I was looking at the WD My Cloud WDBCTL0020HWT 2TB and I’ve been trying to figure out if it supports syncing to Dropbox. Specifically, after setup, with no computer running (and for the sake of argument assume I have no Windows PCs) will it sync to DropBox? (If so, how often?) The marketing material and instruction manuals mention DropBox, but they are very vague about the details.
In short, I’m looking for a NAS drive that will sync with DropBox on its own. (If I need to have a computer running, I might as well just use DropBox.) Will this do it? If not, does WD have a NAS product that will?
On my WD My Cloud 2TB it cant sync to dropbox on its own, it needs a pc to do that which is useless to me. I upgraded from an old IOmega HMND2 and that one can do it on its own. Cant understand why this one cant do it, disappointend.
I was also looking for a similar functionality to securely back up data from my local WD My Cloud to Dropbox… just in case the WD NAS would fall down on the floor and break one day.
No. Backing up direct from the lower end WD My Cloud devices direct (without an intervening computer program or software) to Dropbox is not officially supported. If you search this site you’ll see quite a few threads where this has been discussed. If you need Dropbox support on the WD My Cloud, the more expensive units like the WD My CLoud Mirror and others do offer direct backup to Dropbox.
The workaround is to either use the built in Safepoint backup option within the WD My Cloud Dashboard to backup the My Cloud to an external USB hard drive or to some other local network location. Or map the WD My Cloud to a computer and use the Dropbox or similar software on the computer to backup to an offisite location like Dropbox or other online storage service.
I agree this was disappointing and misleading. It appears that MyCloud EX and mirror have very good support for adding apps like dropbox for syncing dropbox on the MyCloud. I wonder why they don’t make this feature available to MyCloud users.
You can, using the Smartware backup program included with the My Cloud, backup your computer to either the My Cloud OR to DropBox. So while the marketing materials may give a false impression, or people are making an incorrect assumption, the fact is one can backup to DropBox. Its just they are backing up their computer and not the My Cloud to DropBox.
As to why the ability to backup the My Cloud direct to Drop box isn’t a feature with the single drive My Cloud units, the answer could be as simple as WD wanted to create different products for different segments of the market. Adding the DropBox feature to the single drive My Cloud firmware could potentially takeaway from the sales of their higher end WD NAS products. The higher end NAS products typically have the ability to add third party modules/apps like; DropBox, Plex, Anti-Virus Essentials, Acronis: Acronis True Image, Transmission, WordPress, phpBB, Joomla, among others.
