I have a MyCloud Home 8TB connected to the router (Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X) on the local network. My workstation is a laptop with Windows 11 Pro, which connects via WiFi.
Problem: I need to access MyCloud Home via Windows Explorer and be able to make synced copies via SyncBack (third-party program). This worked well as long as WD provided their Discovery Desktop App, but since the app was discontinued, I haven’t found a good way to solve the problem.
Note! I have followed the instructions provided by WD on their support pages, i.e., I have opened Local Network Access to Data, created a local user, and enabled SMB.
I can log into MyCloud Home via Explorer, but I don’t see any files. I have no access to all the files I’ve uploaded over the years, even though there’s only one local user. There should be some way to assign the entire storage to the single user, but I can’t find such a setting. However, I might be making another mistake that’s causing the problem.
It appears you have successfully enabled local access so that means you know how to use the webapp (browser) to access home.mycloud.com and you should be able to check all the Private User Files you have on the MCH using just the webapp.
With the webapp, you can download all the private files from the MCH via its USB port. That is the fastest and cheapest way to back up your files and you should do that before you proceed. If there is only one user (the owner) then those are all the files you are going to see.
Once you have done the webapp backup to USB, you can proceed to ‘Clear Device Settings’ if you still cannot see your files in Windows desktop file explorer.
The Clear Device Settings (CDS) allows device owners to reset if there are issues getting to the private share or enabling local access. This is available in the My Cloud Home dashboard.
CDS can be a time consuming process if there are a lot of files and there is no need to do that if there are other ways to access the files.
Noplex, Thanks for your kind reply. Your suggestion is quite different from what I got from WD:s own support.
It would be a huge undertaking to secure all the files in order to reset the unit. I use 3,5 TB (1 200 000 files) on the MCH. I bought this drive 4 years ago just because of the ease of use and the combination with a cloud. To upload / integrate 3 TB with the WD Cloud service took me a couple of weeks 4 years ago before all files were in place.
I haven’t been able to syncronize my file archive for more than two years. Now I only use the MCH to access music and video files via my smartphone.
I don’t understand why WD stopped providing the WD Discovery. They should be decent enough to keep their commitment with supporting apps as long as the unit is in its living cycle.
No data lasts forever. The hardware warranty on the MCH is 2 years and WDC knows exactly how long the MCH would last under constant usage which is expected to be about 2.6 years for the typical WD consumer grade SMR hard drive.
It only takes 2.5 hours or so to backup 3.5 TB with USB 3.0 on the MCH. It is your data and it is up to you.
Most MCH owners have performed CDS (Clear Device Settings) without any loss of data, but a few have reported loss of secondary user data.
WD Discovery was deprecated because WDC found out their MCH series was being used as commercial type products with heavy cloud bandwidth usage that WDC could no longer bear as a free service. It was never a properly thought out business with little profitability compared to the subscription service that nearly all other cloud hosting companies have adopted.
NoPlex, thanks for your reply. For the first time I understand why WD Discovery was discontinued. It’s a fair argument by Western Digital, however I suppose there’s a workaround for those who want to misuse the solution.
Your solution is really worth trying. I will do that.
