A few newbie questions

My Cloud OS 5 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

Hey guys, I’ve set up my PR4100, and all is well so far. There’s just a couple of bugbears I’m wondering can I sort out.

QUESTION 1:

My setup, on my cloud app is as follows:

MyCloudPR4100

Alkemy007
Julie
Public
TimeMachineBackup

Inside my alkemy007 folder is:

Music
Video
Pics
Documents

I have a lot of music backed up. My issue is, the album artwork, and any pictures from mine, or my partners pic folders, appear in the Photos tab in the app. Is there a way to stop that? I was hoping to use that photos tab, strictly for my phone photos, as a backup. I’d also like to not have my partners photos show up on my app (hoping that excluding me from viewing them will sort that).

Question 2:

Certain mp3 files, when I click them, they play fine, and allow me to scroll to any point in the track by just tapping to various points in the track (on the screen), but, some tracks won’t allow me to do that, all I can do is go to the next, or previous track. Any idea why?

Question 3:

Some files, wether it be pictures, documents, or mp3 files, allow me to “Save to mobile device”, some don’t. Can that be changed?

Question 4:

Not a huge deal at all, but, is there a way to hide the “Public”, and “TimeMachineBackup” from displaying? I’m kinda OCD with things, and it’s bugging me that they show up, when they aren’t being used.

I have tried to search for the answers of the above questions, and forgive me if they are real entry level questions.

Thanks for any help. Cheers.

2

@anon90772309

Here’s why getting help under My Cloud may be hard to come by.

Your device,
image

The WD My Cloud single bay.
WDMyCloudImage

There is a Mirror also.

I will provide this for OS5, hope it helps. People who own PR4100 are the ones to ask.
Online User Guide and Solutions for My Cloud OS 5 (wd.com)

Latest My Cloud OS 5 Personal & Network Attached Storage/My Cloud Pro Series topics - WD Community

3

You may want to move your post (or start a new one) in the correct subforum for your device. This subforum generally discusses a different My Cloud device, the single bay/single drive My Cloud. See the following subforum for the PR (Pro) series where users more familiar with that device may be able to assist.

OS5 My Cloud Pro Series
https://community.wd.com/c/os5/my-cloud-pro-series/256

4

This is the second wrong place I’ve posted this. Apologies guys. If there’s a way to delete the last two threads I’ve posted, feel free to do that. Sorry.

5

I know - - - - it gets confusing- - - -because the PR4100 and EX2 Ultras were marketed as “MyCloud” devices.

The funny part is that these are OS/5 software questions. . . .and for 90% of stuff; OS/5 acts the same on a MyCloud single bay drive as it does on the PR4100.

I don’t have all the answers; but maybe I can provide clues;

Nope.
The software scans complete shares indiscriminantly. If you have cloud services enabled for a share - - → You get all the sharing. You can’t select (or deselect) at the directory level for sharing.

If you have stuff you don’t want indexed or otherwise mushed together. . . .you have to put that stuff into a different share.

(The concept that someone would want to index photos from directory “X” but not directory “Y”; seems to have escaped the developers grasp of what would be useful)

Are you saying some MP3 can be saved, but others can’t? Or are you saying MP3’s can be saved but FLACs can’t? If the latter. . . I do believe OS/5 capabilities is limited to certain file extensions.

6

My bad, it looks like no mp3’s at all can be saved to my device, only pictures. It was album art I was clicking inside my music folder that was showing a save to device option. I didn’t notice, as I didn’t think album art would be in there, as I don’t save album art files as such in my album folders, they are tagged to each mp3, so now, on my app, inside every folder is an album art jpg, and a folder art jpg. What a nightmare for someone with file OCD lol. The track navigation is also still a thing, some tracks, I can scroll anywhere in the track by tapping the sort of progress bar on the phone screen, but some don’t have it at all. Strange.

And yeah, I’m gonna look into the shares thing. It probably means I will have to alter how I save my files. A royal pain for me, but it is what it is I suppose. Thank you for your help BTW.

7

And if this means that my photos, and videos, from inside my main folder, all appear in the photos tab in the app, I may have to bin the whole thing. The level that will annoy me is off the scale.

8

Yeah - - - Not the greatest system by a LONG SHOT.

I basically ended up ditching all the network functionality. Just didn’t seem to work right.

As a basic file server on your network. . .the WD NAS units are simply fine. The web connectivity. . .not so much.

9

One can apparently disable indexing and thumbnailing of a Share, but the tradeoff/downside is the Share will not be seen or viewable in the My Cloud OS 5 web or mobile app.

My Cloud OS 5: User Share Cloud Access and Indexing
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/29223

Important:

Disabling Cloud Access at the share level will delete all indexes, thumbnails and transcoded media for the specific share. Shares with Cloud Access enabled are not affected.

Edit to add: One way to deal with this issue, for media you don’t want to access remotely, is to break out the subfolders into individual Shares rather than as subfolders inside another Share. Then disable Cloud Access for the specific Share.

10

Have you looked at the User Manual?

Have you set up Twonky? See Chapter 11 in the User Manual.

11

Yeah, I looked through the manual, and it’s just the most clunkiest setup I could have feared. I create a share, but, there’s no media serving option for me to choose. To be honest, I think I’m gonna send this unit back, it’s just not the most user friendly device in regards to the after setup. You have to do 3-4 steps, just to do simple things. How can’t you just have an app that mirrors what you have on the PR4100 lol, and not have all your pictures and videos, that you have in their designated folders on your HD’s, show up in the photos tab on your app. Terrible design flaw. From what I can gather, I’d have to setup my HD’s to mirror the setup on My Cloud, not the other way.

There’s no media serving option to choose, and also, I don’t have a media setting within my network tab on my dashboard.

Yeah, this isn’t the best unit. I think I’ll be better served sending it back ASAP.

Thanks for all your help though guys, much appreciated.

12

Depending on the firmware version, one may see a Media Serving option for the Share itself under the Shares tab on the My Cloud Dashboard. One can check the Apps tab on the Dashboard to see if Twonky is installed and running. In the Twonky configuration section there may be additional options on configuring Share scanning, indexing or thumbnails. If Plex is installed in the Apps section, check the configuration for Plex to see if any options there may need to be adjusted.

My Cloud OS 5: Twonky Server Configuration and Settings
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/30285

But at the end of the day this may simply be something one may have to live with, like several other issues with the My Cloud and it’s mobile app/cloud access. One can try other things like turning off Twonky/Plex, not embedding artwork (metadata) into media files, not using separate artwork image files, etc. to try and deal with the limitation of the mobile app. Or on can dump using OS5 My Cloud mobile apps and setup their own remote access (VPN, etc.) and use other mobile apps that may not have such issues.

13

I’m cutting my losses with this one. I’ve already processed a return/refund. The whole setup is a shambles. I’m going for the Synology option.

One last question, as I’ve spent the best part of two days transferring my data from an old HD, to a new HD, that I then used with the PR4100, can I just unmount the drives, and then put them in the Synology? Or will I have to wipe the drive, and then copy the data over again?

I basically want to delete my “My Cloud” account, app, and data, so was wondering if I can still do that, while just taking the drives out of my PR4100.

Cheers.