After update to Mac OS 11.1 Big Sur my My Cloud Home stopped synchronizing my documents previously set up. The Time Machine backups continued normally after the update. After contacting WD support I was referred to a newer version of WD Discovery (old version did NOT prompt for update). Installing this newer version did not automatically restore the previously working folder sync. I had to once again select each folder and select Sync from the context menu. This started creating new duplicate folders in the My Cloud Home drive. Then I saw it was still backing up the original folder names as well. However, the blue dot under the folder name that indicated synced folders never returned. And it seems that beyond this first file sync after the updates, the folders are not continuing to sync regularly. The context menu for those folders still shows they are synced (only option is to Unsync) but it is not happening automatically or any perceived schedule. I tested this by deleting a file on my Mac and after 2 days it still appears in the My Cloud Home synced folder - no updating happening, How can I get the file sync working properly again?
Hi, thanks for the post. Very helpful. I’m new to WD My Cloud Home, and to this forum. I have a MacBook Pro with Intel CPU and Big Sur. I set up WD My Cloud Home and was initially unable to sync at all. Based on other posts here, I uninstalled WD Discovery, and reinstalled v4.2.288 for Big Sur. I was able to launch syncing of 4 folders, and then ran into some of the issues you described. Have you made progress since your post?
Two of my synced desktop folders are working fine in the updated software, but still unclear on what schedule. Maybe once a day?
My Pictures folder shows ‘Unsync’ in the context menu, showing that it ‘thinks’ it is syncing, but it has not since I upgraded the software last December. I tried to ‘unsync’ with the object of restarting it again from scratch, but that doesn’t work. I have been using Amazon Photos to back up this folder instead. I guess WD doesn’t monitor these posts. Maybe I need to contact support again.
PS. Unsync apparently did work with delay. I then clicked on Sync Folder in the context menu and My Cloud Home created a new folder Pictures 1 and started to sync the contents once again. I will delete the original Pictures folder (last sync December) when it finishes copying, and follow up if the new folder remains updated.
Interesting. My initial impression of this WD product is: HW is very nice. SW not ready for prime time (at least for Macs). Thanks again!!
My impression is that not many peripheral suppliers to Apple can keep up with updates from Apple and so their products fall further and further behind until Apple end up supplanting them with Apple’s own products and sell it for 5 times the price. So, yes, you could see a personal cloud storage or personal attached storage from Apple that sells for $599 which will do what a $125 WD unit does.
But guess what? MacWorld says for 2020, the best attached NAS type of device for the Mac is…
Apple offered a NAS product for about a decade. It was called AirPort Time Capsule. They pulled it from the market a couple of years ago, I think.
OK, so I experimented some more: it seems that WD Discovery has a very basic upload algorithm. If you don’t pace the number of files you send to the WD drive yourself, it will choke on them. I launched three folder syncs, and after a while, my computer stopped doing everything else: no internet bandwidth to do anything else, and fan on overdrive. The WD extension is quite capable of wreaking havoc on Finder too. It also seems that if TimeMachine decided it’s time to do a backup to the WD drive, My Cloud Home may get ejected from Finder.
I still have an old Apple Time Capsule. The wifi capability was so dated, I replaced it with a faster router. It was also being used for Time Machine backups but after a couple of corrupted and useless T.M. backups connected on gigabit ethernet, I got the My Cloud to replace it. I never found any inexpensive software to sync individual MacOS folders to the Time Capsule, so what I saved on it was copied manually. When My Cloud works, it does an adequate job although I wish the automation process was more transparent.
As you say, the WD software is flawed. The owners manual is outdated and doesn’t address the sync timing question. It doesn’t work if the software is not logged in with your user/password. When rebooting, the My Cloud app didn’t restart and the desktop icon disappeared. Logging into the app fixed that.
The new Photo folder sync that i started earlier today is still running. I haven’t had any problem with the T.M. backup on My Cloud at all. Even after the WD software update, that function continued to work automatically.
