I have owned a MyCloudMirror 4 TB drive for three years that has exhibited the same problem from inception. Under heavy data transfer, the drive stops responding which causes data transfer to stop. I cannot successfully ping the drive. I cannot log into the drive through the user interface. Lights on the front of the drive appear no different than when it is operating properly. I have moved it to different switches on my network. I have tried altering settings on the managed switch to which it is connected. I have tried changing settings in the drive altering one variable at a time. Internal diagnostics can find nothing wrong with the hard drives or the electronics. I have flashed the firmware multiple times with no change in behavior. I can find no evidence of this symptom anywhere on the Internet. I cannot be the only person experiencing this problem. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there a fix for the issue? Does my NAS drive have a hardware problem?
How are you copying data?
Dumb thing to check: If you are using a PC to copy files. . . make sure the computer is not going to a sleep/hibernate state. This will stop transfer.
Second dumb thing: You know. . .if you are copying lots of data. . . .and it’s a MyCloud Mirror (running OS/5?): Check if the stupid drive is starting to index data before the transfer is complete. I will bet a nickel that the drive can’t successfully do both data transfer and index at the same time (MyCloud mirror isn’t exactly a SuperComputer; and OS/5 is FAR from efficient from a code perspective). If indexing is the issue. . . . .not sure how to resolve it other than disabling cloud services (and expect it to index from scratch if you ever turn it back on. . . which is like having a 90 year old run a marathon in a heat wave)
I am copying files to the NAS drive using Windows 10, which never goes to sleep mode. On the same network, I am using a MyBookLive and a MyCloud drive. Those drives have never exhibited the same problem. They never disappear from the network. The MyCloudMirror is running OS 3, which is the category name under which this post was made. As for lots of data being transferred, I cannot transfer for more than 45 seconds before the data transfer terminates. No indexing is being used because I turned off cloud services long ago. WD no longer supports cloud services on OS 3. The MyCloudMirror drive has been connected to various TP-Link managed Ethernet switches on my network. Makes no difference to which switch the drive is connected. I have configured ports on both the switches and the drive to use auto-negatiation as well as 1000 mbps, always using Full Duplex. I have tried changing packet sizes to all those available, even Jumbo. Again, makes no difference. The drive can set idle for days on end and is still “on” the network. But, if I initiate data transfer beyond 45 to 60 seconds, transfer stops and the drive no longer responds. This is the case even when the ambient temperature in the room is 68 degrees F. I am certain overheating is not the issue. Both drives are healthy and running cool. When the drive disappears from the network, the only way to get it to respond again is to unplug it for 15 seconds and then reapply power. The drive is back up again within 3 minutes. Again, there is no way I am the only user seeing these symptoms. There must be a solution of which someone is aware.
As a troubleshooting step, connect both the Windows 10 PC and My Cloud Mirror to the same router not through a switch, or try using a different brand of network switch (unmanaged). Could be an issue with the TP-Link managed switches.
Do the managed switches have any sort of QoS being performed? If so disable it and test.
The user is not responsible for file indexing. The drive’s firmware and disk operating system takes care of indexing.
That is an idea I have never tried. I will connect the MyCloudMirror drive directly to the router that is within three feet. After a bit of history, I will report my findings.
I connected the MyCloudMirror drive directly to the router and the results are the same. The drive stopped responding within 60 seconds. The lights on the front of the drive remained illuminated. The connection light on the front of the router remained illuminated. I could not log into the user interface and the drive would not respond to pings. Long ago when I started troubleshooting this problem, I connected an APD 4.0 amp AC adapter to the drive to rule out power supply problems. In fact, connecting five separate AC adapters has made no difference. It’s like a series of packets triggers the drive to enter a non-responsive mode. I can find no other mention anywhere on the Internet of anyone else having this same problem.
The My Cloud Mirror may have changed it’s IP address when you connected it direct to the router. Check the router’s administration page (DHCP clients) to see if it indicates connected network client devices and if it shows the My Cloud as being connected along with it’s IP address.
What operating system are you using on your computer? If Windows 11, note that Windows 11 24H2 has issues seeing and accessing My Cloud devices. See the following two links for more information specific to Windows 11 24H2 and suggestions to try.
https://winaero.com/windows-11-24h2-significantly-slows-down-smb-data-transfer-speed/
If using other versions of Windows; check that SMB1.0 is enabled and ensure your Network Profile Type is set to Private and not Public. Temporarily disable any third party security or firewall software to see if it is affecting access to the NAS.
yeah, this is an interesting problem.
It’s troubling that the drive has ALWAYS has had this problem. . . . .now that I read that you do not have OS/5 - - → Indexing won’t be the problem (I might you a nickel).
In addition to checking what Bennor has suggested, verify that the “workgroups” of the PC and the MyCloud match. I seem to recall that being a problem at one point. (Workgroup designations don’t mean much to new versions of Windows. . . but it was a thing when OS/3 was written).
Does this happen with all PC’s? Or just one?
In your last post, you mention a “MyBookLive and a MyCloud Drive”. I take it that the MyCloud is another physical device running OS/3, not the MyCloudMirror? If so. . .compare the network settings of both drives and look for differences. They should be setup the same; just with different IP addresses and different device names. (Having the same device name could cause problems).
I turned off the media services on the MyCloudMirror drive long ago believing it was making the drive work harder than it needed, thus causing it to disappear from the network.
When I connected the MyCloudMirror drive directly to my router, the IP address did not change because the drive has a static IP assignment.
As stated earlier, this problem is occurring with Windows 10 Professional.
SMB 1.0 is not needed on my network because all devices are compatible with SMB 3.0.
The Ethernet network is set to Private. The workgroup name is the same on all three NAS drives.
The MyCloudMirror has exhibited this problem since being taken from the box when it was new. Admittedly, the first time the problem occurred, it took about 30 minutes of transferring files before the drive would stop responding.
The other two NAS drives connected to my network is a MyBookLive and a MyCloud, which are both single drive units. They have never exhibited the same problem observed with the MyCloudMirror. In fact, both of these drives were preceded by each of the same model (smaller storage) and they never showed the same problem. It is only the dual-drive MyCloudMirror that will not stay active on my network.
My degree is in networking. I hold certifications to CompTIA A+, CompTIA Net+ and Microsoft MCSA. In all of my experience in setting up and maintaining networks, I have never seen this issue. Suspecting I might have a bad installation of firmware, I have updated the firmware multiple times with no change in behavior.
This one has me stumped.
huh. I was not aware that OS3 was capable of using SMB 3?
Are the mycloud and mycloud mirror running the same firmware? Functionally, the units are very similar - - and I would expect them to have similar network settings (except obviously that the IP address, port forwarding addresses, and device names need to be different).
What specific My Cloud Mirror device do you have? The first gen version or the second gen version? The first gen My Cloud Mirror I think only supported SMB1 and SMB2, not SMB3.
What firmware is the My Cloud Mirror running?
Yes, a MyCloudMirror allows for a setting of Max SMB Protocol SMB 3. The latest firmware version on the MyCloudMirror is 2.13.108. The firmware is different between a MyCloudMirror and a MyCloud. The units really are not similar in the user interface. There are many more settings available on a MyCloudMirror that do not appear on the MyCloud. It is apparent a MyCloudMirror is intended for more serious applications than a MyCloud. My MyCloudMirror is configured for RAID 1. There is no perceivable difference between having the MyCloudMirror connected directly to my router compared to being connected to a managed switch. It still stops responding during heavy data transfer. If I transfer files that take, say, no more than 15 seconds, it remains alive. But if I hammer it with data transfer lasting for up to 60 seconds, it stops responding. The drive does not respond to pings nor I can log into the user interface. The link and activity lights on either the router or the switch remain on, with the same behavior in flashing for activity. I was hoping someone would see this thread having experienced the same problem and would have a solution.
Perhaps its time to dig into the My Cloud Mirror logs to see if they show any cause. And run a disk check to see if the drives themselves are OK or if they are maybe starting to degrade/go bad. Maybe SSH’ing into the My Cloud Mirror and running the top command (or similar) to see what processes are consuming the devices resources while copying files may help point to what is causing the issue.
The logs only show power was lost and the RAID drives succeeded in rebuilding from the power failure. Nothing more. Remember, the only way to recover from the problem is to remove power for a few seconds and restart the device.
I have observed the dashboard while copying files and the network activity for both CPU and RAM usage remain very low. My device is NOT a second generation MyCloudMirror. It is a first generation device and, as such, cannot run OS5.
I appreciate the suggestions but none of them are the solution, yet.
Other troubleshooting suggestions if you haven’t tried them.
Check the power supply to the My Cloud Mirror. Could be the power supply is faulting or failing causing weird issues with the unit.
Swap out the ethernet cable with a different one (if you haven’t done so already).
As a last resort, perform a 40 Second Pin Reset or a System Only Restore on the unit. Such a restore process should be non data destructive. Sometimes a reset might fix weird issues that crop up.
Pin Reset and System Only Restore a My Cloud OS 3
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detailweb/a_id/27402
Make sure the unit is well ventilated and free of pet hair and or dust. In the end, due to the age of the unit. It is entirely possible the hardware is somehow failing under load. If the unit is overheating try pointing a fan at the unit to provide additional cooling/air movement.
The first generation My Cloud Mirror is End of Support by WD (April 2022) and doesn’t support being updated to OS5.
Support for your My Cloud and WD Cloud device is changing
https://www.westerndigital.com/support/software/my-cloud-os/os3/os3-eos
Western Digital Product Lifecycle Support Policy
https://www.westerndigital.com/support/software/software-life-cycle-policy
My Cloud Mirror (1st gen)
https://support-en.wd.com/app/products/product-detailweb/p/136
Support for this product has ended and is no longer available per WD Product Software Support Status. For assistance Ask the WD Community or reference the online Knowledge Base.
Last available firmware for it was 2.13.108 (4/15/2022)
For those people who still thinks my MyCloudMirror is a second generation device, it is not. It is Gen one. This is confirmed by the fact the firmware is version 2.13.108. Gen one devices have firmware which is 2.x.x. Gen two devices have firmware that is version 2.31.x or higher.
This is my dashboard.
Also, anything that applies to a MyCloud drive does not apply to a MyCloudMirror. That includes firmware, dashboards, operational procedures, etc. They are very different animals.
System diagnostics for Disk Test and System Test always pass successfully. Checking for firmware updates always returns ‘The system firmware is up to date’.
Any other suggestions?
In an attempt to learn more about what is causing the problem of the MyCloudMirror to stop responding when accepting a data transfer, I have discovered something interesting. In all the time I have owned this drive, I have rarely retrieved files from it. The vast majority of activity has been writing files to it for backup. However, in recent days, I have been replicating files from the MyCloudMirror drive to various computers. This has included retrieving files from it in which the data trasfer time lasted up to 10 minutes. That does not seem to be a long time, but remember when I related I cannot write files to it for any longer than 1 minute before the drive stops responding. This bit of information again makes me think a certain combination of bits triggers the drive to stop responding. It doesn’t matter if the Link Speed is set to Auto or set to 1000 mbps. It doesn’t matter if the IPv4 network mode is set to Static or DHCP. It doesn’t matter what the Jumbo Frame setting is set to. It doesn’t matter if LLTD (Link Layer Topology Discovery) is turned on or off. If I attempt to perform a large transfer of data to the drive, it always stops responding after about 1 minute of data transfer. The drive can set for days on end without performing any data transfers and will still respond when I access it. When the drive is in non-responsive mode, the data and link lights on both the drive and the Ethernet switch are the same as normal. I cannot access the dashboard. I can’t access any shares. And I cannot ping it. If I remove the power for 15 seconds and restore power, the drive is back up and ready within 2 minutes. The RAID volumes were successfully rebuilt. There has never been any corruption of the file system on either disk. It doesn’t matter to which Ethernet switch the drive is connected. I have seven Ethernet switches in my home and the drive has the same problem on any of them
Again, am I the only one who is experiencing this issue?
Just throwing this out there, but it sounds like it may be overheating. Have you opened the unit up to give it a good cleaning?
I have an EX4 running 2.13.108. It has it’s own quirks. Periodically, I shut it down, pull all the drives, remove the cover and brush/blow the dust out. The spray the backplane and drive connectors, reassemble and boot. I also do this with my desktops. It’s crazy how much trash they can ■■■■ in, and how sensitive they can be to even the slightest oxidation.