Has MyCloud died?

I have a MyCloud, bought 2017, which has suddenly disappeared from the network. It was upgraded to os5 some time ago without problem, but now it is nowhere to be seen. I’ve tried a different ethernet cable (direct to router) but still no show. A second MyCloud on the same network is still working normally. I cannot get into the dashboard of the dodgy one so am stuck for what to do. Should I assume it has turned up its toes and move on? If so, any recommendations for a new NAS drive, mostly used for a music library?

@Keith_Clarke
What is the LED on the front doing, if anything? What are the LEDs on the back doing, for the ethernet cable and the LEDs when you connect to your router?

If you use Windows, have you already checked this? It’s needed for OS5 too.

Get My Cloud to show in Windows 10 File Explorer Network - My Cloud OS 3 Personal Cloud Storage / My Cloud - WD Community

Thank you for your reply. LED shows solid blue as normal, ethernet connection shows green as normal, MyCloud has been operating successfully with OS5 but has now disappeared. It occurs to me that for the last few weeks I have had to reboot it each morning for it to be accessed by my music system. Maybe that was a clue of impending failure? How long are these things supposed to last, anyway? This one has been running 24/7 since early 2017.

How would I know whether it’s indexing? It has just disappeared entirely.

Each time you reboot its possible (likely?) the My Cloud is starting the indexing all over again. Indexing under OS5 has been widely reported to lock up some My Cloud units rendering them unusable, inaccessable, while the indexing is occurring.

Couple of suggestions. First is to assign or reserve an IP address for the My Cloud if one hasn’t done so already. This can be done either in the network router’s DHCP server settings or in the My Cloud Dashboard > Settings section. Next, if one doesn’t need remote access/cloud access, disable it in the My Cloud Dashboard. Disabling cloud access/remote access may help with the indexing issue. If one isn’t using the Twonky DLNA media server app, disable that app since it will index any monitored media Shares.

Thank you, but I have no access to the dashboard as there is no trace of My Cloud existing at all now on my PC.

You may have to wait till the indexing is finished if it is the cause of the inability to access the My Cloud Dashboard. The following WD Knowledge Base Article has a few entries for various My Cloud Dashboard issues that may or may not be relevent.

My Cloud OS 5: Online User Guide and Solutions
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29633

And the following Knowledge Base Article details how to disable indexing, if one can actually get into the My Cloud Dashboard.

My Cloud OS 5: How To Disable and Enable My Cloud Indexing and Media Services
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29819

Edit to add: Also note that if one has more than one My Cloud device on their local network, each My Cloud device will need a unique name. If one cannot access a My Cloud Dashboard by the device name, try using it’s IP address instead in the web browser.

Thank you. How long should indexing take, with about 750GB used? I do have two My Clouds on the network but they are differently named. They were both updated to os5 apparently without problem. When the dodgy one disappeared, I could not locate it on the network using the IP address.

Indexing time varies. Could take a few minutes, an hour, five hours or a day or longer. Part of how long it takes comes down to the number of files to be indexed and the My Cloud model (hardware/RAM).

One can try “pinging” the IP address for the My cloud and see if it returns a response. That will at least let one know the device is responding to network pings.

For some who are having indexing issues, just leaving the My Cloud device alone rather than get frustrated and restart it or reset it repeatedly, is best course of action.

Or one can open a support case with WD (via the Support link at top of page) and see if WD Support will have more suggestions.

Pinging gets ‘destination host unreachable’ so I guess I’m out of luck there. I’ll leave it on, ignored, for a few days and see whether it comes back to life. I did open a support case, more in hope than expectation.

Is there a way of resetting My Cloud and starting over? All the data is backed up elsewhere.

There are the two reset options but they are not a factory restore option which erases all data on the My Cloud. The Factory Restore is generally performed through the My Cloud Dashboard > Settings > Utilities section.

My Cloud OS 5: How to Reset a My Cloud OS 5 Device
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29445

My Cloud OS 5: How to Restore To Factory Default Settings
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29441

My Cloud OS 5: Something Went Wrong - Having Trouble Connecting to Your Device
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/30127

Thanks again. I shall look at those, though if a reset is only available via the dashboard I fall at the first hurdle.

A lot of people seem to have that opinion of OS5. Is it a classic example of making something worse by ‘improving’ it?

Yes, if you cannot access the Dashboard then it a possible barrier to try and fix the unit. Even a factory restore where one wipes the My Cloud hard drive may not fix things for the reason dswv42 indicated. OS5 is what it is. The indexing cripples some My Cloud models, particularly the second gen single bay/single drive My Cloud model. Sometimes one regains function of their unit, eventually, once the indexing finishes.

Depending on what My Cloud model one is using one may be able to unofficially roll back to OS3. Search the OS5 section (via the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right) as there are a number of discussions on attempting to roll back to OS3 on various My Cloud models.

Tried the full reset, tried a different ethernet cable, tried a different router port, still no joy. MyCloud.com shows the device but says it’s offline. Surely there must be a simple way to know whether it is a hard disk failure? Support eventually replied, but without much help. I just want to know it’s dead before I junk it.

Well I’m damned - I don’t know how I did it, but I got the thing back to life. Got the dashboard, quick diagnosis test passed ok. Yet when I go into mycloud.com, it STILL tells me it’s offline. Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.