PLEX on My Cloud Home - WD Limitation to Add New Libraries

My Cloud Home - Personal Cloud Storage My Cloud Home
1

Dear Support Team

I recently invested (like many others) in purchasing a “WD My Cloud Home” device that what was advertised to run many other applications including Plex with an option to customize/tailor the settings to suit our requirements.

Having bought the device, with all enthusiasm I setup my Plex Media Server on the WD My Cloud Home, which created a Plex directory with default sub-directories for each category (home movies, movies, music, photos etc.)

All these steps were relatively painless to follow, till I discovered that I cannot add any libraries or modify the default ones to include any sub directories to classify any of my media content as its missing the “Add folders” tab.

Creating a new library is possible on the Plex web app however neither an option to add/point the physical library is available nor a physical drive folder is created on the WD My Cloud Home. Thus proving it impossible to create/sort any media file other than dumping it all under the default generic folders created on the WD My Cloud Home. PMS doesn’t appear to recognize custom library folders on the WD My Cloud Home drive. This makes having custom libraries apart from the defaults impossible.

For example, I can add as many "Movie" type libraries as I want, but they will all point to the "Shared Movies" directory inside the Plex folder, and as a result, will display the same content. This seems very limiting, and from the little bit of documentation I can find, this seems to have been done by design. Does anyone know a way around this, or if this will change in the future?

I’ve tried all that possible to see if it was relative to the way I set it up, but failed to find a solution till I stumbled by the same experience and issues posted by a lot number of users. I understand that this is a limitation has been reported by

It appears that this was an intentional omission and a significant limitation for people who have invested a hefty amount in purchasing a falsely advertised product, as seen from the Section titled “Can I create my own libraries?” on the link

WD’s intervention to enhance the existing limitation and adding the provision to select a folder on the drive to associate with a library would be highly regarded and appreciated as this is a must for anybody who wants to make use of their valued investment to organize media/libraries into more than the default built-in libraries “Movies, Photos, Music, TV Shows, Home Movies”.

2

Plex accept just one library for Movie (if you make change inside of folder that Plex crated on mac cloud home change name etc Plex will not be able to found folder) you can just crate different folder name inside od master folder “Shared Movies” library (folder “comedy”, “cartoons” or “vacation” etc)

3

Hi, if you have used PLEX outside of the WD My Cloud system, you would have know that PLEX allows you to create sub-folders with each of its directory,
As an example on a PLEX Server running on a Windows 10 device.
Shared Movies
Shared Movies / English
Shared Movies / French
Shared Movies / Kids
etc

On WD My Cloud Home
Shared Movies

Not only that WD has limited the ability of managing the files it also has cut down core features of PLEX.

1 Like
4

Thank you so much for this. I was into this issue and tired to tinker around to check if its possible but couldnt get it done. Now that i have seen the way you did it, thanks guys
with
regards
shareit UC browser MX player

5

Well Jason, the issue is still there. its not resolved as we use the Plex client on the WD MY Cloud Home.
We need a resolution from the WD team, not just a mere discussion in the forum.
I am not sure how we could escalate this to the WD team.

1 Like
6

Here are a couple of ways to try.

You can ask WD about this in the new community.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/list/session

1 Like
7

Have tried all means… still no resolution.

8

I think everyone has the same problem, They should come up with a solution for this … it’s so annoying to be forced to have all content in the same category. If you know of any solution please share it… I’ve been looking but have found none.

WD support doesn’t reply even to my hate mail … so dunno what to do anymore.

9

Has anyone received any updates on the issue of creating libraries or customizing the current ones? I have enjoyed trouble-free streaming with the Plex’s default settings in My Cloud Home for a couple of years. But now I find myself in need of libraries to better customize my content in Plex. After much research on this topic, it appears that as we approach 2022 this still is an ongoing problem. I’m hopeful someone I’ve missed the “Solved” comment along the way, or at least a workaround that can assist in what is being requested in this thread.

If not, after waiting for so long, it’s hard to believe so much stock has been put on a company whose customers’ needs are not top priority.

10

I have found WD to be quite unresponsive to any critical posts. I discern that their policy is to not reply on the premise that the stink will fade with time if not encouraged by them giving an immutably indefensible statement on their part. My issue with them is not that they have failings with how their NAS systems work, but that they don’t inform the consumer up-front on what I consider to be flaws (at best) and outright malfunctions (at worst).

 For my part, I purchased one of these 4TB MyCloud Home units in 2021 and have had issues that, had I known about them, I could have easily avoided. In the process, I discovered Plex and was enthusiastic that it would work on this device. But, I spent literal hours trying to figure out how to get the "Folders" button activated when adding a library--to no avail. Then, I happened on this thread. Just another example of WD's disregard for their customer base. 

 Do they really think that I will either purchase another one in the future or recommend their NAS offerings to others? Not until I see something fundamentally change in their organization that causes them to be at least responsive to their customers, if not consumer-centric. They don't seem to care; as if they have cornered the market. They have not and will see their share slipping as more players enter the space. I'm far more inclined to attempt a TruNAS homebuilt construction for my next device. I'm guessing I can piggyback the MyCloud Home to it and make Plex work correctly from that angle.