Time Machine issues with DL2100

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud DL Series
1

Hi
Has anyone else experienced Time Machine issues with their DL series in recent months? I have a Mac Mini with a DL2100 and have operated for a number of years without any real issues. However in the last couple of months Time Machine would only back up a few times before coming up with a verification issue with the database and asking to override it with a new database which rather killed the point of TimeMachine. Took the issue up with WD who gave me the run around with potential fixes all to no avail. Then more recently I cannot back up to the DL at all and neither can I log in via Safari as it keeps timing out. Instead I have to use Chrome to log in. WD told me they had explored everything and it was not their problem but something to do with Apple and Time Machine.

A very quick search of their site (having first complained on the Apple community) shows that Apple no longer support Time Machine on NAS over afp but instead use the SMB specification. This move has been apparently on the way for several years. Of course my DL2100 is set up to support Time Machine over afp it won’t work if you try to switch it off.

So how come WD didn’t know this and are they planning to fix it any time soon as unless they do my DL2100 has become a redundant bit of kit other than for holding my music and photo databases?

Am I the only Mac user on the WD community or have other Mac users encountered this problem? At the moment I am investigating rolling back my OS to one that does work with Time Machine until WD come up with a fix. But I am disappointed that this has not been on the developers radar given the DL2100 was sold to me as a Time Machine compatible device and they should have known a the time that the protocol they were using was no longer going to be supported by Apple

2

Same problem here as well.

This was a great solution that I have used for a couple of years. I originally had speed problems but then updated to use both Gig ports and performance was good. Then Apple started making OSX Server changes until they removed almost everything that was good about OSX Server then this change as you identified moving from AFP to SMB.

Not certain when WD will update. Last evening the DL2100 and DL4100 had updates but that did not resolve the Time Machine problem.

There is also the need to have the DL series enable version control for Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

I like WD. Historically they have had good products and support but lately the lack of support is becoming a problem.

WD - please resolve

3

Carl
I am pleased you posted this on the WD Community Forum as I found a solution but couldn’t remember where I had posted the problem! Essentially it is possible to override the afp protocol so that TimeMachine does communicate with the DL via SMB. Since implementing this I have had no Time Machine back up issues and it has also fixed a number of other problems where the DL seemed to lose connection with my MAC. Hope this helps you, I originally posted this on the Apple Support Forums:

I now have Time machine working perfectly with my WDMyCloudDL2100, as well as successfully storing my photos library on the drive in spite of other naysayers on alternative threads. The latter is achieved by creating a sparse image and the solution has now worked for 2 years without issues see (How do you get Photos to work with a NAS … - Apple Community).

However back to TimeMachine the issue I faced was indeed to do with the protocol and the fact that Apple no longer support AFP - thank you to JG for putting me on to this. The good news is that although MyCloud is set up to work with AFP you can change it to work with SMB. As ever before doing any of the following back up your computer first.

The first thing to do is to erase your current Time Machine set up on your WD device:

  1. Ensure that the TimeMachineBackup" share is set to Public Access.

  2. Log into the my Cloud Dashboard and Turn off the time Machine Backup Service.

  3. Log into My Cloud Dashboard > Settings > Time Machine > Turn Off.

  4. Go to the Shares Tab and Delete the “TimeMachineBackup” Share

  5. Reboot the My Cloud

  6. Follow steps to recreate the Time machine Backup Share.

  7. Log into my Cloud Dashboard > Shares > create new Share: TimeMachineBackup > Set as Public Access on

Perform a My Cloud System only Restore:

Having done this you now need to change how TimeMachine works with your WD Device. How to do that is shown here:

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21360/related/1

Having performed this operation you can:

  1. Go to the Settings Tab > Time Machine Toggle On.

And hey presto you should find that TimeMachine works over SMB fine and your back ups work as they are suppose too. It took quite a bit of interaction with WD to get to this stage, they had all the information but no-one seemed to be aware that my issues were to do with SMB, once I explained they pointed me straight to the right direction of how to fix it. Not sure why they could not do this as a Firmware update but there we go.

I hope this is helpful to others who might have encountered this issue and save you trolling the internet and WD for resolution.

4

Peter,

Thank you for posting this. I just came back around to addressing this need.

Here is the order I needed to follow.
The first thing to do is to erase your current Time Machine set up on your WD device:

1.1. Remove TimeMachine backup target on all machines before proceeding. This will stop Time Machine on that computer which needs to happen anyway so don’t fret.
2. Do that for all computers/servers. Do not proceed any further until that is completed. If you do not then problems could arise from that computer that is using AFP because we are trying to force SMB protocol. I was able to do this from El Capitan to the latest Catalina version.
3. Log into the my Cloud Dashboard
4. Turn off time Machine Backup Service (located in ‘Settings’ tab)
5. Delete the “TimeMachineBackup” Share (located in ‘Shares’ Tab)
6. Reboot the My Cloud
7. Log into my Cloud Dashboard > Shares > create new Share: TimeMachineBackup > Set as Public Access ON
8. 7. Perform a My Cloud System only Restore
9. 8. When completed turn ON Time Machine Service (located in ‘Settings’ tab)

Copy-Paste: Having done this you now need to change how any computer works with TimeMachine on your WD Device. How to do that is shown here:

https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21360/related/1

I only had two variations of using the CLI command errors and that was on some of my systems. To complete I needed to go into
Apple - System Preferences - Security & Privacy - Privacy.
When there I needed to unlock to make changes. Then I needed to locate ‘Files and Folders’ and add ‘Terminal’. There was a minor change to that as some had ‘Terminal’ app available but not set. When that was completed I could use the CLI and Time Machine connected.

Those changes are minor to what you published and are most probably due to the many different servers and desktops we have. Right now all servers and desktops are loading up their first TM backup. Let’s see what happens.

Thanks for sharing this. Hope everyone is healthy and safe

Carl

5

Carl

Glad it worked for you as well, again you have reminded me that I need to do it for my wife’s laptop. I am going to see if I can fix hers without all the steps as don’t want to delete my own history but we will see.

Hope you are all keeping well over there.

Peter