So disappointed with the EX2Ultra apps

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX2
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I’m a long time WD NAS user. I’ve gone through the WDMyWorld, WDLive, WDMyCloud and have now moved to a WDMyCloudEX2Ultra.

I want so much to love my new drive but must admit that the EX2 ultra feels like it’s a forgotten piece of hardware in WD’s mind. I work in IT and see that other NAS manufacturers just seem to be able to produce much slicker software.

Basic NAS functionality is fine. However, the apps (or in particular the apps I’m interested in) are such a let down!

The Acronis app, described at Cloud Apps: My Cloud NAS Data Storage Apps | Western Digital, says “Acronis True Image backup software backs up your entire system image (bare metal backup)”. Clicking on the “download” button (to download the WD edition software) on the website does nothing! The actual app, when installed on the EX2, just seems to redirect you to the Acronis site to buy the full version! Not the solution I expected, and stinks a little of miss-selling.

The Arcus surveillance app works great for two cameras, but when you try to buy anymore, you get taken to a website that says “If you clicked on this link, you are using an older version of Milestone Arcus. In order to get your free camera license please go to your WD NAS dashboard to the apps section and download the latest version.”. My EX2 is running the latest firmware and the Arcus app is the latest version so… what gives? Also says that my current license runs out on 14th November 2017!

Am I just experiencing some odd behavior with my particular drive, or is this just a shoddy piece of kit?

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Hello speef,

Maybe you should try contacting WD’s Technical Support about this.

To Contact WD for Technical Support

https://support.wdc.com/support/case.aspx?lang=en

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And what a waste of time that turned out to be!

The response from WD Technical Support firstly was “can you please advise if you have downloaded the latest version of Milestone Arcus?”. The obvious answer was yes - since you can only download the latest from the NAS web interface.

This was followed up by WD Technical Support with “At the moment the WD Store is not able to handle Milestone Arcus license purchase requests for internal reasons”

The product description for the NAS devices says it comes with “two licenses”. It fails to mention that these expire after two months (stinks of misleading advertising if you ask me) and if you want to buy more, you can’t through WD but have to find a reseller of Milestone Arcus products, since they don’t sell direct either.

I’ve asked WD Technical support to advise further but plainly you can’t rely on the product page to be a true and honest reflection of what you’re buying.

Overall a very poor experience.

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wdcloudex2-

I bought this on sale not realizing it was a end-of-line product. Ah well, still works, kinda.

Seems like a decent device, and we all don’t need 30 apps running on our NAS’s as per competitor boasts, but it would be nice if this NAS did the little bit it’s advertised to do.

I too found out about the “Acronis” deception and am not the least surprised by your Milestone Arcus revelation. Per the Acronis issue, all you need is a WD drive and the Acronis will be fully useful, except not when they’re in your Mycloud/book/ex2, then they won’t be recognized. This is fraud. They’ve got 5 different way to backup, but not one will do the thing most people buy a NAS to backup for, and advertised to do. Shameful. Had to buy my own backup software. Pooh pooh you say? Ya well it was advertised to do it.

Relegating photo/video/thumbnail indexing to background lower priority tasks, that can be then be elevated when the unit is not in active use, would seem like a simple useful use case. And not too much to ask for. Because of these tasks running 100%, any file serving during indexing, renders the NAS functionally useless. If I have to dump even a relatively small usb drive on the NAS, I can be guaranteed a functionally useless NAS for half a day.

Using Mycloud software reminds me of using the infuriating “tape backup” software back in the day.

The lack of response to so many issues, the running around to find some kind of a resolution to these issues, makes me question my choice to upgrade with WD or a competitor. A PR4100 was on my sightlines, but now I have to seriously re-evaluate this position.

This is what happens when software and mgmt decisions gets offshored. The QA dept can’t be doing a proper job either. Take a look at this … Prevent MyCloud from scanning files when Cloud Access is enabled - #4 by PEMAMETAL . What is that? a string in a numerical position. A memory leak?, maybe, how long is that sting?, what else is it overwriting? Sloppy. And QA hasn’t caught this? From the first version?

And before WDStaff chime in and throw a link at me to create a support case, … just what is your job? to read these issues and ignore them? I would think you would rank the relevance of a users complaint, take it to whatever you have for support, and create a case, and get back to the user. Too many complaints? then write proper software and QA it properly before marketing makes you throw it out the door. Then you could write responses like “we’re glad you find our product useful” instead of “here’s a link, go create a case yourself (cause I’m done with it)”

I’ve read here of far too many real substantiated issues that go along for years in some cases, then being strung along, “we’ve acknowledged this, and passed this along to the devs”, only to have the staff come back time and time again to ask the user to create another case, again, as the devs have no idea.

So many things to get right on a new product line, but on a NAS, one would think a https login would have been a design spec.

/rant, sry

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Well, WD support have been pretty useless!

All they did was offer me a discount on any other products I bought from their website. Absolute waste of time. When I responded to say that this wasn’t a satisfactory answer, I didn’t get anything back. 8 days and still waiting…

Based on other comments on this forum, it does appear that WD NAS drives are just not up to the job compared to their competitors. I’d advise anyone thinking of purchasing to take a long hard, and considered view. You’re loosing out WD…

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I completely agree with your statement " WD NAS drives are just not up to the job compared to their competitors". Not a single update (even for security issues) for months in all the ecosystem: NAS firmware, NAS apps and Mobile Apps… I bought two units a couple of years ago, and looking for future replacement out of this brand, even though they were the fifth NAS I bought to this company, not a satisfied user anymore.

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I also am disappointed with my EX2 NAS. Not because of the hardware, but because of the software and the totally lacking support for it. I can’t even find a documnent about how to operate Amule or Transmission. That appears to be a well kept company secret. i com e from Synology, and I think I will get rid of this thing and run righjt back.