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Western Digital's My Cloud Home is Easy to Use, But Apps Need Improvement

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Western Digital's My Cloud Home is a network-attached personal cloud storage solution, designed to combine the convenience of cloud storage with the privacy and security of local storage.

It's available in capacities ranging from 2TB to 16TB, to meet the needs of both families and small businesses, and with apps for the Mac, PC, iOS devices, and a cloud website, content can be accessed from anywhere.

On the surface, the My Cloud Home sounds great, but there are some definite problems with the device, mostly concerning the apps that are used to access and upload your content.

Design and Features

Western Digital's My Cloud Home has a simple white and silver design with a diamond-shaped pattern at the bottom of the device and a small Western Digital logo at the front. At the back, there's a USB 3.0 port for attaching peripheral devices or attaching the My Cloud Home to a computer over USB, a spot for the power source to plug in, and a Gigabit Ethernet port. A white LED on the front lets you know when the My Cloud Home is powered on, and it will also blink if there is an issue.

mycloudhomedesign-800x600.jpg

The body of the My Cloud Home measures in at 7 inches tall, 5.5 inches wide, and 2 inches thick, similar in size to other network-attached storage solutions. The My Cloud Home Duo, which has double the hard drives for mirrored backup functionality, is twice as thick, but I tested the single hard drive version.

mycloudhomeside-800x601.jpg

The My Cloud Home is meant to be plugged in next to a router and tucked away on a shelf, and its unassuming design works well for that purpose. Mine's hidden behind a TV on my entertainment unit because that's where my router is, so it's not visible, but I wouldn't mind if it were.


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Article Link: Western Digital's My Cloud Home is Easy to Use, But Apps Need Improvement
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/review/western-digital-my-cloud-home/
MacRumors said:

The performance of the My Cloud Home is going to depend on your own home connection speeds. If you have slow internet, it's going to take a long time to transfer files over WiFi. Even with fast internet, it can be pretty tedious waiting for an iCloud photo backup, a Time Machine backup to complete, or a large file transfer to complete. I have reasonably fast internet (100Mb/s down, 6Mb/s up) and file transfers both ways took more time than I would have expected.

Because the My Cloud Home is basically just an internet-connected storage solution, the apps and the web access are the most important aspects of the product.
Click to expand...


Something is not right here, you should say ethernet or home network instead of internet, you only use the internet if you acces your files from outside of your home network.
 
justperry said:
Something is not right here, you should say ethernet or home network instead of internet, you only use the internet if you acces your files from outside of your home network.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I changed the wording here to clear up any confusion.
 
Are your time machine backups not encrypted?

For little more just get a real NAS for better options for usablilty and real users and access control.

There is QNAP and synology to name a couple. I prefer synology’s OS.

I’ve wondered about MyCloud setup but seems kinda plain reading this.
 
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I'd rather choose the HDD/SSDs I want in my server and have much better tools and apps. That's why I have 3 Synology servers...awesome interface, easy to backup between computer and NAS (and even NAS to NAS), and great iOS apps to access the servers/router/files remotely.
 
cerote said:
Are your time machine backups not encrypted?

For little more just get a real NAS for better options for usablilty and real users and access control.

There is QNAP and synology to name a couple. I prefer synology’s OS.

I’ve wondered about MyCloud setup but seems kinda plain reading this.
Click to expand...

Time Machine backups are accessible to any computer on the network. And yeah, compared to something like QNAP and Synology, this is bare bones. The benefit to the My Cloud Home is that it's a lot simpler to use so it appeals to people who might not even know other options exist, or that might not want to spend the time to learn how to use them.
 
jclo said:
Time Machine backups are accessible to any computer on the network.
Click to expand...

I think what @cerote is getting at is you should be able to check this box when selected the backup destination to encrypt the Time Machine backup. On a networked drive like that it should create an encrypted sparse bundle image on the network drive, then the backups are stored inside that encrypted image. Unless others on your network have the password to the encrypted image, they would not be able to open the image and see your backups.

Does this not work on the WD setup?


Screen_Shot_2017-10-13_at_11_29_57_AM.png
 
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Good review, thanks! It’s very timely for me as I was considering this as an option next month. So now I can safely scratch it off my list. :)
 
cerote said:
Are your time machine backups not encrypted?

For little more just get a real NAS for better options for usablilty and real users and access control.

There is QNAP and synology to name a couple. I prefer synology’s OS.

I’ve wondered about MyCloud setup but seems kinda plain reading this.
Click to expand...
yep Synology do a great home NAS...fully recommend too.
 
Weaselboy said:
I think what @cerote is getting at is you should be able to check this box when selected the backup destination to encrypt the Time Machine backup. On a networked drive like that it should create an encrypted sparse bundle image on the network drive, then the backups are stored inside that encrypted image. Unless others on your network have the password to the encrypted image, they would not be able to open the image and see your backups.

Does this not work on the WD setup?


View attachment 725242
Click to expand...

You are correct, you cannot 'check that box' and encrypt your Time Machine backups on WD MyCloud Home.

Another thing that bugs me about WD MyCloud is that Time Machine backups will run, then suddenly fail with an 'In Use' error message. Sometimes it recovers. If not, the only way I found to resolve the problem is to reboot the WD MyCloud. The author is correct, the Time Machine backups are ssllloooowwww.

Oddly enough, the WD MyCloud works flawlessly (and MUCH faster) with the Windows PC on my home network (except Windows 10 Home, which, by design, doesn't like NAS).

My replacement NAS will be from a different manufacturer.
 
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I would steer clear of this device for Mac use. As noted, it is really slow with TM backups. And most times, the backup ends up being corrupt. Also, it isn't easy to delete the sparse bundle on the WD device.

In regards to the software, it is not updated in a timely manner. As such, most of the Mac updates seem to mess up the WD My Cloud ability. After fighting with the device for about 8 months, I finally had enough and got rid of it.
 
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woofwoof said:
You are correct, you cannot 'check that box' and encrypt your Time Machine backups on WD MyCloud Home.

Another thing that bugs me about WD MyCloud is that Time Machine backups will run, then suddenly fail with an 'In Use' error message. Sometimes it recovers. If not, the only way I found to resolve the problem is to reboot the WD MyCloud. The author is correct, the Time Machine backups are ssllloooowwww.

Oddly enough, the WD MyCloud works flawlessly (and MUCH faster) with the Windows PC on my home network (except Windows 10 Home, which, by design, doesn't like NAS).

My replacement NAS will be from a different manufacturer.
Click to expand...

I suggest synology. Their OS and tons of info on things out there on setting it up to do many things is great. They are on top of security patches. My 716+II is amazing. Only regret I have is I should have went a model up for my needs because when researching it I had no idea how much more I could do with it.

(I also have their router)
 
I would not want to have my cloud storage sitting on my shelf, and when my house burns down, I lose my "cloud" storage.
 
Been thinking of getting NAS for a while now, and came to a conclusion that WD's home cloud solutions are poorly designed. The top choice for home is Synology (at least dual bay), followed by QNAP. Aside from that you have the choice of building your own box, but that requires more know-how, and might not be the best choice for those looking to save on electricity bills.
 
There is no integration with the new Files app in iOS 11, there's no support for Drag and Drop on iPad, nor is there a proper iPad app, and there's no way to upload a file that's not a photo from an iOS device.
Click to expand...

Pretty weak, given that most of this was introduced with iOS 8's document providers. Has WD been asked if any of that is planned?
 
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I just want this one qs answered: DOES IT MOVE PHOTOS/VIDEOS from the iOS app RATHER THAN JUST COPY when backing up, is there an OPTION TO MOVE.

I've been using Image Capture for years because I hate how iTunes bundles everything up in Photos as a single container. (Leaving the raw files inaccessible to other operating systems).

God dammit buying a NAS is so dam hard, I've put this off for like 4 years now, and my single 2TB external drive seems to have partially failed me. The folders still appear on Windows, and on Mac they appear and then lockup Finder and Windows Explorer. The Folders are empty, but if I use terminal I can still copy images off it before it locks up after 2 min. :(
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definitive said:
Been thinking of getting NAS for a while now, and came to a conclusion that WD's home cloud solutions are poorly designed. The top choice for home is Synology (at least dual bay), followed by QNAP. Aside from that you have the choice of building your own box, but that requires more know-how, and might not be the best choice for those looking to save on electricity bills.
Click to expand...


Which Synology model? Why does Synology and QNAP have like 10 000 mobile apps to seemingly do they same thing though? :/

I just watched this too:

 
Could anyone provide an update on this product now (mid 2019?)
This review was completed nearly 2yrs ago, and I am now looking to purchase.
Has the iOS app improved? Are you able to view RAW photos on iPhone/iPad?
Are photos now in seperate folders, or are they all still lumped together?\

TIA
 
BEWARE! The "My Cloud Home" is no longer a budget NAS as the original "My Cloud" functionality has been reduced.

I bought a WD My Cloud Home to upgrade my existing WD My Cloud. However, the Home is missing functionality the original had.

Retailers and tech review sites list both the MyCloud and MyCloudHome as NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices, however, the MyCloudHome's reduced functionality mean it should probably no longer be called a NAS.

In my case, the MyCloudHome is no longer suitable for backing up our PCs and Macs. This is because, while WD have kept the rear USB port, they have removed network access to external drives plugged into it. Without external drive support, backups and restores are impractically slow as they can only be run over a LAN (i.e. WiFi or ethernet), and the device is very slow at this. Also, slow backups increase the chances of corrupting Mac backup archives when using Apple's Time Machine. This is due to Time Machine not liking being interrupted.

Apparently, other features have been removed and existing customers are not impressed either;
- https://community.wd.com/t/petition-to-change-the-firmware-to-the-classic-wd-my-cloud/225791
- https://community.wd.com/t/lets-write-wds-mycloud-home-product-function/219142

I feel Western Digital has been quite deceptive as they claim the WD MyCloudHome is "New and improved" compared the the MyCloud and fail to mention what functionality has been removed. See WD's comparison here;
- https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7758

If you are considering buying a WD MyCloudHome, make sure it can do what you expect. Be VERY careful if you are looking for a budget NAS. I am returning mine.
 
Do not bother with this device. Really! Don't! It does not do what you think it does.

My Book Live was brilliant. Simple. Connect direct to your network and accessed directly by your wi-fi enabled devices. Then, accessed via the web when you were away from home. Soi simple; so useful.

This brick needs web access to function within the home. You can't connect direct from your device.

Want to copy from your hard drive to the MyCloud Home sitting right next to your computer? You have to sent it through your wifi, up to the Western Digital Server and all the way back to your storage device. So performance relies on your IDSP.

Want to back up your other external drive. Sent a TB of data all the way up to the server at you IDSPs upload speed (typically 10% of your download speed) and then all the way back from the server to your device. In my case at 100Mps Downlaod and 18MPs upload speeds that is a total of eighteen hours. It would take minutes over USB 3 and maybe about an hour of ethernet.

Then of course there is the mac's wonderful Spotlight beach facility. Forget it. You can't search your MyCloud Home like that. In fact, I haven't found any way to search MyCloud Home.

You may as well buy a lifetime subscription to a decent server based cloud storage.
 
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