I just received my My Passport Wireless (MPW) today, so I’m clearly a new user. I’m a photographer planning to use the MPW for backing up my SD cards on location. The SD card import feature itself works fine, whether I do it from the device itself or from the My Cloud app on my Android tablet.
When the SD import completes, the light on the MPW stops blinking: Unfortunately, I don’t trust a blinking light to tell me that the import was actually successful. As a minimum, I want be able to see a list of files and their sizes. However I haven’t discovered a way to see them with the app. I have to connect a PC to the MPW either by USB or WiFi to see them. But I won’t have a PC or laptop with me on location! I need to be able to do it from the tablet. Can this be done?
The manual seems to indicate that it can be done:
“Besides using the computer to check the files from an SD card, you can also do it with the WD My Cloud mobile app. To use the mobile app, you must sync the content onto the My Passport Wireless drive first.”
What do they mean by “sync the content onto the My Passport Wireless drive?”
EDIT 5/27/2016. The My Cloud app does what I want. It shows me the filenames and sizes of RAW files imported from an SD card. I discovered this by accident when what I thought was a list item turned out to be clickable. I was the victim of a non-skeuomorphic user interface.
Thanks, but I think the line you’re referring to is explaining how to initiate transfer from the SD card to the MPW. In my scenario, I have already done that and I have removed the SD card from the MPW. Next, as a final step, I want to check that the transfer was successful, and I’m hoping to be able to do that using the app on my tablet. But I don’t see how.
Well, if you did the sync, it should be possible to do the next step. I have never done much with the SD card, so my help is limited. Maybe someone else will stop by and can assist you better.
Once again, the problem has nothing to do with the SD card per se. The files from the SD card have already been loaded onto the MPW. The SD card has been removed and put back into my camera. So at this point I hope I have a bunch of files on the hard drive of the MPW. But I need to make sure the transfer worked correctly. I can verify the transfer worked by looking at the files from my PC, but what if I only have the tablet running the app?
I understand what you meant. My experience is that the only way to check if the transfer had been done without omission, or to verify, is via the PC, which you supposedly don’t have in the field!
WD puts a lot of emphasis on My Cloud. I do not find it very useful. In My Cloud you are able to see the photos on MPW but it takes an impossibly long time to see them all, say any more than 30 pics.
I have not tried to connect MPW directly to my Samsung Galaxy S2 via the tablet’s micro sd port and read its contents as USB contents. I imagine that would be faster and easier than the blessed My Cloud. May be worth a try.
MPW is an excellent appliance but the manual and soft ware like My Cloud is rudimentary, so is their " help" staff. I accept that this is to be expected because WD is a hard ware manufacturer, not software engineers. I hope the community here will together work out ways to work around our needs.
As you may know, there are two ways to see the photo thumbnails on a iPhone w/MC app; a vertical listing of larger thumbs, and a full-screen grid with smaller (and more numerous thumbs) so maybe same with using grid that way with the MPW, but I haven’t checked the MPW.
You are confirming my suspicion that this device is not perfect for serious photographers who need backup while traveling. I’m glad you suggested making a USB connection to the tablet. The only problem I see is that the tablet won’t power the MPW, so an external power source and some kind of Y cable will be needed. I wonder if such a cable even exists
Some battery banks have two 5V USB outputs so along with two cables you may be able to do it. Some of the better quality battery banks are made by ANKER and sold is large quantities at Amazon; a big seller of their batteries. I have some around the 13,000 mah types that have the two outputs. Handy when charging things from the batteries. Like an MPW and a tablet even when streaming movies from MPW to tablet so the device batteries do not run down, but rather the battery pack does.
Hmm, you got me thinking. The problem may be that files imported from my SD card are not considered as “photos” because (like all serious photographers) I shoot RAW files That might change if I shot jpegs.
On the home screen of the app, I see that there are 99 photos on the MPW. These are the demo jpegs that came pre-loaded on the device. The app obviously considers my RAW files to be “Other” (Settings > Device capacity shows Videos, Music, Photos, Other, and Free). Next to Other it shows 7.6GB. Those are my 219 RAW files!
EDIT. I just did a test that confirms what I said above. I shot two jpegs and plugged the SD card into the MPW to upload them. After 3 minutes, they showed up in the app on my tablet under “Photos” and I could see the thumbnails (this is what the manual means by syncing). Of course this is completely useless to me, since I never shoot jpegs, but it confirms my suspicion that the app is not going to be much use to me.
I completely forgot that it’s self-powered! So I will try the USB connection to the tablet and post the result.
EDIT: I tried the USB connection to my Android tablet. The tablet is a Nexus 9 running Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow). I connected the MPW using an OTG cable. From what I read, the native Marshmallow file explorer can read exFAT formatted drives, which I believe is the format of the MPW. However when I open the USB drive in the native file explorer, it reports that the drive is Corrupted and offers to reformat it. I am reluctant to do this, since it probably voids my warranty and converts my MPW to a doorstop.
I often had that allegation of corrupted drives (usually USB sticks) and the offer to reformat, in Win 7. I just ignore it and it its OK. I certainly wouldn’t reformat MPW. I think it just tried to open some other stuff in it and it couldn’t, so alleged it was corrupt!
Tried last night to connect MPW to my Galaxy S2. Fast and no problems. All viewer I had installed read the .jpg files without problem and had thumbnails of all chosen backups. May be you can install apps like RAW Vision, File Viewer for Android, Portfolio RAW Photo Manager etc…and had a try using the app and not the file explore. Don’t give up.
DO NOT reformat your MPW because some stupid tablet tells you it can’t read the file /disk and tells you to reformat.
Too many people have plugged a HD used on a Mac and then plug it into a PC, and since a PC can’t read from a Mac format they are told to reformat. TOO BAD, they just trashed a good HD, just because they put the wrong formatted drive on their PC. They come to this forum all the time after they screwed up!
Personally, I would not plug any tablet or phone directly into an MPW. Fortunately, I can’t using iOS devices. The ONLY thing a MPW should be plugged into is a computer per the MPW instructions. Got it? Don’t even plug it into a TV; Smart or otherwise.
I think the reason you cannot see the RAW photos is because your tablet may not be able to view RAW photos (my iPad can’t – unless I have another program on iPad that can see/view files not native to the iPad.
The “corrupted” error is being given by the native file explorer on Android (Settings → Storage & USB). I can’t ignore it because the only option it gives me at this point is to erase and format it (which I will definitely not do). From what I read, the Nexus 9 running Marshmallow is supposed to handle exFAT. By the way, I have no problem accessing the MPW from Windows 7 via USB. I can see the files just fine.
It is encouraging to hear that you had success exploring the MPW with your Galaxy S2. In addition to the native file explorer (the one that says “corrupted”), I tried several file explorer apps on my tablet, but none of them are able to read the USB drive.
That’s interesting advice. I definitely will not reformat it. I suspect that my tablet is indeed “stupid.”
Again, I have no desire to see the images themselves, just the filenames and sizes. That’s to assure me that the contents of my SD card were successfully copied onto the MPW.
I shoot RAW and use the app Filebrowser on my iPad to check the files on the MPW.
Filebrowser also supports RAW so thumbnails will show (when MPW has processed them which may take some time)
FileBrowser is one of my favorite apps for iPad and iPhone. It is a quality app that is worth more than the six bucks it cost. I love it for music and videos, and it also can cast media to Chromecast. Have you ever cast RAW pics with it to Chromecast/TV?
I apologize for pushing myself into the conversation, I’m new to this forum/blog stuff, so I’ve offended someone please accept my apology.
As the original poster all I want to do id stick a SD card in the device and know that they have been transferred. I won’t have a laptop with me just an iPad. Unfortunately there is no USB connection to an iPad. Is there a question coming? Yes.
Reading pg 36 of the manual I saw the process to transfer from an SD card. Do I have to repeat that process every time I insert a card or can I configure it once at home and be done with it. Thanks for your help.
I’m the original poster of this topic. Scroll to the top and see the EDIT that I added to my original post after I discovered the solution: You can verify that the transfer was successful using the MyCloud app on your iPad. The iPad connects to the MyPassport over WiFi (the MyPassport creates its own WiFi network), not a cable. If you’re shooting jpegs, you’ll see your photos in the Main Menu → My Passport → Photos tab of the My Cloud app. If you’re shooting RAW, you’ll be able to see the file names and sizes in Main Menu → MyPassport → All tab under SD Card Imports, but you won’t be able to see the images themselves.
You only need to configure the Passport once for incremental backup. Then every time you insert an SD card only new photos will be added in dated folders, just as you’d expect. If you travel with more than one camera (as I do), the folder structure will reflect the camera as well as the date.
