Help! All data in mybook live gone and owner password unknown

Here’s my log pertaining to today when it happened:
Jun 23 15:30:48 MyBookLive factoryRestore.sh: begin script:
Jun 23 15:30:48 MyBookLive shutdown[32260]: shutting down for system reboot
Jun 23 15:30:56 MyBookLive CommMgr: DaemonControl::disableRemoteAccess - remote access is disabled.
Jun 23 15:31:02 MyBookLive kernel: nfsd: last server has exited, flushing export cache

Exact same thing has happened to me. Tried to access some files via the iPhone app but got an error message saying “unable to connect”. Assumed it was just a Wi-Fi/network issue but when I tried to access the drive from my PC using a shortcut everything was gone except for (empty) default Public folders: Shared Music, Shared Pictures, Shared Videos and Software.

The time stamps on those folders say they were created at 00:16 (UK time) this morning.

There is also a .tickle file created at 00:17.

I can’t log into the UI on the device as it says my password is invalid.

1 Like

Same problem here !
It is a big issue! Please let us know what is going on.
We need help from WD

all data gone, what kind of security is this?

Hi another victim here, also in the UK.

Anyone had any luck yet?

Got a decade of life’s work and photos at stake so willing to do whatever it takes to recover.

I’ve sent a DM to WD’s customer support account (@WesternDigiCare) on Twitter and referred them to this thread.

1 Like

Good work - let us know the results!

Same problem Also
I kept all my documents on this drive. All files gone, four empty folders for: pictures, music, that I never used. My pictures are stored elsewhere. Unfortunately or fortunately my last backup was 4.5 months ago. I thought I had my backup program set for scheduled backups, but that is another problem to look into. If this turns out to be a WD problem, I will look elsewhere for future storage equipment. I wish everybody good luck and if someone finds a solution, please post it.

1 Like

Add me to the list… exactly the same as already described.

Found this on the WD site here: My Book Live & My Book Live Duo: Not Detected on Windows 10 and 11
So maybe Microsoft is the problem… surprising? Never mind, it doesn’t fix the problem.

Windows 10 is not a supported and verified operating system for My Book Live and My Book Live Duo.
For a list of compatible operating systems, please refer to Answer ID 19060 Supported Operating Systems for My Book Live and Duo

The “Network Browse” function has been disabled on Windows 10 v1709 and higher.
SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support has been disabled on Windows 10 Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version 1709 and higher.

The Computer Browser service relies on the SMB 1.0 protocol to populate the Windows Explorer Network node (also known as “Network Neighborhood”). This legacy protocol is long deprecated, doesn’t route, and has limited security. Because the service cannot function without SMB 1.0, it is removed when SMB 1.0 is disabled.

IMPORTANT35pxx45px Important: The change is not limited to WD Products.

For more details, please refer to the first link

That was an older issue, I remember turning on smb 1.0 but that was a good while ago.
I can see the folders in network, well the shared ones but they are all empty.

1 Like

Same issue, U.S. here. Getting an error using any of my mapped drives, and my admin password is not working. So frustrating.

I went through different support sites, enabling SMB1, etc. but nothing has fixed it. I don’t know how to tell if it was factory reset or anything. I saw a bunch of articles about resetting the admin password by doing a restore (without losing the data), but I’m wary of whether that will actually help, and I’m not all that tech savvy.

I hope someone from WD can help. I know I have a very old device, but it has been mostly reliable all these years…

Hi again everyone, I’ve created a post over at r/techsupport to see if the hive mind can help us out with what to do next.

I get the impression we aren’t going to get any answers out of WD…

Good idea! Might generate some ideas. Also, the more publicity this gets, the more likely we are to get a response from WD.

Not being mean…just sayin’

Mine, so far, is OK. BUT…about a year ago I put a new 3TB Red in it. Wonder if that might be my saving grace. But my gosh, if your data are so important to you why not have it backed up? Better yet it might just be time to get a new NAS device. SMB1 is dead and might not be available on Windows AT ALL in the near future.

There is a member @nfodiz that’s pretty knowledgeable maybe he can help?
You can SSH into the MyBookLive. If you’re familiar with those commands maybe you could recover your data that way…but I’m not smart enough to help with that. HERE is a post which explains how to SSH into it.

Luckily I’ve probably got 95%+ of the data backed up elsewhere and the stuff I haven’t is generally just bits and bobs I’ve downloaded off the internet so can probably find again. It’ll be a pain to rebuild the drive though as I used it to back up a variety of other sources. I didn’t want to start messing about with it until we established what had happened and whether it was going to be possible to recover the files.

Just hope I don’t suffer any HDD failures in the meantime.

It is a timely reminder to keep on top of your backups though…

Some news -

Managed to speak to WD and they’ve confirmed a support ticket and receipt of my system logs. Also informed them if this thread and the fact that this is not an isolated incident.

They have engineers looking into it apparently. I will post any updates as soon as I get them.

Stay strong team - we’re on this!

7 Likes

No issues with my MyBookLive YET. Could someone do what flhthemi said and enable SSH and login to their MBL using PuTTY or WinSCP etc and browse to /DataVolume/shares and browse in to one of your shares there and see if they are now empty. If the data is still showing there then there is likely an easy fix and all hope is not lost. If the data does NOT show, this goes beyond anything a firmware update can fix and I dare not offer advice on data recovery, I’ll leave that up to the folks at Western Digital.

Thanks

Also, I forgot to mention, it appears WD released a firmware update recently for the MBL after all these years which seems quite odd BUT maybe they were trying to patch up the many many holes in the very outdated firmware.

A new version of firmware is available

A new version of the firmware has been released. Please update your device.

Thu 17 Jun 2021 03:00:08 AM EDT

Does anyone know if you can log into via SSH and recover files that way? If so where would the files be located?

Thanks