I am in the process of setting up my My Cloud and it’s going reasonably well. But when transferring over my music collection via WD My Cloud, the My Cloud software crashed about halfway through. So I now have half of my collection on the My Cloud, but who knows which half! I don’t want to delete it all and try the same thing again given how long it takes and the same thing might happen second time around.
So my question is, is it necessary (or better) to use the WD My Cloud software to transfer data onto the device, or can I use a non-WD piece of software to sync the Music collection folders between my laptop and the My Cloud? I use FreeFileSync a lot and this would probably do it very easily.
This seems pretty straightforward, but I didn’t know if the My Cloud needed things to be transferred via their software to make sure it was configured for streaming and access from other devices etc.
I’m on Win7 if that makes any difference to the answer.
More info is needed. What software or app were you using to transfer the data? How is your Windows 7 PC connected to the local network (wifi or Ethernet)?
Generally it is recommended to not use the WD software to copy files from a computer to the My Cloud, rather use Windows File Explorer and to “map” the My Cloud to your computer. See the following link for more information on how to map a drive: http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=2676
FreeFileSync can be used to sync from your computer to the My Cloud. It is an often recommended replacement program by other users to replace the WD Sync program which some have problems with.
If transferring one’s iTunes Library, make sure to transfer ALL of the iTunes Library folders not just the music folder. Search the Apple support website as they have a document or two that details how to move an iTunes Library from one location to another.
Thanks to both of you for the helpful replies. It’s good to know I can work away with something like FreeFileSync to transfer anything I need to.
I have mapped drives setup which is helpful. Using FreeFileSync I’m having an issue with the timestamp on files. I’m UK based, and the timestamp on files on the My Cloud are either -8 hours or -7 hours from the timestamp on the local copies on my PC. I’ve tried changing the timezone in the DAshboard to be UK, but it doesn’t seem to have made any difference. Any advice on this particular issue would be appreciated. The workaround is to delete the 15GB that has transferred, and re sync the whole lot with FreeFileSync and hope it doesn’t crash!
Bennor, for the record I was using the WD My Cloud software that was installed on my PC as part of the setup. It’s nasty and basic though so I’ll not use it much now. And I was transferring over ethernet connected through my router all setup next to each other.
Timestamps should be maintained when copying files to MyCloud. At least, that’s my experience with file manager, xcopy, freefilesync etc on Windows, and file manager apps on Android. Maybe the MyCloud app does something stupid, but I don’t use it…
Or you copied files before you set up the local time zone. In which case, it would get confused.
Thanks - I suspect I didn’t do the timezone until after I’d copied some of the files across. I only spotted the timezone difference when I did a file comparison in FreeFileSync.
I’ll delete things and copy across again so that it’s all in sync, I’d rather sort it out properly now, than have a long term issue to work with.
I just did some tests on this and found out the following:
transferred a folder of files using the MD My Cloud desktop software, and then viewed through Windows Explorer; the modified date information was messed up by 8 hours
then transferred a folder of files using basic copy and paste using Windows Explorer and modified dates work fine
So there’s the solution - avoid the WD My Cloud software for copying files across!
OK, thanks! Good to know you can do it all with standard tools. The only thing I did see on another thread was about it being best to use the WD software when moving large volumes of files from one location to another on the MyCloud…to avoid it having to be transferred via my laptop. Is this right, or is there a way of doing this with standard software?
I think the only time it is recommended to use the WD apps/software when copying or moving data locally is when they are copying or moving data from a USB hard drive attached to the back of the one’s My Cloud or when copying / moving data between My Cloud Shares (folders). Otherwise its best to use Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder when copying or moving data from one’s computer to their My Cloud outside of backing up or syncing software/apps.
OK, thanks Bennor. I was thinking of the scenario of “copying / moving data between My Cloud Shares (folders)” which I’ve done a bit of when getting my folders setup the way I want them long term.
I have an existing copy of FFS on one PC which never raised any issue with my AV software, but when I went to download the latest copy on my laptop, Avira popped up with a message about OpenCandy - so I didn’t install.
Having seen the Symantec description that you gave the link to, and seeing what cpt_paranoia says, I personally will be happy to go ahead and install this version on the laptop. It’s free software so I have no objection to them trying to support it in this way.
It seems the latest version of FreeFileSync is trigging various AV or malware scanning programs. Recently on my system, Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware both flagged the FFS program as a possible unwanted program.
