

* Download: [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon)

* Filter for access to your drive letter (e.g., D:)

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### 🍏 Fixes for macOS Users

* Open **System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy**

* Add the external drives here to **exclude from indexing**

* In **Time Machine**, make sure the drives are **not selected as backup destinations**

* Some macOS daemons (e.g., `fseventsd`) may still access external drives occasionally

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### 🚨 Important Notes

* WD’s built-in firmware sleep timers **cannot be changed** on My Book drives.

* There’s no official WD tool to configure sleep settings for these models.

* Third-party tools like **WDIdleDisable** are not recommended—they risk bricking the firmware and voiding the warranty.

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Would you like help identifying the [exact service waking the drive](f), or should I walk you through [disabling indexing and background access](f) on your OS?