I have a 2Tb My Cloud (2.xx software) on my home network, which mostly works OK. I have the iOS application on my iPad, which works OK for photos taken on the iPad
I have a small laptop/tablet (Win 10) for travel, to which I copy files from ‘normal’ still and video cameras whilst on holiday.
I want to backup the folders on this to the MyCloud device.
Question: What software should I use on this travel laptop? I realise it is not the Sync software, as i want to be able to delete files from the travel laptop without deleting them from the MyCloud (as I can do with the iPad software)
I want to avoid tedious mutli-stage copying and uploading processes, with just new files being automatically uploaded.
As the previous poster indicated, read the My Cloud User Manual to learn more about backing up and syncing to the My Cloud and how to access the My Cloud from a remote location.
Officially Smartware does not backup to a remote My Cloud. Officially WD Sync is the only WD software that will automatically (without any user intervention) sync files to/from a computer (Windows/Mac) to a My Cloud device.
Unofficially the better option would be to setup a VPN server on the network the My Cloud is on, then use a VPN client on the remote computer to access the remote network (containing the My Cloud). Some routers may include the ability to setup a VPN server. If not one can setup a VPN server on an unused computer (that is left running). While using VPN is not optimal is does provide you a way to access a remote My Cloud in the same manor as if that remote PC was on the local network. Open VPN (https://openvpn.net/) is one such VPN program that is free. By using VPN one should be able to use any backup program they desire, which supports backing up to an NAS, to backup remotely to a My Cloud.
Or one could use the insecure FTP option to copy files to the My Cloud. Some users have tried to setup (with varying degrees of success) SFTP on the My Cloud to try and encrypt the FTP traffic. Use the forum search feature (magnifying glass icon upper right) and search for SFTP to find various past discussions on that subject.
I can upload individual files or folders OK, that is not the problem. If you read my penultimate paragraph, you will see that I am looking for an ‘incremental’ backup solution, which the Sync software will do, but as a ‘backup’ rather than a ‘synchronise’ action, so MyCloud files are not deleted if originals are removed from travel laptop to free space.
I don’t believe the WD files software will do this, but would need manual selection of added files for upload in every case, a very time consuming operation.
I also use BT Cloud, which will do what I want very effectively, but only saves to BT Cloud (limited size, not under my control). Equally, MS SyncToy will do it, but only over a local network
So, I am looking for software that will do this over the internet to the MyCloud drive
Officially there isn’t any WD software that will do what you seek if you don’t want to use WD Sync. WD does not currently have any software that will backup (not sync) data to a single bay remote My Cloud device. For the single bay My Cloud the only other option is using FTP. And FTP is insecure.
See my second paragraph about VPN in my post above. By using VPN you will access your local network just as if your computer was at that network’s location. Any third party backup software (free or paid) that can access an NAS will be able to backup to the My Cloud through the VPN tunnel.
Otherwise you may have to resort to hacking the My Cloud firmware to allow for SFTP or some other secure method of access.
From the windows 10 wsl I can sftp into my gen2 and it works. If I use psftp.exe
I can login. But no keyboard activity. It seems that if ssh is enabled then sftp works.
Can do the same using FileZilla (https://filezilla-project.org/) with the protocol set to SFTP - SSH FIle Transfer Protocol. By accessing the My Cloud this way one is into the My Cloud OS at the root level and would have to navigate to the correct directory holding the Shares (/DataVolume/shares on my first Gen My Cloud).
One would also have to configure their local network router/gateway to pass the correct port to the My Cloud from the broadband side.
I didn’t mess around with this or other methods of remote access and used VPN instead since my Asus router support’s being configured as an Open VPN server. With the Open VPN client on my Win 10 PC I can access (securely) from a remote location my local network including the My Cloud. Able to stream from the My Cloud media server. Able to use Free File Sync (https://freefilesync.org/) to mirror or copy content from my PC to the My Cloud. Able to use backup software (Acronis) to backup through the VPN tunnel. Of course I’m limited to the speed of the broadband connection at both ends which makes copying large amounts of data a time consuming process in some cases. One still has to configure the router for Open VPN provided the router supports it, otherwise one would have to setup the Open VPN server on a local network device and enable port forwarding on the router to the Open VPN server.
