I’ve been battling local area network access with my old MyCloud EX2 (Gen 1, OS3, latest firmware) for some time now. Tried all the supposed fixes (SMB1, NetBios, etc). Quite accidentally, I switched the EX2 SMB from 1 to 3 and - Hey-Presto -it appeared in network explorer. Great… for a couple of days. Then it disappeared again. So I changed the EX2 SMB setting back to 1 and - yes, you guessed, it re-appeard… for a couple more days. The it disappeared again. Switched the SMB from 1 to 3 and it appeared again. Great… for a couple of days. Then it disappeared again. So I changed the SMB setting back to 1 and - it re-appeard!
No idea what’s going on but I need to change the SMB settings every other day-or-so to get the EX2 to appear in network explorer/mapped network drive.
First, I presume this is a “network explorer visibility” issue; and not a true access issue. I will bet you can access the drives just fine if they are mapped; or you type the device name (or ip address) in the address bar.
I presume this, because I have been having this issue for YEARS - and have never found a solution. As near as I can tell - - - this is a network “Master Browser” issue. One device on the network will become the “master browser” and will hold the browse list that is displayed in explorer. I think when an OS/3 device comes on the network. . .it gets added to the list and everything is fine. If the “master browser” reboots; or switchs to another machine; the OS/3 device gets dropped.
While this sounds like a network problem (because it is); there is an issue in the OS/3 code causing it. I know this - - - because it was fixed in OS/5. And I have another NAS (non-WD) that does not have this issue.
(PS: This was one of two annoying OS/3 bugs: The other being that the default for USB drive insertion was to index it. . . .and the device more or less locks up while indexing. Once it is done; you can change the default for that specific USB device. This was no big deal for empty 1GB USB keys. BIG hacking deal for 4TB HDD’s loaded with images. This default was also fixed in OS/5).
(PPS: The resolution of these bugs was still not enough for me to keep OS/5 on my devices)
Hmmm… I will have to explore this further. Not completely sure if this is a network visibility issue because I can simetimes map the drive and others can’t. Like you, I don’t have this issue with my OS5 MyCloud devices (or my Synology NAS) so I’ll keep investigating your observations.
