How to connect My Book Live with WIndows 10

Some of you may experience this problem but I found a work around. It appears at first that Windows 10 is not compatible with My Book Live. I have a My Book Live Duo for 5 years and works like a charm with my old Windows 7 system but a recent upgrade to a new notebook with Wndows 7 appears it does not recognise the My Book Live network storage, although I can access it as a media device, refer to following screenshots (My Book Live Duo is named “DURAL”):
BEFORE: Screenshot by Lightshot & Screenshot by Lightshot

The way forward to access your My Book Live is:

  1. Open your file browser
  2. In the Network pane under Storage section, you should see your My Book Live device
  3. RIGHT click that icon, select Open option
  4. A file browser will appear, you now should have access to your My Book Live storage.

OPTIONAL - MAP IT
5. To map a particular folder, right click the folder
6. Select Map network drive…
7. Map it, very self-explanatory from here on

Afterward, check that it is mapped by viewing in My PC in your file browser as such…
AFTER: Screenshot by Lightshot

There you have it, hope it works out for you as it did to me. Have a nice day!

1 Like

I did not have to re-map my WD My Book Live once I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Nonetheless, your post will be helpful to those in need.

Thank you for sharing.

If I write click on the MyBookLive device, there is no “Open” option

MyBookLive uses SMB 1.0 (whatever that is) and that is, as I’ve read somewhere some time ago, old and no longer used protocol or whatever to share/connect stuff, maybe even potentially a threat to your security. They also had problems with hackers destroying files or locking My Book products in the past.

If you want to use your MyBookLive with Windows 10 you should enable that Windows feature. Go to Control Panel → Programs → Turn Windows feature on or off → check the box “SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support” and then restart your PC.

After that you should be able to open MyBookLive folder located at Network in your PC. If it’s not there you might need to login to MyBookLive first on the page you can also get to by clicking the icon in Network.

Try searching on the net to get yourself more informed about the subject. I don’t remember much, but I suggest you transfer those files somewhere else and then to take apart your MyBookLive and use it as a standard hard drive. You could get SATA to USB cabel or hard drive dock if you’re using laptop.

WHEN YOU TAKE APART YOUR MYBOOKLIVE, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE DATA WITHOUT THAT CONTROLLER YOU REMOVED. SO IN ORDER TO USE IT AS STANDARD HARD DRIVE, YOU WILL HAVE TO FORMAT YOUR DRIVE, MEANING DELETING EVERYTHING ON IT.

ALSO, DON’T FORGET TO TURN OFF THE FEATURE AFTER YOU USED YOUR MYBOOKLIVE AS IT MIGHT BE A THREAT TO YOUR SECURITY.

edit: also, their marketing for these products were “Save your life on it.”. It’s both user unfriendly now and had problems with hackers, so you might want to think about what and who’s product you’re buying next time :wink: (I know I am unsatisfied with the time I’m losing.) Another thing is, every single useful information I found about MyBookLive was from random people on the internet and not from WD representatives.