I didn’t see this request here in the App Ideas so I wanted to put it up.
I have plenty of apps that upload and download in the background. Not sure why My Cloud Photo Auto Backup on the iPhone would not “Auto Backup” in the background. The feature is just about useless since I have 20 GB of photos and videos and my wive has more. Having to open the app to backup and then having a feature to notify you if it will be backing up when using a data plan is just silly.
I thought the MyCloud devices would be a great way to keep my photos backed up from all the phones in my family. I guess I fell for the marketing hype. It is actually more of a hassle to keep reminding my wife and children to leave their phone on with Auto Lock turned off on a regular basis to back up their photos.
Please let me know if you can improve this app or I may just have to bite the bullet and pay for another Cloud service.
I completely agree with Btwhitehurst. This function should pe put in place as soon as possible. It is very cumbersome to synchronize pictures manually! Like with many other apps, it should not cause any problem to run synchronization in the background.
I believe I understand your issue, so I have some comments and suggestions for you.
First of all, there are issues backing up with iOS devices; the issue is supposedly not present with Android devices. See this earlier post of mine if you have not seen it recently:
So, as you read, auto lock of iOS device needs to be set to Never if one has a lot of photos/videos to back up initially, Subsequent backups do not usually require a Never setting (Auto lock on my devices is usually set to 3 minutes after my initial backup with My Cloud if I only have a few new files each time. (If in doubt of having enough time, I just reset to Never for the duration of the upload.)
Also, it appears the My Cloud app does not continue to look for new files to upload when it is running. It only looks for and uploads if and when the app is fired up from being completely closed. This is good, because leaving the My Cloud app (or any app that uploads) running in background just uses up battery needlessly. Best practice is only have the app on when using it.
The My Cloud device is not a “true” Cloud like online-only virtual clouds such as Dropbox, Pogoplug, etc. With My Cloud, it is a physical drive unit on your network you can access from within and outside of your network, but that is where the similarity with virtual clouds ends – it is based on a physical NAS in your home and not “in the clouds” per se…
I have no issues using My Cloud app to backup my Camera Roll other than the files in the Camera Roll always start showing the oldest files instead of the latest files (just as the actual Camera Roll does). I wish it would show latest files first.
I also LIKE the fact that the My Cloud does not upload until I want it to, i.e. when I turn on the app. I also have a second backup procedure with a real virtual cloud called Pogoplug Cloud. If the PP app is left on in the background, it will upload media files as they are added to Camera Roll. Well, I don’t like that feature as sometimes I do not want it to happen. So, like I do with My Cloud app, I keep it off when I am not using it, and turn in on if near a decent wireless signal I can connect to (like at home) the uploading goes smoother and faster on my own network, or one almost as fast as mine. Some remote wireless signals are often pretty poor quality.
Working this for myself, is a no brainer, but getting a whole family on board could be problematic. Since it is only my wife and I uploading to the My Cloud, I periodically ask her to give me her iPhone and to update to My Cloud, I look in the stored files we have, notice the last one, go into My Cloud app to the folder we upload into and go to the end of the Camera Roll to find the latest files NOT yet uploaded and upload them. Yes, a bit of a hassle, but because of how I have set up different folders for our separate devices, this is what I must do.to “stay organized” with this task.
This is a must. It also should give a much more detailed listing of what it is backing up and what it isn’t. Google Photos does a good job of showing how many photos are being backed up and on the photo view it shows which items have been synced already, those that are currently syncing and those that still need to be synced.
i quess the problem is that MyCloud is a backing up app not a sync app. Anyway, it should automatically backup new photos and hence running on the background and not paused when changing the app.
iOS has support for background refresh. I as well would like this to be made to update in the backgroun. As of now I have to remember to bring the app up front and wait for it to copy files.
Dude this is an APPLE issue not a WD issue, and I even wrote up a tutorial here how to take care of the Apple issue; just put iPhone Auto Lock to NEVER during a large transfer.
Dude, I read that. I have small file uploads so the locking screen does not apply especially since after taking a photo, my cloud app running in background (refresh set to ON). It never auto backups up to the NAS. Apple permits 3 to 10 minute background apps to run before pausing. So why doesn’t this app upload a simple photo?
Hello, I know that. My question is why WD cannot do what Synology does for their DS File and DS Photo, which does upload in the background. Stop being so annoying
WD’s Android app does not have this issue; it is only the Apple iOS app with the issue, so I blame Apple, not WD. Anyway, it may be a bother to deal with the Apple app, but I have no problems getting the iPhone and iPad photos updated.
So I have the WD Mycloud app in the background all the time. After I take a photo or video it will not auto backup unless I open it. But according to WD’s documentation, after 24 hours it should give a local notification that backup needs to be done. I never get that, and yes I have notifications on for the app.
Let me put it simpler – it works ALL the time because one needs to set auto-
lock to NEVER anytime there is enough photos/videos that even after 5 minutes the uploading was not completed. I just don’t think you tried or understand.
I have other apps that also need auto-lock set to never, example, the new Amazon streaming button at bottom of Alexa app home screen. If not, the music I requested to play on my iOS device will quit after my 1-minute default auto-lock setting.
The iPhone is great, but the auto-lock is not shut off at certain times like these. And as I said in my post ANDROID PHONES DO NOT HAVE THIS ISSUE.
