Firmware worth updating?

Hi All,

I have a WD My Cloud 3TB. I’m still using the old firmware (pre My Cloud OS 3 release). The performance is pretty good and I’m happy with it. Having said that, I’m a bit tempted to upgrade to the latest firmware, just because I like to keep everything updated.

What I’d like to know is whether it’s worth upgrading or not? Performance is my number one priority here. I stopped upgrading to the latest v2 firmware because at one point, I read that it was causing a lot of headaches for many users. Currently, my WD Cloud has a few tweaks applied (I found those tweaks on this forum). I can’t remember what they were but one of them was to disable thumbnail caching or something.

If it turns out that the new firmware is simply a revamp of the dashboard interface and not much as changed in terms of performance, then I don’t want to bother. I’ve also read somewhere that some users lost all their files during the upgrade, which is a bit scary to me.

No one can answer that other than yourself. Everyone has their own needs and requirements and may need to upgrade to the latest firmware to reach or continue those needs and requirements. Read the Release Notes for the firmware and decide for yourself.

Like any firmware update to any electronic device, the upgrade may fix something’s but break others.

For example those who have pre OS3 firmware on their My Cloud will have problems using the MyCloud.com online web portal. Other software, like WD Sync may not work properly (or work at all) with older firmware.

Please note that one cannot upgrade from v3.x or v4.x firmware to v2.x firmware. V2.x firmware currently is for a new generation of the single drive My Cloud devices.

v4.x Release Notes
v2.x Release Notes

Of course everyone has their own needs and requirements, but I think it’s fair to say that everyone cares about performance somewhat. The majority of topics on this forum are about how to tweak your My Cloud to improve its performance. If 80% of the users say the performance is better than before, then this gives you a good indication of whether to upgrade or not.

I have already read the release notes and they don’t mention much. In fact, none of the release notes I’ve read mentioned anything to do with performance.

I connect to My Cloud either via FTP, or mapped drive / network location from Windows Explorer. All the extra WD softwares like WD Sync etc work for me but I don’t find them useful and any better.

Here is a suggestion. Upgrade and if the upgrade is poor then simply downgrade. That way you can decide for yourself if the performance improves, remains the same, or degrades on your particular network setup. I have noticed no change in performance others have. Links to firmware versions (including older versions) along with a link on how to downgrade can be found at the following link.

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-my-cloud-v4-x-and-v2-x-firmware-versions-download-links/148533

Yeah, that is the plan.

The thing is, I have 3TB worth of files. I don’t trust the upgrade process since I’ve read so many comments that people have either lost their files or experienced some sort of corruption. I’m trying to get an idea of whether the performance is really better or not on the latest firmware. If not, I can save myself all this hassle.

If I had 2 WD My Clouds, that would have been an o brainer. At the moment, I’ve setup and tweaked too much to undo everything and potentially have to downgrade and re-setup everything from scratch.

The old firmware looks nicer, but didn’t provide mycloud.com access, which I really like. I upgraded and so far everything is working with the latest firmware including safepoint creation.

As someone said, you can always downgrade. I downgraded (and then subsequently upgraded again). The downgrade process may be easy or difficult (as it was for me). But it’s doable.

I personally do not upgrade unless there is a specific issue I am having and/or new security patch is issue.

Now, whatever you do, if you do upgrade and seem to have 3TB worth of files, make sure you have proper backups. This is the biggest issue if you ask me

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if you do upgrade and seem to have 3TB worth of files, make sure you have proper backups. This is the biggest issue if you ask me

Exactly what I was going to say… If you have 3TB of data that you’re worried might be lost in a firmware upgrade, then it suggests you haven’t got a backup.

Do a backup. NOW. Before you think about performance or upgrading. Any HDD can fail at any time, so always have at least one backup.

Well if your worried about corruption or loosing the data during or post upgrade then backup your content, with Safepoint for example. If the data is that important you should be backing it up anyhow… just in case.

In all the instances of upgrading and downgrading firmware I don’t recall loosing files/data or having it corrupted on the My Cloud.

It sounds like your trying to talk yourself into upgrading the firmware. If that’s the case then don’t upgrade. If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.

I had no problem accessing wd2go.com but I guess mycloud.com replaced that and now I can’t access it anymore. I can still access it via FTP remotely though, so it doesn’t really matter much to me. FTP is designed for file transfers anyway, so it’s much more stable for me.

Yeah, I am trying to convince myself to upgrade. As mentioned, I’m happy with the way things are but just tempted to try the new firmware in case there’s any new improvements etc.

I do make backups of everything so that’s OK. I just don’t like the idea of potentially losing my files and then copy a bunch of data back into My Cloud, and deal with tweaks like thumbnail caching or whatnot…

What I’m curious about is whether you guys applied any tweaks after the update? From reading the announcement post on the latest firmware, looks like you still can’t disable thumbnail caching. If I were to upgrade to the latest firmware and not have to tweak everything, how will the performance be like?

What about sleep issues? Apparently this was one of the common problems.

I spent quite a bit of time getting my setup to perform to my liking. I do NOT use cloud access and have my router configured to prevent port forwarding. I am using v04.01.03-421 and am totally happy with it.
Different strokes for different folks!