Hello, I am trying to set up a new My Cloud and am struggling to understand how all the accounts are related. It seems like there is a device account and a personal My Cloud.com account all tied to my email address. In addition, I have a WD Community account. And then, there are the individual accounts for myself and my family that I set up in the device dashboard. I’m at a loss as to how all of these things relate to each other. And I also don’t understand how the account I create for someone on the My Cloud relates to their My Cloud.com account. Help! This is ridiculous!
Start by reading the single bay My Cloud User Manual (https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=904) if you haven’t done so already. It explains how to use the My Cloud and it’s various features/options.
For local network access to the My Cloud one does not need to create a MyCloud.com account. For local network access to Private Shares one would need to create Users through the My Cloud Dashboard and assign them a permission level to that Private Share.
To access the My Cloud from a remote location one would enable remote access/cloud access for a User account created through the My Cloud Dashboard. When one enabled cloud access for a user through the My Cloud Dashboard > Cloud Access page an email is sent to that email address directing one to create (if they haven’t done so already) a MyCloud.com user account. That account allows access to the My Cloud using the MyCloud.com web portal along with the WD apps/software. That account is SEPARATE from the main User account created through the Dashboard > User page.
There is a default “administrator” account for accessing the My Cloud Dashboard. The administrator account is generally indicated by a green check mark on a User name in the Dashboard > User page. The account you configure when first initializing and setting up the My Cloud is the administrator account.
Have you read all of the information provided in the Dashboard and Help that is also provided in the Dashboard?
Have you read the User Manual for your generation of My Cloud?
You apparently created a WD Community account because you wanted to ask the rest of us who are members a question. This is a community to answer questions and try to help each other solve problems with whatever WD device we own.
Have you ever set up User Accounts for the rest of your family on your computer? See example image below for Windows.
You can do the same on the My Cloud (Computer)!
A person using a Windows computer can go to Microsoft, Microsoft Support or other sites to look for information and get Help. That is why WD provides Help and a community to help out.
Thank you, I did read a majority of the information and it was still a struggle for me to follow. I wish your summary was in the manual. If I am the admin, is there any practical reason to also create a user account for myself in the dashboard for local network access?
The point of creating Users is to configure who has access to what Shares when those Shares are set to Private. Creating Users also allows one to grant them remote access to that My Cloud. If you are the sole user of the My Cloud it is up to you if you need additional users.
The admin user/password is only for the My Cloud local network access and to access the My Cloud Dashboard.
User accounts/passwords are for local network access to Private Shares.
MyCloud.com web portal accounts are for remote access using either MyCloud.com web portal or WD apps/software.
The account you used on this website (community.wd.com) is solely for this website (and possibly one or two other WD sites but NOT for the MyCloud.com web portal).
