Note: This guide gives examples using the WD My Cloud NAS. Other NASes will differ slightly, but will be similar.
Here’s a few steps you can take to determine why mobile devices might be unable to connect to your My Cloud (or My Book Live, Duo, N900C, etc.).
This would apply to:
- WD Photos
- WD My Cloud Mobile app (iOS / Android), formerly known as WD 2go
- Access via the WD My Cloud web application ( www.wd2go.com or www.wdmycloud.com))
- …or the My Cloud Desktop App for Windows and Mac.
Step 1) Check to ensure you can access the drive while you are on your own local WiFi network.
If you cannot, then STOP. You need to configure your WD device and network correctly, which includes:
- Making sure Mobile Access is enabled
- Making sure your Wireless IP network is the same as your WD Devices IP network
Step 2) Check to ensure that your WD Device has internet access, and that it’s able to reach the WD service:
The simplest way to ensure Internet access is functioning is to configure a Notification Email, and once configured, send a Test E-mail. Wait a few minutes, and you should receive the e-mail (assuming, of course, your spam filters don’t kill it.)
Once that’s verified, and assuming your router supports UPnP, then on the My Cloud NAS, log into the Web UI and navigate to SETTINGS / GENERAL, and scroll down to Cloud Access.
Ensure the Remote Access slider is ON. If not, slide it to ON and save as needed.
After a few moments, you should see: Connection Status: Connected. If needed, change to another page in the UI and come back to force a refresh.
Under this, you may see Port Forwarding Connection Established, which is what is preferred, or it may say Relay.
Either way, if it says Connected, you should skip to Step 5. But if it is using RELAY mode, just be aware that this requires all of your connections to pass through WD’s servers…a less than optimal and untestable situation.
If not, continue to Step 3.
Step 3) If your router does not support UPnP (or doesn’t support it correctly), then you will need to manually configure port forwarding.
If you need to configure manual port forwarding, then before continuing, you *MUST* configure your NAS to use a Static IP address. Consult the Cloud’s User Manual for instructions.
Configure manual port forwarding by clicking the Configure hyperlink on the Cloud NAS, as shown above in Step 2’s screenshot.
In the Pop-up that appears, click the “Manual” button, and note the two ports listed. By default, the Cloud will have ports 80 and 443 already entered in the blanks.
If no devices on your network are using ports 80 or 443, then click the SAVE button and manually configure your router to pass those two ports to your My Cloud NAS. Consult your router’s documentation for instructions.
Go back to Step 2 and wait a few minutes to see if the connection status changes. If the status changes to Connected, then skip to Step 5.
If your some other network device is already using port 80 or port 443, you will need to select two different ports for your My Cloud NAS and continue with Step 4.
Step 4) Select two unused ports for use with Remote Access. They can be any arbitrary ports, with a few exceptions, between 1024 and 65535. The NAS will warn you if your selection is inappropriate. Also, consult your router’s documentation to determine which ports are available and unused.
Enter the two ports you’ve chosen as shown below. I’ve chosen ports 9080 and 9443 for this example.
Click the SAVE button.
Next, configure your router to forward those ports to the STATIC IP address you have configured on your Cloud NAS. Again, consult your router’s manual for instructions on how this is done.
After all settings are saved to your router and NAS, I recommend first rebooting your router, then rebooting the NAS.
Once everything is back up, go back to Step 2 and check the connection status again.
If you’re still unable to get a “Connected” status, then you will need to contact WD Support for more guidance.
Step 5) If your Cloud NAS’s “Connection Status” is CONNECTED, then the NAS is communicating with the WD server infrastructure. If you are still unable to reach the NAS via remote access apps when not on your home network, then try this:
Using a web browser on the same device, navigate to the EXTERNAL IP ADDRESS of your router.
To determine the external IP, go to the website http://www.whatsmyip.org/ and note the address.
Now, using your Web browser on the same PC or device from which you’re trying to use remote access, navigate to that IP address and port used, such as:
http://334.116.115.1:9080 [Yes, I know that my example IP address is not valid. I don’t someone reading this guide to try it and accidentally connect to someone and get confused]
(Note: The :9080 part at the end of the URL is important. That number after the colon must exactly match the “External Port 1” port you chose in Step 4. If your router is using UPnP, and you didn’t do Step 4, then consult your router’s documentation to determine how to see what port was given by the router to the My Cloud NAS.)
When you navigate to that address, you should see:
In this testing case, that error message is actually what you SHOULD see. The Cloud doesn’t allow actual web browsing using an external source, so if you see this error, it means you ARE able to “reach” the NAS via your configuration.
Do the same thing for the “External Port 2” address, such as:
After possibly receiving a security warning, and accepting the warning, you should see the same error again.
If you do NOT receive the above messages on BOTH ports, then there are a few possibilities (in no particular order)
- Your ISP or router are blocking the connection. Try going back to Step 4 and using a different port for the one that doesn’t work.
- Your configuration is in error. Start back at Step 1 and verify all settings are exactly correct.
- The place from where you’re connecting is implementing firewalls or policy filters that may interfere with data connection (doesn’t usually apply when using Cellular data, but may depending on where in the world you are.)
Step 6) If all the tests from Step 5 pass successfully, but you are still unable to use Remote Access capabilities, then the problem possibly lies with the mobile device (or PC) being used.
Try these steps:
On iPhone / iPod / iPad…
- Force-close the WD App.
- If your device is Cellular-capable (3G / 4G / etc): DISABLE WiFi to force the phone to use cellular data.
- Put the phone in Airplane Mode. Wait 10 seconds, and turn off Airplane Mode. Wait for your device to rejoin the cellular data network.
- Restart the app and try connecting again.
Windows PCs:
- Close all WD Apps.
- Open a CMD window and issue the command
ipconfig /flushdns
- Try connecting again
Android devices:
- Disable WiFi
- Force-close the WD App
- Force (Hard) Reset the device
- Try connecting again
(The above steps are intended to clear the devices DNS Cache and force new DNS/IP Lookups.)
my problem still persists as the guide simply avoid what it seems common cause of the problem. So let’s see:
It’s not “slow” or “sometimes servers are down”. It simply doesn’t work at all and I have no idea why. As said, with only portforwarding ability working this seems useless as any USB external or “not clouded NAS” will do the same job.