I apologize in advance for another “it’s slow” post, but I’ve read through the others and I don’t see a clear answer for my situation.
I recently bought a WD MyCloud 4TB and find the upload speed to be much slower than expected.
I am running Firmware v04.01.03-421.
I have tried changing multiple settings:
Cloud Access / Remote Access is off
Drive sleep is off
Mac Backups / Time Machine is off
Network mode is DHCP
SSH is on
Media Streaming is off
iTunes server is off
I am uploading a directory of raw photos (about 20MB each) from a Macbook Pro running Yosemite 10.10.2 over a local wireless router. I am mounting a share onto my Mac as an smbfs file system.
For comparison, I also have a WD MyBook 2TB for which the upload speeds are fine. Both drives are hooked into the same switch with identical wiring. The switch is plugged into the router via ethernet.
For my WD MyCloud 4TB I see upload speeds in the range of 100-200 kilobytes/second
For my WD MyBook 2TB I see upload speeds in the range of 3-6 megabytes/second (rougly 3000-6000 kilobytes/second)
The speed difference between the 2 drives is overwhelming - the MyBook 2TB is 10-20x faster for uploads.
Note that the download speeds for the 2 drives are roughly identical for this test - between 2-4 megabytes/second each.
When ssh’d into the MyCloud drive during an upload I see smbd taking up a large amount of CPU - typically between 70-99%. I have seen the same comment in other related threads but haven’t seen a clear solution.
I’ve been struggling with that and many other problems, most of them exclusive to Mac computers. Although announced as compatible with OS X, reallity seems to show otherwise. My findings tend to show that the main cause for the “it’s slow” problem is the usage of the SMB protocol (Windows native), for which the My Cloud seems to be optimized. Unfortunately Mac’s don’t much like SMB, rather preferring Apple’s native protocol AFP. As a consequence, the indexing process when accessing large shares can last some minutes with a Mac, while the same share is accessed “instantly” by Windows and iOS devices.
Some tips that may help (even if they don’t they are completely harmless):
Test your connectivity. I suggest using the freeware Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to see how fast can your Mac read/write on the My Cloud. You should be getting +20MB/s when writing and +30 MB/s when reading;
Always log as a registered user, never as a guest (except for testing purposes);
Update OS X to 10.10.3;
Connect to the My Cloud using the AFP protocol (in Finder select Go/Connect to Server and define the Server Address as “AFP://[yourcloudname].local”).
If possible (even if just for testing) connect via Ethernet. If not, try changing your router to a different channel or, even better, to the 5 GHz.
Pray that WD will address this and other issues on their next firmware release.
I mentioned that I have another drive - a WD MyBook 2TB - also mounted using SMB. The upload speed for the other (older) drive is over 10x faster. To me this implies that while SMB may not be ideal, it isn’t the primary problem.
I forgot to mention a few other things I tried:
I tried AFP instead of SMB. No speed difference.
I also tried enabling SSH access and rsyncing the files to the drive directly. No speed difference.
Why would directly rsycing the files over SSH to the drive be so slow?
If I got it right, your WD MyBook is connected to the My Cloud via USB and the later to the Mac via WiFi.
Using WiFi I never managed to have a decent speed, not even in the 5 Ghz band (although, if I recall correctly, it could get to +5 MB/s).
I also have a MyBook but I never got to connect it to the My Cloud. That would be my next stage, where I was planning to use it for backing up My Cloud’s content. Unfortunately I never got to that stage due to the inumerous problems I had with the My Cloud and that ended up with the My Cloud being bricked during a remote session with the WD tech services (but that’s a long and different story).
As for your problem and even if I wouldn’t completely exclude the possibility of being a protocol issue, I would try to dwelve a bit deeper into the connectivity side of it. Unfortunately I’m just a common user with no IT expertise so I cannot even try to explain why are you having that diference in access speed between drives.
As a very looong shot (but in my case with a noticeable diference) try disabling the Bluetooth on your Mac and check for speed differences.
Incidently, unless your religion forbids you to update your OS X, try out version 10.10.3 and connect using AFP. I noticed a significant improvement when accessing the My Cloud. But then again it may have been caused by any other of the zillion attempts I did to have the MC working properly. In any case the update should be harmless and it surely is for free…
Please forgive my ignorance but I really fail to understand how do you mount the My Book via wireless. Mine only has a USB plug that you either connect directly to the computer or to the My Cloud…
But even assuming that both are connected in the exact same way there’s a significant diference between devices. One is a pure hard drive, the other is a NAS with a lot of other whistles and bells. I don’t have the knowledge to state that connectivity is surely relevant… just suggesting that you give it a check because it is something rather easy and quick to do. And I’m just insisting a bit because I thought that my gig was working at his best and when I bothered to check there was still room for improvement… even if it didn’t solve the main issue: it’s still slow!!!
I’m pretty sure the other drive I have is called a “MyBook” - either way, it is a 2 TB drive made by WD which has an ethernet port along with the USB. So it is also a NAS, and also has a lot of bells and whistles similar to the MyCloud. I don’t recall when I bought it, but it could be 5 years old.
So when I say they are connected identically, I mean identically - same type of cable, same switch, mounted in the same way to my Mac.
Either way, thanks for responding. I will likely have to return the drive as there are clearly some serious speed limitations when compared to my older model.
Ah, so you have a MyBook Live. And in that case I fully agree with you: a connectivity problem would hardly be the cause for such a speed diference between devices. Most likely a protocol issue but apparently nobody knows… not even tech support!
Sorry if I couldn’t be of any help. I which I could get some myself…
