MyCloud keeps disappearing off network

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
41

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll see if i can find my problem in those links.

Would it be a SAMBA protocol windows issue if i have the issue with androids as well?

I don’t understand why having the fixed IP on both the PR and the router would be a problem.

It would seem I’d have to enable DHCP on the PR if fixed IP was removed but the router’s fixed IP for the PR is outside of the range of the router’s DHCP , wouldn’t that cause more problems? The PR would be asking for a lease and the router is saying no, you get an IP outside of my lease range Why is it more of a problem if both the router and PR both agree that the IP address is the same agreed upon IP and that it is set to a fixed permanent IP on both?

42

Yes. The Android OS or individual Android app could be using SMB to access the local network. Devices of all types (Windows, Macintosh, iOS, Android, Linux, etc.) use Samba/SMB (and or other network protocols) to access network clients.

Because it is a bit redundant. As a troubleshooting step try reserving/assigning it within the DHCP server’s settings of the network router/gateway and set My Cloud IPv4 DHCP setting back to default of DHCP so it pulls that reserved IP address from the router/gateway.

Generally when the My Cloud, is configured for DHCP mode it will poll the DHCP server (typically on the network router/gateway) for it’s IP address. The DHCP server will either hand out an unused IP address from the defined IP address pool OR it will hand out a reserved IP address (an address that is reserved either inside or outside the defined IP address range/scope) to the My Cloud if the reserved IP address matches the MAC address of the My Cloud.

43

I really appreciate the assistance here, thank you so much.

I had already made the SAMBA and NTML changes a couple months ago when this problem first was discovered to enable SMB 1, and NTLMv1 based I what I found in some other forums.

Also, I’ve already tried dhcp enabled auto ip on both PR2100 and router, changed to reserved IP only on router within DHCP range after the next time it dropped from the network and switched to fixed IP on both PR2100 and Router outside of DHCP range based on some fixes discussed in various forums the next time it dropped.

If it were a samb​a or NTLM configuration setting were incompatible with a device, why would it work on 4 different androids and a Windows 8.1 laptop for two weeks with no issues and then suddenly disappear from the network for all five devices? If a device wasn’t compatible with the SAMBA or NTLM protocols, wouldn’t it always be invisible to that device? I don’t get how If that were the problem it would work for 14 days and then suddenly stop.

Sorry, I’m networking neophyte, and I really appreciate the help.

44

Has anything changed on the local network recently? New hardware added? Firmware on the router or devices updated?

Its possible a firmware update or OS update introduced the issue. Or it could be a bad network cable (heats up and disconnects for example), could be a failing network port on the router or the My Cloud, could be a failing PR2100 power supply. One troubleshooting step is to reset the PR2100 back to it’s default settings and see if the issue persists.

Another troubleshooting step is to check the My Cloud Dashboard Alerts/Notification icon and see if any warnings or notices in there indicate anything. One can dump the logs from the PR2100 and review them to see if they show any issues or warnings.

45

Update for this continuing problem.

Per earlier instructions, i moved the fixed IP to be within the range of router DHCP assignments and set the fixed IP within router and turned off fixed IP on PR2100 (i.e. enable DHCP).

I replaced LAN cables that i tested with a LAN connection tester. The PR2100 #1 NIC is wired directly into a router port and the #2 NIC is wired to an Access Point cabled directly to a different router port. The NICs are configured as “Active Backup”.

I have two power supplies both plugged into a UPS.

I’ve updated the firmware to v5.24.108 as of 9/20/2022.

I turned on extended logging and have reviewed both logs from the PR2100 and my Router each time it drops off the network. I have noticed nothing unusual in the router logs and the only recurring message at the time of discovery of network drop is: “SAMBA. CIFS: Authentication for user [username] has FAILED.”

I have even swapped ports and cables on both the router and access point with other devices wired to them that did not drop off the network.

The power supplies are both plugged into the same UPS but if that failed my whole network would go down, which has not occurred. I do have power recovery set to “on”.

I understand when you can’t solve a problem the default answer is a 3 finger salute, or in this case reset to default config and start over, but the out of the box configuration is where I was when the problem first occurred. The only things i had done on the out of the box config was set up shares and install and load plex app and data. All the configuration changes since then have been all forum driven solutions to this dropping problem that originated with the out of the box default configuration.

Ive got 200 hours invested in plex playlist designs and resetting causing me to do that over again just to get to a state where the problem originated is not satisfactory.

I’ve got 43 devices on my network, most without redundant network connections and power supplies. I’ve had a camera here or there, or garage door controller drop offline maybe once a year or so normally caused by a firmware upgrade.

But this NAS is supposed to be designed to be up and running reliably all the time…that’s why it has two NICS, two power supplies and mirrored RAID drives…and this one device built for resiliency drops inexplicably in 4 months more than all my 42 other devices combined over the course of a year.

Really need a valid solution here. I mean think about this. The most basic thing this device is supposed to do is be available on a network all the time to access files. If it can’t stay on the network it is by definition a faulty product.

46

There is an older thread that discusses that error message that has some suggestions.

One troubleshooting step is to connect the My Cloud directly to a computer’s Ethernet port and run it that way for a while to see if the MY Cloud drops out when directly connected to the PC. That might help narrow the issue down to either a My Cloud issue or some weird network issue.

Also note that this subforum deals with OS3. If one has updated to OS5 (v5.x firmware) they should see the dedicated OS5 subforum for their device if they haven’t already. Suggestions that may fix issues on OS3 firmware may not work on or apply to OS5 firmware. With the OS5 firmware one should have options in the My Cloud Dashboard > Settings > Network section to set the SMB and other network protocol versions that may fix certain network access issues.

Personally if I had one device that kept dropping off the network I’d disconnect all other devices on the network except one computer and troubleshoot. I’d make sure no shares are being mapped to the PC. With a large number of network clients its entirely possible one of those clients is introducing or contributing to another device dropping out.

47

It it drops off every 2 days to 2 weeks. I think it is unreasonable to disconnect everyone and everything from the network for two weeks to figure out why a device made to be available on the network isn’t.

I have a mapped network drive on my PC but that was added after this problem occurred. Once again, kind of a useless network drive if it cant be used for mapping a drive but ill remove it.

I spent two months going through the old OS versions of this problem and did all the setting options and protocol options that were supposed to fix this problem. They didnt work.

Thanks for the help.

49

Or you can just move the My Cloud to its own network if you have a spare router available to test. Either way if you want to troubleshoot properly the issue it means isolating devices to ensure either the My cloud, other network devices or even the router the My Cloud is connected to isn’t the cause.

Plex can be finicky to work with on certain devices.

50

Moved to a different network and router. Will monitor and report back.

51

Well, i moved it to a different router. The TP-Link router (not wireless) has been the most reliable and only dual wan router I’ve had for my 42 other network devices. I’ve had ASUS, NetGear, Linksys and Gryphon routers before, not with the PR2100 connected, but i would say they were all far more flakey the my old fashioned TP-LINK wired only router that supports dual wan and 20,000+ sessions.

I will monitor the PR2100 on it’s own network but I’m very skeptical that the router is the cause.

I will report back if regardless of whether or not it drops.

Thanks for the suggestion, isolating a failure point is the right approach.

53

The PR2100 is dropping off the network. You cannot access NAS dashboard because the NAS login screen is inaccessible, nor shares, mapped drives are disconnected, pings say host is unreachable, and arp -a from command prompt shows that the NAS IP is no longer on the network.

I have to cold boot it to get back online.

At first I would discover it because I wanted to use Plex, but I couldn’t even get to the the NAS login screen.

Now, I’ve made it a habit to check if the NAS login screen is up a few times a day. That’s normally how I discover it disconnected again.

I set up email alerts from the system but the only alerts I get are “power failures” when it comes back online after I cold boot.

54

If you haven’t done so already. Dump the PR2100 logs, both system and extended, and dig through them see if anything in them indicates a possible reason. Helps to keep track of approximately when the device goes offline so you can look around that time in the PR2100 logs to see if there are any issues or errors.

OS5 System Diagnostics
https://products.wdc.com/nas0s5/nasum/en/MyCloud/ConfiguringBasicSettings_part2/Utilities.htm?rhsyns=%20#IX_about_21

1500×2080 185 KB

55

As i said earlier…

57

It only took 21 hours for it to drop off the new network.

To isolate if it was the router, I connected my PC to the network and mapped a network drive to it since the only log info was the SAMBA CIFS: Authentication for user [username] has FAILED, as previously mentioned.

With today’s drop from the new router, that was in the log for 6 hours, not dropping from the network until 6 of those messages were logged hourly. The NAS was available on the network for all 5 of the first 6 hours of those log messages.

I’ve disconnected the mapped drive from my PC and returned the NAS back to my router.

I was also saving file history from my PC to the PR2100 which I have turned off for now.

We shall see if it drops with those connections broken.

59

I concur about the authentication error not making sense as the cause of the network disconnect, but I’ve got months in trouble shooting this problem and that’s the only issue left.

While it might not be known for network issues, mine certainly has them. I could see an intermittent faulty NIC in what is (other than for me) a normally reliable device, but both NICs?

What is my resolution if it is what you describe?

Use it as a boat anchor and buy a synology instead like I probably should have from the get go?

61

Regarding cabling…
Network settings below

Screenshot_20221013-233350_Chrome
Screenshot_20221013-233350_Chrome1080×2400 147 KB

63

So buy another one to prove the one I have doesn’t work?

Does that sound right to you???

What if I save the configuration file and buy an empty pr2100 and stick my drives in it?

65

Few more suggestions for what it’s worth. Not sure you’ve indicated but when you are testing for the drop out do you have both LAN ports on the PR2100 connected to router’s, AP’s or other devices? If so perhaps try one LAN port at a time. Might help isolate if the issue is tied to a specific LAN port.

In your screen capture in one of your posts indicates SMB v1, v2, v3 is selected. Because the error appears to be Samba related, I may have missed it in all the replies above, but have you tried changing SMB to v2, v3 or just SMB v3? Have you tried disabling NFS Service? Maybe give disabling LLTD a try?

Not sure its been asked or indicated in all the posts, but what third party apps are installed under the App tab? I think Plex was mentioned but are any other apps installed there? Maybe one of them is causing a conflict.

You’d think if this error was common there would be more people reporting it. But there doesn’t appear to be. Which hints at either a specific hardware issue or software configuration issue with your particular PR2100. I suppose one could try going to the extreme and disable Samba/SMB all together and try using other network protocols to access the PR2100 to see if that solves the drop out issue.

66

The first couple months it was on just NIC #1.

First couple months, was just using SMB V2 & V3. Added V1 as suggestion to fix the problem per this forum.

I just diabled NFS service. Will give that a try for a while.

I believe i turned on LLTD when i was having problems with File History from my PC connecting to the PR2100. The problem was occurring long before i turned that on. I will try turning that off after the next drop to isolate the NFS configuration change.

Only app installed is PLEX… the reason i bought this NAS.

One thing i should add that i think is weird.

Each time it has disconnected, all the status lights on the PR2100 are lit as normal operating status.

Last night when i disconnected it from the temporary router i connected it to the original network without powering it off. The status lights didn’t change and the NIC lights flashed as usual, but it still did not appear on the network.

Think about this for a moment. If you have a pc on a network and you disconnect the patch cord and then plug it into a different network it gets a new IP from the newly connected network and appears on the network. Why wouldn’t the NAS do the same thing?

Its almost like the NAS thinks everything is fine but it isn’t processing packets to or from the network. It shouldn’t take a reboot to have the NICs send and receive packets.

Before dumping SAMBA protocols completely I think I’d try replacing the box.

Appreciate your help.

67

Have you tried reserving an ip address in the router?