While, in principle, I can understand what they were aiming for with the My Cloud Home (user friendliness), they have, ultimately, made it more unfriendly to novice users.
I got this because I saw it as a possible upgrade to the WD devices I already had (upgrade is usually a good thing, right?). Was excited to get it plugged in and expand my storage so I could continue adding to my media library and continue watching in the same way I had been for years, but that wasn’t the case.
Previous devices were simple. Just plug them in, go on my laptop, then drag and drop the files into the public folders, then I could stream them on my TV through the infuse app simply. It was just that easy.
Now a cool feature of the My Cloud Home is that I can watch whatever is on the device from anywhere using the app on my iPhone, iPad, or whatever. If I set it up as a Plex server, this too, in principle, is a great addition, but why the incredible restrictions compared to previous devices? I understand security concerns, and the need to have private/public folders, but surely there is a means for the user to simply choose one, the other, or both?
I understand there is a means to access a public folder, but I have yet to be able to find the ability to do this on my Mac without having to use the WD discovery app and being logged in. This also inhibits my ability to stream the videos as simply as I did before using the infuse app, so in order to ensure that the My Cloud Home wasn’t a complete waste of money (as I wouldn’t be able to return it), I had to set up the Plex server and transfer a large portion of my media onto there.
This initially completely obliterated my internet connectivity, again, another source of frustration. Some have said this is a Plex issue, others have said it’s to do with the set up, so I upgraded my router, and the issue with connectivity seems to be resolved, but my point is that I shouldn’t have had to do any of this, not really.
In favour of trying to broaden their customer base, they have alienated people with a mind-boggling change in their product, and frustrated many with little-to-no actual solutions.
Now that I seem to have resolved my issues with it (after over a week of trying many different solutions), my confidence in WD has been shaken, and when it comes to expanding the storage once again, I will probably look something that isn’t WD, or doesn’t lock me into using Plex (which itself is often really buggy and has poor customer support).
