Anonymous share

Is it possible to get access to the public share on my cloud driver anonymously? Currently it requries a username - even if with no password. The problem with this is that my Window PCs periodically require re-authentication which suddenly breaks connectivity on unattended PCs or my HTPC.

Is it possible to set up the cloud drive so that access in Windows can be permanently available without authentication?

Brendan

Generally when a Share folder is configured for “Public Access” through the WD My Cloud Dashboard (see this link on how to access the Dashboard) one shouldn’t be prompted for a user name and or password to access it.

One can “map” a Share folder to their local computer for quick access. See the following WD Support documents for more information:

How to map a WD My Cloud or NAS product on a Windows PC

Mapping a drive letter on a WD Network hard drive using WD Discovery

I have the defaul public share - but it like any other share I create can’t be ‘shared’ without assigning a user to it, can it?

And that’s the problem - any user means impermanent permission to the files.

The Public Share or any user created Shares set to Public Access should be open to anyone who can access the WD My Cloud. One generally sets up “Users” to give them password access to private Shares, in otherwords Shares with Public Access set to Off. Once a Share’s Public Access has been set to Off one can then configure User access for each user to that private Share. The User Access options are; No Access, Read Access or Full Access.

What do you mean by ‘anyone who can access the WD My Cloud’?

Perhaps there’s a setting I’m missing. After varying amounts of time I always get a prompt for credentials whether hitting \WDMYCLOUD\public or just \WDMYCLOUD. The public access setting is ‘on’ (and disabled) for both the all and public shares.

those prompts you are getting are not initiated by the MyCloud.  They are initiated by your Windows PC.  It’s is some setting or registry issue on your PC.

Sorry - I thought by default file access to mycloud didn’t require authentication…?

I’ve just updgraded to Windows 10 and it - like 8, 7 and Vista (I have all) require authentication. Perhaps the issue might be on the device side?

The default Windows behaviour on 4 versions requires authentication.

I have never been asked for authetication on my Public share. But then I use XP, Android and iOS.

I get asked for authetication for my Private shares.

I don’t suppose you ever tried to change the name of the Public share did you? There’s a bug that refuses to let you change the name from Public, but, if you try, it activates the public/private switch which is normally greyer out, so the Public share can be made private…

The share hasn’t been renamed.  I get the same on all shares. Maybe there’s something I did in the one user I created?  (which is what I have to use for all shares.)

Hi, check on the credential manager and see if theres any records saved for the My Cloud, remove them, and try again.

That seems to have worked for Windows 10, but Windows 7 seems to persist in asking. It’s bizarre…

So for Windows 7 I’ve set the credentials to persist in the credentials manager - hopefully that will work.

My Windows 10 PC just asked me for the credentials again.

Anonymous login doesn’t work on any Windows PC for me.

Is there a way I can delete the one user I have setup on My Cloud? I’m running out of ideas and fedup with having to authenticate every other day or every reboot.

deepskydiver wrote:

Is there a way I can delete the one user I have setup on My Cloud? I’m running out of ideas and fedup with having to authenticate every other day or every reboot.

Of course you can delete or remove a user. Go to the User panel in the Dashboard, selet the user to be removed, then select the “minus” icon under the User list to the left of the “plus” icon that adds a user. Note that once a User has been removed their “Share” folder, I think, remains. If so, one will have to manually delete it through the Dashboard (or other methods).

If you have not already done so I would suggest you read through the WD My Cloud User Manual. It explains how to do many things with the WD My Cloud including removing a user.

OK - so I only have one user and that I now understand is the admin. The issue I have is not users though - it’s access without using that or any other user.

It just keeps getting better.

Now I’ve added a specific user with a siumple password, I can’t access the shares AT ALL.

Is it really working for everyone one else with no credentials on Windows PCs?

If the Share folder is set for Public Access, i.e. Public Access, is configured to On, then the WD My Cloud should not be asking for a username/password to access the Share folder. If you are getting a login message then check the WD My Cloud Dashboard (see this link on how to access the Dashboard) to ensure the Share is set for Public Access. If it is then the problem generally and typically lies with Windows 7 (and possibly later versions) and its apparent limitation to a single authentication login to a NAS/Samba (smb) share.

Check the Windows Credential Manager (see this link on how to access the Credentials Manager) to ensure there are no credentials for the WD My Cloud in the Windows Credentials section, Certificates Based Credentials section, and or the Generic Credentials. If there is, remove them. Then reboot the computer and try to access the Share which is configured for Public Access again.

Thanks, I have checked that again but the problem remains. It still always asks for a username and password on Windows 7, 8 and 10. Worse, if that password is not empty I cannot access the share at all - this was the latest problem.

I first set a password for the admin user (only user). I cleared the respective credential manager’s entries. I couldn’t access the public share without a password so I added a new user with a simple password. When asked for a username and password I was denied access - typically without then even being given the chance to provide new credentials.

I then set that new user to have no password and could gain access by supplying those credentials which I’ve tried to make persistent within windows. They seem to have stuck on my Windows 8 laptop so far.

But I’d suggest the solution WD are using does not allow anonymous access for Windows users. For the instructions offered here and my experience with various combinations across 3 PCs and even VMs, it has never worked.

deepskydiver wrote:

 

But I’d suggest the solution WD are using does not allow anonymous access for Windows users. For the instructions offered here and my experience with various combinations across 3 PCs and even VMs, it has never worked.

Outside of resetting the WD My Cloud by pressing and holding in the reset button for at least four seconds, I don’t know what else to tell you. See the following WD Support link for how to reset the WD My Cloud: How to reset a WD My Cloud, Mirror, EX2, or EX4 drive.

I have no problems with; a Windows 7 PC, a Windows 10 PC, two different Android devices, VM machines on two separate PC’s running Windows XP, Ubuntu and Fedora accessing public share folders on the WD My Cloud. None of them get prompted for a username/password when accessing the public folders. For Private Share folders all of them are prompted for a username/password. Same goes when I visit a family members home who also has a WD My Cloud on prompt for acessing public folders.