I was recently given an old 3TB MyCloud unit from a person who bought it long ago and never used it. It is brand new.
My smart tv sees it as part of the local network, no problem. However, I would like to use it to stream books and comics to an Android tablet connected to the same Wifi, if possible. I haven’t yet been able to figure out how to do that or if it’s even possible at all. Of course mobile WD apps no longer support that model and I can’t use those.
Please explain to me step by step what to do or why what I want to do is impossible.
I’m not an advanced user.
Also suggestions on what to do with this old unit and how to address safety concerns are very welcome. I just want to use it to stream media files, there is going to be nothing sensitive or personal there. My personal backups are somewhere else.
What format are the books or comics in?
There are various Android apps (like VLC) available to stream media from the My Cloud using either SMB or DLNA (assuming one has enabled Media Serving).
Ebooks may possibly be viewable in web browsers on Android devices.
The comics are usually in .cbz or pdf format. Ideally I’d like to have something like Komga or Ubooquity but it would possibly be ok if I could use the My Cloud as a SMB server. I don’t know how to do that however.
Basically, I understand I can install things on My cloud via command line because it is Linux-based. But I have no experience with Linux and I don’t know how to do that.
The first generation single bay My Cloud’s hardware (RAM, processor) is very limited. Further the My Cloud OS3 is a custom version of Linux that WD has heavily customized and uses a different page size than standard Linux. It is missing certain Linux modules/services and or has old versions of those Linux modules. Example: If you try to run the Linux command “apt-get” to update a Linux module or service on the My Cloud you could very likely brick (render unusable) the My Cloud. Many posts in this subforum from people who have done so and bricked their single bay My Cloud.
Basically trying to install any custom service onto the first generation single bay My Cloud would require one to compile/build that custom service with the proper page file size and WD OS3 firmware support.
Your better bet is to either find another device or computer to run the Komga, Ubooquity, Calibre, or similar ebook server programs on and use the My Cloud as a storage/library location for the app. So long as the ebook server program can access the local network (SMB) then it can access the My Cloud Share(s) where one can store their ebook files.
Or consider buying or build a new NAS that has the capability (docker, full Linux, etc.) to run Komga, Ubooquity, Calibre, etc natively on the device. The first generation single bay My Cloud is end of support/service and one may want to consider upgrading to a newer/faster NAS, one with far more capabilities than the old single bay My Cloud.
Thank you, that works. It downloads the whole file instead of streaming it OPDS-style like I would want to but at least I can see the drive on Android now.
Samba is in simplistic terms SMB. The My Cloud primarily uses SMB/Samba for local network client access (Windows File Explorer, Mac Finder, any mobile file manager app that supports SMB).
The My Cloud also supports FTP as well. You enable it in the Settings > Network section.
The problem with UPnP/DLNA is the Twonky Media Server that the My Cloud uses may not support streaming the content you have. Twonky’s media support typically is just audio, video and image.
