Appalling speed on MyCloud device, backups fail, etc

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
1

I hardly know where to start!
I am using a 4Tb MyCloud device attached via ethernet to a router attached via ethernet to my iMac to which I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do incremental overnight backups.
When I first bought the device, the speeds were appalling, and after a few days, WD replaced the unit saying the performance was unacceptable. The replacement worked a lot better and the overnight backups worked OK, but still feeling pretty slow.
In the last few weeks, my backups fail every night with errors like:
‘subtask did not complete in a reasonable time’
‘the destination volume is mounted read-only so CCC is unable…’
‘destination file system is not responding’, etc. etc.
My wife’s MacBook also backups up to the MyCloud device via wi-fi, and its backups are failing for similar reasons.
If I simply try to copy files directly from Finder to the WDMC, large videos files copy about 1Gb per minute, but if I try to copy a whole load os smaller files it almost falls over. I tried to copy my Caches folder (30,000 files but only 800Mb in total) after 45 minutes about 300 files (45Mb) were copied and I gave up!
Is there anyone here who can suggest a solution to what is going on here?
Thank you!

2

Start by reading the following thread:
https://community.wd.com/t/before-you-pack-up-your-wd-and-return-it-lets-talk-about-copying-speeds/91887

There are a lot of factors that affect copying speed between one’s computer and the My Cloud. This includes copying a large number of small files versus a single large file. The speed of the drive at both ends can impact the copying speed. The network speed itself may impact the copying speed if the computer NIC port is only 100mb vs 1GB on the My Cloud. For what ever reason others have reported slow copying speed with Mac’s. El Capitan has several issues with the My Cloud. There is a separate El Capitan thread to discuss those issues.

One generally never gets the “advertised” speed of the equipment on the local network.

3

Thanks for that.
I have already seen that thread, and it is not really relevant to my issues.
I’m not talking about not getting the ‘advertised’ speed, but complete failure to complete any scheduled backups for the error reasons mentioned in my original post.
Still, I understand the overhead that small files cause on NAS which is why I tried the test above, but, 45Mb in 45 minutes?

4

Anyone?
I can’t complete a backup at all.
Various errors include ‘subtask did not complete in a reasonable time’
I get disconnects, server connection interrupts, file system not responding, etc.
I can do the backup to a Apple Time Capsule on the same network without any issues, so what is going on with the WD?

5

Do you have another computer that isn’t a Mac that you can test with to isolate if its a network or My Cloud problem versus a problem that resides just with Macs?

Which method, AFP or SMB, is the Mac using to access the My Cloud? Try the other method to see if its any faster.

Sometimes networks using IPV6 can cause problems, if possible try disabling IPV6 and see if that speeds up copying speeds between devices. Don’t remember if there is an option within the Samba configuration file on the My Cloud that would affect or turn off IPV6.

Also a common problem with Mac’s that have both Wifi and an Ethernet port is that the Mac OS prioritizes the WiFi OVER the Ethernet meaning that while one may thing the traffic is going over Ethernet its actually going over WiFi. The test is to disable the WiFi connection and see if the copy speed increases. If so one can access System Preferences / Network, then find Set Service Order and move Ethernet to the top of the list.

6

Thanks again, Bennor.

  1. I don’t have a non Mac I’m afraid.
  2. how can I tell if it’s SMC or AFP? In Finder I just click on the WDMC under Shared, or use WD My Cloud app, or the backup software , CCC, just connects automatically when the WDMC is selected.
  3. how do I disable IPV6?
  4. I don’t have wi-fi switched on - ethernet only on my Mac.
    The thing is that the network performs OK with my Time Capsule drive. Using CCC, a 50Gb backup completed in 80 mins, and a follow up incremental backup completed in 9 minutes, which seemed acceptable to me.