Folder "other" huge amount of data

[Caher]

HI all,

my folder “other” is showing in the mycloud dashboard as having a huge amount of data which I cannot seem to find. I have looed on windows explorer but to no avail.
Other than reformatting (radical) my disc I am at a loss as to what to do. This carpacity is far more than the PC it is bacjming up.

Thanks

[Bennor]

The “Other” section indicates files that are not videos, photos, music. Others may also include backup files and possible even hidden WD Sync files.

If you are using WD Sync, that program creates a hidden folder on the My Cloud where it stores backups of files it has synced so the user can restore a previously synced version.

One option is to access the My Cloud using SSH and see if you can find the files that way. Using WinSCP (https://winscp.net/eng/index.php) makes it easy to click through the various folders at the firmware level. Not sure about the second gen v2.x firmware My Cloud’s but on the first gen v4.x firmware My Cloud, the user Shares are located in the /DataVolume/shares folder.

[Caher]

I very much appreciate your help but I find your method quite complex for the layperson.
I now note the “other” is now 5 times the amount of storage of the 1 computer and phone I back up.
This is getting out of hand, rather like some sorcerers apprentice which I have no way of stopping other than to completely format my disc and start the whole thing again.
Is there any easier way to do this? I use Treesize but that fails to find the massive files i seem to have accrued.

[Bennor]

I now note the “other” is now 5 times the amount of storage of the 1 computer and phone I back up.

How are you backing up the computer and mobile phone? Using what app or software? Are you using WD Sync?

Windows File Explorer is typically what one would use to search their My Cloud Shares to search for files.

Yes it is a bit complicated to use SSH to access the My Cloud to see if there are hidden folders not being shown when one uses Windows File Explorer.

One can erase all user data on their My Cloud and reset the device to factory default by selecting Quick Restore in My Cloud Dashboard > Settings > Utilities > System Factory Restore. It is suggested one backup their My Cloud prior to performing a Quick Restore. One can use the embedded My Cloud Backup/Safepoint feature to backup a My Cloud to a USB hard drive attached to the My Cloud USB port, or manually copy the files on the My cloud to another location. Note Full Restore takes a very long time as it securely erases the user data on the My Cloud.

[cames]

I had the same issue crop up in the last week or so. Turned out the my son started backing up his laptop to the NAS. No big deal, I just didn’t know where the disk space went to.

If you can get ssh access, get to the path were your shares are stored and use du to get the disk usage by subfolder, and output to a text file. You can open the file as a tab delimited in Excel.

du --time > Public/du2.txt