I like being able to access MY Cloud data on my phone. But I discovered I can see it when I am on another network away from home. That is not good. If I lost my phone the finder could see my data. I assume I need to set a password to access my cloud. I’ve read many of the postings and tried a couple but I still have not figured it out.
I have never attempted to use WDMyCloud on anything else than a PC or Mac computer, so I have not seen the interface used for phones.
For PC and Mac you can install the Desktop Application where the files and folders are displayed.
Unless you set a password this application is indeed always open and anyone with access to the computer would be able to access those files and folders as well.
In that same screen you can set a password after selecting the “device options” icon (a small square icon with three horizontal lines). I would expect something similar would be available on your phone.
Forgot to say: “write down” the password exactly as to be used BEFORE you type it in twice.
In case you forget it, you may have a hard time to get into the application (as I am finding out).
The drive is attached to my PC via my LAN. I don’t use it to backp the PC but as my data drive so I can access the data from my 2 PCs and phones. I turned off sharing based on one suggestion, but then I couldn’t access the data via my PC. Turned sharing back on.
I’m using the My Cloud app on my phone. Thought it would only work on my network. But to my surprise it works across the internet. Not good.
@fRisby
I only use the MyCloud when I’m in a WiFi network. I don’t have a mycloud account, for accessing the NAS when I’m outside of my home. whenever a WiFi connection is established, I have access to my cloud. I guess this is what you are saying too, right?
for me this doesn’t bother me too much, I even like it that way, because I have Access to my NAS/Cloud even when I’m not at home, by using the WiFi connection at work or at a friends place.
the user I use in my app has read_only rights to all shares, except for its own share, where the pictures-sync goes to. in case I would really lose the phone and someone would be able to access my NAS via the App on my phone, I could simply remove the user or disable any rights so that no folders cannot be seen by my read_only user anymore.
never log in with your admin user via the MyCloud app, create a read_only user and let him see the shares it needs to see and that’s it. that way you cannot accidentally delete sh!t from the NAS when you muck around in the App either.
other than that, you should also lock your phone with a code or fingerprint scan.
Thanks for the information.
What you are doing is what I “thought” I was doing. I’m configured as a user (Bob) and all my PC data is in my Bob folder on the drive. It includes files that should not be public. Should I move my photos/music to the public folder and then restrict my phone account to that folder? Will that change how I can access the current Bob folder from my PC? My wife streams audio to her phone. We have the Bob account on both phones. If I need to set up a different user I will.
Sorry to ask so many questions, but I am struggling with the setup.
@fRisby
I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve, but here’s what I do: I use the WDMycloud basically to store my media(musik,photo, videos), so that I can stream the sh!t onto my tv or via app, or download the stuff to my phone when I have WiFi on. the android app backs up photos from my phone to the NAS, which is also totally fine. other than that I do not back up my complete pc on a regular basis or something like that. the NAS is purely my media server and photo/music backup only, nothing else. If you are doing the same or use it for a similar purpose, I’ll try to explain how my set up works:
I have 3 users
-admin
-me
-mywive
the admin user has read/write rights for all the Shares on my NAS. with this user I work on my PC to move files from my PC to the NAS.
by default there were 3 Shares when I first set up the NAS, Public, SmartWare and TimeMachineBackup.
I don’t use any of them, they’re all empty. Instead I created a Share called “Media”, which has basically the same structure as the Public Share, with the subfolders
-Music
-Videos
-Pictures
except it is not “public”. my user and my wive’s user have read-only rights for it (Media Share), it means they can only stream or download stuff from the Share, but not upload to it or delete from it. just to be on the save site that nothing gets deleted accidentally, when mucking around in the android app.
to make the files “public” for my TV or other streaming devices whithin my household, I simply make Twonky scan the Media Share for Music/photos/videos
http://123.456.789.10:9000/ (your_WD_ip_address:9000) → Sharing
me and my wife’s user have their own shares too. (same name as the username, in your case it would be a bob Share for your bob user ). each user has read/write access to their representive Share. the android app uploads my photos from the phone to my user’s Share automatically as soon as I’m in WiFi. my wive’s phone does the same of course, but to her user’s Share. I can also upload files manually from the phone to my users share if I want to.
so basically when I open the android app, I only see two Shares
- myuser (read/write)
- Media (read only)
and my wive has - heruser
- Media
of course I could also create another Share, and only let my user see what’s inside it and not my wive’s user, or vice versa, but I don’t need it. for sensitve data that should not be seen I would create a different Share and a different user that has read/write rights for it, and not let my user or my wive’s user (the users that use the andorid app) see it, but that’s just me.
in case my phone gets lost and the finder opens up the app, he will find nothing, because by then I will have disabled any rights from my user.
hope I don’t sound too confusing lol
Your explanation makes sense. Now I just have to change some of my setup. I’m using the NAS as my primary data drive - not as backup. That way I can share the data with my laptop.
I’ll create uses for myself and my wife and move the appropriate files there.
Thanks again.
Sorry to bother again. I set up a user for photos, music, etc that I want access to from our phones. It has a public share so we can see it. The “Public” user is empty. The problem I have is the user that has all our normal computer data that should not be public. I thought I had the issue solved then I made it “not public” and made the user have a password. I did not see the user name on either phone and I was accessing my data via my PC.
Later when I tried to access the PC user file files it asked for the password. I gave it but could not get into the files. I did an admin entry and updated the password. That still did not work. Finally I resorted to making the PC user public so I could see my files. Unfortunately I am back to the original problem. The files are visible on our phones.
If you know, why won’t the password option work? I even tried having the password for the user while it is set to public.
You have been a big help in my setting up the device. If you don’t have an idea, I will repost some of this thread so others may read and answer.
Figured it out (I think). I mapped the PC user as a drive and was able to turn off its public share. Now I just need to confirm my laptop can see it.
