I’m confused…could someone please help me understand.
When I read the support doc here:
it says: " The My Cloud Home Public Share is designed and implemented for Windows File Backup. It is not designed for local LAN storage access. Although is can be accessed on Windows and macOS, it was not designed to be used as local LAN storage.
I attached the drive to my network, and can easily access the Public share from my computer, and even access from the ancient WD Live media player. I can copy files to/from any folder in the Public share. This seems to contradict the statement above. Can someone please explain what I’m missing?
Further down on the doc, it says: " Private User space cannot be accessed by:
Windows Networking"
Does this mean, if I map a drive in Windows, I cannot do anything using Windows file manager? Only if I connect to my network, and use the Public share, I am able to use the drive using Windows file manager. Is this correct?
Accessing the Private User Space from Windows or macOS as a mounted ( mapped ) network drive must be accomplished using WD Discovery Desktop App for My Cloud Home.
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting: https://support-en.wd.com/app/ask
I guess to simplify, if I want to use the drive as a mapped drive to use private space, I need to use the Discovery app.
If I want to use the drive as a network drive to use public space, I can use Windows networking, for example, Windows file manager.
I still don’t understand why they say " it was not designed to be used as local LAN storage.
It seems so easy to use it as LAN storage. Is there some hidden pitfall I’m not aware of?
I’m not really asking for troubleshooting. I’m only asking for any knowledge that anyone might have regarding why they say “it was not designed as LAN storage”, and yet my experience is it seems very easy to use for LAN storage.
Which leads me to think maybe I’m missing something, maybe a future “gotcha” which I don’t see.
You are on the staff - is there any reason you know of that this device is not good for using it for LAN storage as I described? Or is it only for marketing purposes that they don’t want people to use it this way?
I know you’re often helping folks, which I appreciate… if you could share any ideas, I would be grateful… or if anyone else has thoughts, I would welcome them.
Looking at whats said ther maybe a better wording would be ‘not primarily designed for general LAN storage’? As it is capable of more than just that.
That said, I have also found it extremely convenient to use as a general shared dump but that side of it is totally open to everyone which isn’t always ideal and you have to trust that nobody gets careless or needs the space that your stuff is inconveniently occupying.
When I first bought mine I was annoyed it wasn’t quite the same as the NAS I had expected it to be though the combination of using it properly via the WD-drive-mapping and ‘improperly’ (as it were) as general spare network space has worked out fairly well.
A bit vague but maybe the answer to your question is “I don’t see why not”
Thanks mcgrgho, that’s a bit of relief, at least it seems I haven’t mis-understood the device.
My purpose, (and I’m the only user), is simply to use it for backup, while being able to access the data from other computers on the network.
