Do I need an account or not?

So I’ve been looking and looking and can’t find out for sure and don’t want to waste my time buying and then returning if it’s not what I want.

I want to by a MyCloud hd. I don’t want to have to create an account that (to me) renders the hd insecure. I don’t care about encryption this and that on WD servers. Everyone (companies) is getting hacked these days. So I want to know if I’m able to use one of these hard drives wirelessly without create a silly god account stored on WD servers.

Is there an alternative hardware option?

Thanks for anyone’s help.

One can configure the WD My Cloud so it does not allow remote access from outside your local network.

While one does create accounts within the My Cloud interface, those accounts/passwords are NOT stored on remote WD’s servers (AFAIK). Only when one activates “Remote Access” and configures The WD My Cloud User Accounts for remote access does one create an account on the remote WD’s severs. That remote account is then typically used to access the My Cloud remotely while offsite, off the local network.

It may help to understand the My Cloud further to read the My Cloud User Manual as it explains many of the features and options of the My Cloud. Further the User Manual explains how to enable and disable remote access.

I actually did look in manual but only thought look for “account” or “without account”. I didn’t think search for remotely so I’ll do that now. Hopefully it’s clear.

thanks

See Chapter 8, Accessing Your My Cloud Device Remotely in the My Cloud User Manual for more information on remote access.

@D_A I share your concerns. I have aging WD MBL technology and am about to experiment with a My Cloud Mirror. The current WD My Cloud phone app wants me to log in but I bypass to locally access the NASes but it’s flakey.

It’s the same as my financial software revamped with a ‘god account’ if you let it download transactions for you or use their mobile app. I avoid it by manually downloading from each financial institution myself.

@Bennor I read the manual and I think the question still is, does the My Cloud account simply facilitate and authenticate a ‘Forwarding Rule’ into your local LAN and NAS(which is necessary either way) OR does it pass all data requested through and/or store on WD servers? Does it see and/or log all files viewed or moved, or even a complete directory listing of the entire NAS?

Aside from the pure personal privacy aspect @D_A is correct to consider hacking. The bigger the target the higher the risk, not to mention the recent disclosure of a hard wired back door in current WD NAS products.

I find different answers to this question.

I have used the WD My Cloud systems for a few years now.

I have never created a WD My Cloud account, and have for the most part consistently been able to access content from my android through the internet, not only by being on the same network as my WD device.

This is typically accomplished first by connecting the phone to the WD device through the local network where the WD device resides. Requesting an activation code from within dashboard for the user you want to give access to. Activating the access code back on the android device by selecting “connect to local device”. Then switching the phone back to cellular service, the access is retained.

That is until recently when I added a new WD My Cloud device to my network. One device is using Port Forwarding, and the other is using the Relay method, I think that’s expected as I have no idea how both would have cloud access using the same ports.

But now in both WD devices, an activation code fails to activate with the “Network Connection Failure (906)” error.

Furtherfmore, despite clearing my WD app cache/data and starting over, I’m unable to activate these, and now after resetting the app, I’m unable to see my WD devices listed as local devices while on the same network as I used to.

So the question I have is, does this process rely at all on WD servers approving some handshake between my phone and the device, in other words, are WD servers being down, possibly the cause of the Network error above? Or is this all to do with my network, router settings, WD device settings?

-Marine

I wanted to update this.

I have two android devices one on kitkat 4.4 and another on marshmallow 6.01.

The kitkat device has been generally able to connect to the WD cloud device over the internet without issue the past few years.

Recently i added another WD cloud device to my network, and started have had trouble accessing the original device through the app ever since.

It would not allow me to connect over the Internet, even with an access code, giving the Network Connection Failure (906).

At first it would still let me connect directly while on the same WIFI network. Now even over WIFI it spits out the 906 error as well.

Yet, while on WIFI, I can navigate to the WD device’s IP and open the dashboard.

It was then that I decied to try to connect with the marshmallow phone, and it worked painlessly.

Is anyone aware of recent changes by WD have crippled access on older Android versions?