Terrified to update firmware

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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So the last time I did a firmware update was v03.04.01-219.

Updates done previous to this were always fraught with headaches, heartaches, and terror. Things not working, not connecting, hours upon hours of trying this, trying that.  Just a giant pain in the you-know-what.

So I have deliberately NOT updated my firmware (if it aint broke why fix it.) But now I see there’s some potential to be  susceptible to the BASH/ Shellshock vulnerability.  I honestly have no clue what that is, but it sounds bad. 

I see that the new firmware apparently fixes this.  Yet I see a LOT of people complaining about problems when updating to the new firmware. Some even bricking their units. (This strikes absolute terror into me.)

When should I update the firmware?

Why are there always so many issues with updating firmware for these WD products? Shouldn’t you have the issues worked out before you release it to the gen pop?

Anyone who wants to write in on this is welcome.  I’m just trying to get a feel for whether I should update, and if so - when, and what I should expect. 

I used to be an early adopter of everything. Now experience has taught me to let the pioneers take the arrows.

Thanks

Mel

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If you don’t have an external USB drive connected it should be OK I had no problems with it.  Updated mine from the WD Dashboard fron a windows 8.1 PC.

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I too was fearful but I updated without any issues.

  1. unmount any connected USB drive/stick

  2. turn off DLNA and iTunes functions

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I would also say, download the file separtely via your browser onto your computer. Then update the firmware from the file. I’ve had bad outcomes letting the MyCloud update driectly from the internet, including a totally dead drive that had to be returned. Updating manually gives you total control over the process and tends to run smoothly.

Also, do it in advance of a period where you don’t expect to use the drive for a long while. In my experience, and that of many on this forum, the drive will be almost unusable for days after the upgrade while it does whatever it does with you data. After that it gets progressively better.

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As @ Daveyk15 told before if you are not using an external disk you can update without fear. I’m using external disks so i had to roll back to version 3 to have a stable system

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The thing to fear is  losing your data.

So copy your files to another disk, if they are that important to you.

You need to be doing that anyway.

BUY another disk if you need to.

I sleep WELL at night knowing my stuff is backed up.

I use back up power supplies, unplug everything in a lightning storm, and pay my electric bill on time.

I have had no problem with doing the updates to my WD.

If I did, I woould have no problem wiping the disc and starting over if that what it took.

Do not fear things you have full control over.

There are plenty of things to fear that you do not.

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I am actually using an attached drive as its nightly backup. So, are you saying that as long as it has an attached drive I shouldn’t (or can’t) update? I think that’s what you’re saying.

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I’m all about redundancy.  But I’m also lazy.  And I don’t need minor heart attacks that bricking a drive tend to bring. It’s really the time involved.  Having two sets of data makes me comfortable. Having one (assuming the update bricks the main drive) makes me nervous as heck.  I have backups for all the data on the mycloud, and for some of the data I actually have multiple backups (including one on a RAID, so that’s technically two already.)

ANyway, long story short, what I gathered from above was that if you have an attached drive to the mycloud, then you shouldn’t update.  That’s how I backup - a MyBook attached to the MyCloud.  So I guess I’m holding off.