Hi,
Recently picked a pre-owned 2 x 2TB My Book Live Duo. It is configured as Raid 1 and I am using it as a music server on my home network. I am accessing the drive shares via DLNA. Working okay so far but I had to switch off the energy saver feature because it kept switching itself off and becoming inaccessible. It wasn’t a planned purchase, but it suits my purpose. I later learned about the security issues and the fact that Western Digital is no longer offering support (or a firmware fix). Bad form if you ask me. How long would it have taken them to issue a fix. Anyway I am just wondering if there some way to provide remote access via VPN, port forwarding etc. Has someone got this to work? Thanks in advance, Rev
Another question. Thinking ahead. A bit spooked by all this talk of drive failures. If I buy another matching drive, in this case a WD20EURS green drive, can I use my working RAID 1 to detect and format the new drive to match the existing one. Then pull it out and put it aside in case of trouble (then obviously put the existing second drive back in)?
I have a pre-owned My Book Live Duo with RAID 1, used as a local music server over DLNA. It works fine after disabling the energy saver, which was causing it to turn off. Remote access is possible, but the safest way is to set up a VPN on the home network so the device isn’t directly exposed to the internet. Direct port forwarding is risky due to known security issues and the lack of firmware updates from Western Digital. It’s also possible to keep the device for local streaming only or move important data to a more secure NAS or cloud service. Custom firmware can be used but comes with significant risk.
Thanks, Ken. I’ve updated the drives and have re-enabled power-saving. I found the drives were getting very hot. Seems to be working okay now. I found that if you pull one drive and replace it with another, it formats the replacement. I’ve put one away as a spare in case of catastrophic failure. I’ve read about putting OpenWRT on it and may give it a go. Bought an old 4-bay QNAP which I’m playing around with too. Love tinkering.
Did you ever check if it’s still exposing any ports online, just to be sure?
I hate it when threads end with no solution.
So here is a solution for those wanting to share the content on the MyBook Live Duo securely.
With DLNA enabled, I was able to mount the folder I have music stored in as a shared CIFS folder on my NAS (//mybookip/shared foldername)
I have Tailscale installed on the NAS, my Chromebook and phone.
I have been able to access and play the music in the folder via a cellular connection from the free VLC app on my Android phone via the Tailscale public IP address as SMB type (user@tailscaleip:https port/foldername.
Enter NAS username and password as required.
The hardest part was finding my way through the VLC menu.
Where there’s a will there’s a way 
