My Cloud Vs My Cloud home - Confusion

Legacy Products My Cloud OS 3
1

I am a my cloud (original) user, 4 tb. I love it. I wanted to add a second one and went to a local store where I could only purchase the my cloud home in an 8 tb. They no longer carried the older version over 6 tb. I was explained that it’s simply the newer version of the original my cloud.

Fast forward, I have set up the new device and discovered major differences that I am not excited by.

I am hoping other users who have both can advise me before I take the my cloud home back and purchase an original my cloud. I did like the “dropbox like features” of the new version. I hated having TWO different places to login and see those devices. I have a newer MY BOOK 8 tb EHD and it will not be recognized as “additional storage” on either the old or the new cloud. Previously I could use my older WD My Book 2 tb while it was connected to the older my cloud device.

Additionally, this my cloud home device created TWO places for me to store things (that’s a bit confusing, why does it need two?) I have a Z: drive AND a MYCLOUD2017 and my original WDMYCLOUD. All accessible inside my file explorer. The Z drive appears to match the dropbox like cloud that is now offered.

My older My Cloud started with one device folder… Public. We created additional of these folders (they appear with a green and white sideways Y under them as a main folder… I am not sure the actual name for them). Inside the new My Cloud Home, I have the same “Public” option but appear not to be able to create additional spaces like previously.

Last but not least, new users are invited and then get a private space no one else can see. Seems odd and unnecessary. As the main person, anything my husband puts in there, I need access to.

Am I missing something? I love the idea of the dropbox like features but if I’ve lost the original features that allow management and create these TWO spaces vs one, then it simply won’t work like I’d like. I have dropbox, I like it, and that’s great but I can’t use only a PUBLIC folder/drive. I think I want to use it as a hard drive/cloud like the older one and it appears those features are gone unless I am mistaken.

Hopefully others can comment and tell me what I am missing. I reached out to support by phone and was given zero answers. I am thinking tomorrow I will return this My Cloud Home and purchase an older version somewhere.

Here is an image that gives you an idea of what I am talking about. The new one is on the right and the older one is on the left and you can see how the two devices are listed plus the third Z drive.

I forgot to mention. I have a Sony blu ray that I can see photos, music, videos from my OLD my cloud. It’s great for watching some of my class videos or personal videos on the large screen tv. The new one doesn’t show up at all. :frowning:
And I apologize this was so long, and appreciate any replies, advice, or feedback. I think if I could get the folder structure and the device to show via the blu ray, I could make it work and utilize the new features but I don’t think that’s possible from what I understand.

Example-MyCloud
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2

Take it back; you were advised incorrectly.

The Home is a significantly different beast.

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So just no hope for it. Get the older version? I see it’s available on the WD website and on amazon but no one carries it locally above 6 TB. I wanted at least 8 TB.

4

See that comment from Great_Scott (WD Staff) in my (edited) post.

5

WD has a knowledgebase article covering some of the differences between the My Cloud and the My Cloud Home products.

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=18909

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Sadly, that page provides no useful information on the actual features offered. I’d suggest scrolling through the Home forum, and reading some of thge earlier posts, where the consequences of the differences become apparent.

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I’m fairly UN-technical so I understand bits and pieces of things in the comparison.

I asked my husband to review it. It appears the new my cloud home is faster. Not sure that means IRL would actually transmit data faster or not. This is a problem on the older my cloud.

I’ve been sorting through some of the threads but can’t nail down the biggest specifics, like the folder structures and why the device wouldn’t show through my blu ray. I can’t put an app on my blu ray, it just shows computers and drives on our internal home network.

I’ve been a fan of WD products but they have always been easy and trust worthy. I just feel like how could they remove the good things about the my cloud and completely change this. Maybe I am really not missing anything and it’s just not going to work. I hate the idea of wiping it and driving it back to the store though. I wanted to give it every chance.

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It has a better processor and more RAM. But people are reporting that it is effectively slower to access, because it requires an intermediary piece of software running on the client computer, to provide access; it is not a traditional NAS running a file server:

I haven’t seen Great_Scott for some time…

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The more I read, the more I wonder if an older my cloud is even worth going to instead. There are posts that WD is discontinuing it which makes me nervous to even buy another one new. I was considering buying it directly from WD but some posts indicated a difficult process to return if something went wrong.

Maybe there is no overall good solution out there?! I’m feeling negative. lol

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The new My Cloud Home is not a traditional NAS. I think WD made it to be easier for users that are not familiar with NAS devices. this may be the case if you have never used a NAS but if you are familiar with previous My Cloud or other NAS products the My Cloud Home may be missing some things.

The My Cloud Home uses private user space for every different user. You do not have to create users, shares, and assign access permissions, all you need to do is invite someone using an email address. While this is easier the current implementation is a bit limited and although each user has their own storage space data cannot be shared between users. Some people from WD have commented this feature may be added in a future update but have not given any time frame.

The way it is accessed is different as well. The My Cloud Home still has a default share that is accessed via SAMBA which is a network protocol. This has to be there for things like Time Machine and Windows file history to work. The other way to access the drive is using WD Discovery. After WD Discovery is installed it will mount the logged in users private user space as a network drive. What is stored in the default public share and what is stored in the private user space are not using the same protocol and you cannot see data in both at the same time. This is why you see it listed in different locations on the computer.

Devices like your blu ray player are probably looking for network shares like the default public share and likely would not be able to see anything in the private user space unless there was some integration between WD and the Blu ray player manufactures.

I have both the old My Cloud (PR4100) and the New My Cloud Home Duo. They both are useful but they do have vastly different feature sets. I have found that I like the My Cloud Home Duo for some things like ease of data access. I can install WD discovery on any computer in out of my home network and the private user space will mount as a drive. Super easy access to the data from any computer I use with out having to use web access. That said I still rely on the PR4100 for managing multiple users and sharing data between them.

While the My cloud home does not meet all of my needs and I am glad I also have the PR4100 it has been perfect for my mother. I got her one of the 8TB single bay versions and she has had no issues syncing her pictures folder to the drive and sending share links to family and friends. For cases like that where you need easy to use functionality it seems to be a great fit but i realize it could be seen as lacking for other users.

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drlucky - you said some things here that caught me…

BluRay - public share. I tried adding something inside the public share folder… it still didn’t show up via the blu ray. I was hoping that was a simple fix like that but it didn’t work initially.

I like how you explain the private user share vs the default public share. I think that’s great if I could get my folder situation under control. I could live without the blu ray access but it would make life easier.

The folder situation that is my biggest frustration with this is how to create additional share folders. Like my original structure. Does it have any way to do that, do you know? I haven’t found anything like what the previous my cloud version allowed us to do.

My husband agrees we should take it back. The problem is that no one carries the 8 tb original my cloud in stock. I’ll have to order and have it shipped if that’s what I want to get again. I am not sure if there is a better solution altogether.

12

That link provides more information about hardware than actual differences between specific features of the My Cloud and My Cloud Home. Point is that it is an official WD document outlining some of the differences even though its heavily weighted to the hardware features not firmware features/options.

Like other WD products one has to dig through these user to user support forums to find out how they really operate and what features are not just marketing hype.

One should also download the user manual for each product to get a feel for what the device is capable of, at least according to the product manual.

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Those product manuals are terrible (since the word s u c k can’t be used). I tried that… lol. The forums haven’t really given much insight other than make me feel negative and question my purchases. lol

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no, there is not a way to add multiple shares like you could in the older my cloud products. You can create as many folders you want in the private user space but only people logged in to WD Discovery using your log in could see them. If you have multiple users logging in they would only see folder they have created in their private user space. WD has said they are working on sharing data between users so hopefully that will come at some point but they have not made any commitment as to when that may happen.

Amazon has the 8TB My Cloud available if you want to order it from there.

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Indeed it does. But I don’t think it will be helpful for the OP, or their intended Home customers, who probably don’t care what the hardware is; they just want it to do useful things.

Even a geek like me is more interested in the function than the fact that it uses a faster processor and has more RAM; it’s still a consumer storage device.

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I figured that’s what I’d have to do. It’s a bummer. They have so much good if they could get over the hump.

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Thank you for this thread! I have searched all over the internet about the differences between the two. WDs description only focused on the hardware difs but not the functionality. The Cloud Home is completely different and is not, in my opinion, a traditional “upgrade”. It is a new product line. I wish I had read this thread before I bought the Home because the original My Cloud has exactly what I am looking for in a NAS. I do agree the setup and accessibility are easy but lacks lots of features of the old. A big one for me is to selectively choose what I want to sync with my Dropbox account. I also would like to share files and folders with others not set up personal spaces which seems odd to offer. Yes the hardware specs are impressive, the auto camera save(works 50/50 of the time), and the addition of Plex server is cool (when it works). I guess I’ll have to wait for firmware updates with the features I really want for a personal cloud solution.

One last note, when I posted my disappointment on this forum, WD has yet responded to my issues!

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Chances are slim to none that WD will respond directly to you. This is mostly (almost entirely) a user to user support forum.

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Gotcha thx! I have put in tickets with them as well. One tech worked with me on the issue with the auto camera backup working half the time. Of course I get the “re-install the app” repsonses. :slight_smile:

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My My Cloud [2TB] allows me to plug in an external USB hard drive and does an automatic backup every night.

From the manual of the My Cloud Home, it doesn’t look like a 1TB version has that capability. It looks like you have to shell out big $$ for the Duo.

Am I correct?