I bought a old 3TB WD My Cloud on OfferUp and need help with adding Plex, Jellyfin or whatever to view media. The My Cloud was still wrapped up in the package when I bought it, but I know that it is probably 10+ years old. I was able to setup the basics and was able to add a few movies and TV shows to it from my laptop through the network wirelessly and onto the WD My Cloud. This was fine and all considering I only paid $35 for this WD MY Cloud, but my ultimate goal was to use WD My Cloud to store video, music and pictures on and be able to view this from any television in my house or anywhere in the world I login through either Plex, Jellyfin or whatever is completable with this device. I know that WD no longer offers the software for this My Cloud device to add things like Plex, but is there an open source alternative out there where I can be able to add a Plex or Jellyfin and be able to view all of my media from any smart TV in my home or anywhere in the world? Please help, I don’t understand why something that should be so simple is so difficult.
The first generation WDMYCLOUD no longer works on the internet. You can set it up on your home network and use it on your devices. I have mine set up on my home network. You should be able to use Twonky. See example image below.
When I set up my first generation WDMYCLOUD for use on my home network I gave it a static IP address. In Settings it has No Internet Access selected.
First generation User Manual.
You may need to look at this too.
Enable SMB 1.0 CIFS File Sharing Support for My Cloud, My Cloud Home, My Passport Wireless and Legacy NAS Products (wd.com)
Check the P/N number on the bottom of the My Cloud unit. For the single bay/single drive My Cloud, a P/N that ends with “-00” means its first gen. If the single bay/single drive My Cloud P/N ends with “-10” then it is second gen. Note the My Cloud Home is a completely different device.
If you can access the My Cloud Dashboard you can check if the media server (Twonky) is enabled and that each Share with media has Media Streaming enabled. If so then pretty much any local network DLNA client should be able to access and stream compatible media from the My Cloud’s media server. Otherwise use the forum search to search if Plex can be installed to your My Cloud device. The single bay/single drive My Cloud devices generally do not officially support Plex Media Server. One could install Plex Media Server to another device or computer and use the My Cloud as a Plex library repository.
Note: v3.x, v4.x and v2.x firmware is OS3 where as v5.x firmware is OS5. OS3 firmware is no longer supported.
List of Compatible 3rd Party Apps for WD My Cloud OS 5
My Cloud OS 3: 3rd Party Apps Matrix
Thanks for the reply Bennor,
The P/N ends in 00 so its first gen. I may just go buy a WD My Cloud Home today from Best Buy (one is on sale). I called WD and was told Plex can’t be installed on my device but I figured they meant it can’t be installed the official way. That’s why I wanted to know if there was some type of “jailbreak” to allow a Plex, Jellyfin, etc to run from the WD MY Cloud and be able to simply access my media from my TVs, phones, etc., at the house or anywhere in the world.
So are you telling me that I can install Plex on my laptop and have it read the media from my old WD My Cloud? Will the laptop have to stay on? Thanks for this!
Thanks, just seeing this. Let me look into twonky to see what I can do with it.
Avoid the My Cloud Home. It is NOT a true NAS. It requires internet access to operate.
There may be unofficial ways, search this subforum, to install Plex on the first gen single bay My Cloud. But the hardware of the first gen is so limited you are better off installing Plex to another device (Raspberry Pi or similar device, Docker, or a computer or another NAS). Yes you can install Plex to a Windows PC but that PC (like the My Cloud) would have to be left on any time you want to use it.
See the Plex Media Server download for all the various platforms it can be run on:
https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/
Otherwise just use a DLNA client on what ever device you plan on using and stream media from the My Cloud embedded Twonky media server. Its basic and limited but it can be used to stream media to local network devices.
Get a Synology DS118 (if you want something that works).
