External Hard Drive not recognised by Smart TV?

My Toshiba smart TV has been ok with my Seagate External 2tb portable Hard Drive for ages, playing the files as soon as plugged in.

I bought a new WD External portable hard drive (4tb), connecting ok to my laptop and I copied files across from my old HD to this new one.

However, I plugged the new HD into the USB of my TV, but nothing happened? The TV simply says there is no drive connected?

Same here. I have a small USB hard drive (100GB) that works in my Humax Freeview box. But if I go for anything larger, it's just not seen unless its powered.

It's already been mentioned but it's probably the size of the drive that's the issue and likely limited to 2 TB.

It's already been mentioned but it's probably the size of the drive that's the issue and likely limited to 2 TB.

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Yes it's 4tb and USB powered.

Is the drive formatted in NTFS, if so try formatting in FAT32 or whichever way round.

Yes it is NTFS. But if 4tb isn't it down to the TV's USB power (ie. over 2tb) and FAT format wouldn't work?

Yes it is NTFS. But if 4tb isn't it down to the TV's USB power (ie. over 2tb) and FAT format wouldn't work?

Not sure but I had a cheapo smart tv for one of the kids bedrooms and it only ever saw memory sticks and drives that were formatted in fAT32, I'm no expert so dont really know much about it all.

Yes it is NTFS. But if 4tb isn't it down to the TV's USB power (ie. over 2tb) and FAT format wouldn't work?

If it supports FAT32 then it should support 4TB

The alternative is to split into 2x 2TB partitions, HOWEVER, you may only be able to see the FIRST partition on the TV, but should be able to use the rest when plugged into a computer..

I think the OP has already had this question answered fully elsewhere:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/390208-WD-External-portable-hard-drive-not-recognised-by-Smart-TV