Was reviewing the side-by-side comparison of the two OS features and on the whole OS5 appears to have less functionality than OS3 and what it does have that 3 doesn’t seems not very valuable (mostly search functions).
what am i missing?
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As near as I can tell:
OS/5 Improvements
- Security improvements (Face it: OS/3 is very, very stale from a cyber perspective - and probably should not be exposed to the internet)
- Unit doesn’t automatically index inserted USB drive
- Unit now appears consistently in the Win10 File Explorer Navigation pane (under network). (I never realized how much it annoyed me until they fixed it)
- IOS App seems a bit more stable.
OS/5 Downsides
- App/Web interface is “pretty” but missing notable functionality from OS/3 (no copy command; can’t see multiple shares - let alone multiple devices
- Not compatible with older MyCloud units (ok. . .this is a nit pick. . but I want compatibility to old products… . . )
- The whole web and IOS app seems slick and glossy. . . but it is clearly meant for users with simple “this is cool” needs and 2TB drives; not people rocking 50,000+ images on 8TB drives. The album function seems useless to me
- INDEXING. . . to make the web app work; every share that is web enabled is fully indexed. This TAKES DAYS for multi-TB drives. Most annoying if you don’t really need thumbnails for 10’s of thousands of backup images. Web access is enabled at the SHARE level, and not at the individual directory level. This is a notable flaw.
- No backwards path back to OS/3.
My overall take: I have two EX2 Ultra units. I have the OS5 on one. . .no regrets.
HOWEVER; I am not planning to upgrade the second, larger, main unit until the product matures.
Medium term - - I probably will expose the OS5 unit to the internet; but will only access via VPN. The OS3 unit I keep off the internet.
Long term- - - Meh. I use these units as a file server and for PLEX. They are fine for that application. If I need more. . .
9 Likes
Thanks! that is an incredibly helpful breakdown.
I think you’re right and am hopeful that waiting might allow for more functionality.
I installed it last night and now no Logitech Media Server / Slim devices server option!
Now to see if any version of the app is compatible with Cloud 5.
thanks for the useful information;
Am I right that the “wdsync” and “wd smartware” software for win10 won’t work anymore? does it mean I’ve to re-set all the backup activities and functionality only by the new web interface?
this sounds a little bit puzzling…
There are other things that were working fine in the OS3 web app but not in OS5 just for example
- date and time details on files
- size details on files
- can’t change file extensions
My personal feeling is that the OS5 app is a large step back
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for me it’s a large step forward to move to other cloud system, looks I took the right decision, this thread is very helpful
The only benefit I see is better encryption and probably better against hackers.
The huge downside I see is that it does less!
My biggest issue that I see is that OS3 had unlimited upload data (I presume from phones or web apps) and I backup my phone daily with pictures and videos, docs, etc along with my wife, etc. Now OS5 says it limits this uploading to 5GB!!!
Again it is limited to 5GB WHY???
Why is uploading limited to 5GB? This will kill the whole idea to backup my phone’s files every day.
Why WD, WHY???
Software should not be a huge step back.
I have a friend who is big into into Synology servers and with software like this from WD it makes a lot of sense to get away from WD. They hate their customers!
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I just wrote a reply complaining about OS5 now limiting uploads to 5GB down from infinite!
They blocked this post temporarily so I’m making another post. I just want to know why do they limit uploads from phones to 5GB? This makes no sense?
@Whywhywhy It‘s not 5GB in total, it‘s a limit of 5GB per file.
This affects me badly but it doesn‘t sound like it will affect you.
Nevertheless I agree with everything you say
I have some large video files I make on my phone and not backing them up because the software says it is too large at 5GB is outrageous. My server should not limit my uploads at all.
There is no risk of hacking for uploading larger files than 5GB. Hackers don’t upload huge files like that.
More than likley Hackers would download gigabytes not upload them. Again WD is not working in our best interest here, WHY?
I first saw this email from WD saying there is a new OS5 to upgrade from OS3 thinking great things about WD like wow that is very thoughtful of WD. But now that I get into the details and see it is a step back I can only assume there is something with this software that helps WD or someone other than the customer but they want the customer to migrate to it with no possibility of going back to OS3.
This is outrageous and proves WD is not working in our best interest. This makes me mad to be honest. I went from being amazed to being enraged!
This is the only reason I joined this forum is to vent about this OS5 from OS3 and how it is worse than before and that WD must not like customers.
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WD is out to make money.
Happy customers one path to making more money.
Marketing new customers is another path that can be taken in parallel.
At the risk of turning this into a “Let’s *itch at WD thread” (too late, right?). . . I think I can understand what is going on here.
FIRST. . . the WD OS3 software was woefully obsolete. The app is old. The NAS software. . .basically swiss cheese.
SECOND. . . .I don’t think it is a secret that some of WD competitors are offering some compelling software solutions? Many positive reviews. . . significant functionality. I admit myself as having considered buying a competitor unit in the recent past
THIRD. . .The hardware itself (in my case, the EX2 Ultra). . . still holds up. (as I type this on a PC that was purchased with the initial release of Win7)
So given these facts. . . .pretty clear that someone at WD was smart and said “we need new software”. The stuff of the WDhome line. . . . was not going to cut it for multibay NAS units. (You think users are complaining NOW? - they have not seen WDHome)
So someone wrote a “functional spec” for new software. Probably prepared a nice powerpoint touting web functionality; showing cool graphics; fresh interface; some cool concepts like “photostream” and “albums”. Some executive said “do it”.
Then I think things. . . went sideways. . . from everything I saw in the BetaTest; it just felt like WD developers had locked in a functional spec; with a fixed scope and a fixed timeline (and budget)
I bet we don’t have “copy” in the web app because someone forgot to put it into the powerpoint.
I bet we can’t view multiple Shares or NAS units on the app because someone forgot to put it in the powerpoint.
There was notable BetaTest feedback on the feature set. . . but the testers were asking for things not in the functional spec. . . potentially would have blown up the release schedule (budget). . and we got a bunch of bug fixes but no feature fixes.
I bet that the powerpoint “end use cases” only spanned a few simple cases (I mean. . .how much can you cover in a 2 hour powerpoint presentation?) - and addressed mostly the casual users. Us crazies who have three NAS units on the shelf (me); or 50,000 images on a drive (me); or are doing bit-torrents (not me). . . .are too small of a market segment (or too demanding).
As an aside. . . I can understand not allowing backwards migration. I suspect (do not know) that the OS3 app has security issues; and I suspect (do not know) that maintaining BOTH OS3 and OS5 servers (and software) is a bit costly.
The sad part is. . . .I have an older MyCloud unit that is NOT on the OS5 list. I suspect somewhere down the line we that unit will lose web access. Although truth be told - - - I only allow VPN access to that unit. . .because of security
On the plus side. . . as I said above. . .the WD NAS firmware seems a bit more robust with the fresh debian build. It just feels more stable. I believe (hope - - > I have no evidence) that the security is much better. Some annoying OS3 bugs have been cleaned up.
So I have three WD Nas units. One is too old for OS5. One is a beta unit with OS5. The third, my main drive, I am going to retain on OS3 until the OS5 web apps improve. The new OS5 base NAS software is really good. . .but the OS5 web apps leave me cold.
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I’m just stating the facts here about what they clearly made in OS5 vs OS3. They made the table so you can clearly compare the 2 versions and it is obvious that the new software is going backwards.
I’ve got a 24TB EX4100 4 drive Server from WD and if I want to upload a large video file I created I should be able to do that. OS3 supported any size and now OS5 supports only 5GB.
5GB? Look what Synology supports? 16TB! That is about my free space of my 24TB server with nothing on it! 5GB in a video file gets eaten up fast particularly if you make youtube videos.
Again WHY!
Here’s Synology’s maximum upload file size:
- What’s the maximum file size Synology NAS supports (for DSM 3.0 and onward)? The EXT4 format which is used on the internal hard drive inside Synology NAS with DSM 3.0 and onward supports up to 16TB for a single file. For more details about EXT4 format, please refer to ext4 - Wikipedia.
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see my name. DO NOT UPGRATE
DEAR WD!
IT WAS A QUITE EVIL ACT FROM YOU TO FORCE ME WITH HONEY-GLAZED WRITINGS TO UPGRADE MY DEVICE.
I HOPE ALL YOU DEVELOPERS ARE HATE YOURSELF NOW.
THIS C_AP THAT YOU CALL ‘OS5’ IS AN UNDER DEVELOPMENT THING. WHY YOU COULDN’T WAIT UNTIL YOU FINISH IT??!!strong text
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No more remote backups between MyCloud with OS5 and MyCloud with OS3 (like my EX4 than not support anymore and not have OS5 upgrade). WD it’s a shame!!!
All I can say is WOW! I’m sure glad I read all this before updating my PR4100 NAS drives. I was really disappointed when they took away the ability to remote map drives and now this. I won’t be updating mine until they bring back the functionality/features or I just make the leap to Synology or Asustor, whichever comes first.
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It is ridiculous that OS 5 removes the Logitech Squeezecenter/Squeezebox/Media Server functionality. That’s one of the main reasons I bought this product, and it’s been working like a charm on OS 3 for the past few couple years for me. Now I’m back to running Squeezecenter on my Desktop, which means never putting the Desktop to sleep. Sigh…
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Do they still support Plex Media Server? I was JUST about to upgrade to OS 5 but I’m weary about the Plex Media Server and Port forwarding. I know someone that has the my Cloud Home and its COMPLETELY different from the EX2 Ultra that I have. I just hope we can get the same port forwarding features that we have in OS 3 and the Plex Media Server on the new OS 5 update. Can anyone confirm that these are still there or dare to upload screenshots of the User Interface so we can see how it looks like?
Ive tried looking for videos of it but couldn’t come across any.
Thanks!
