I have some questions about transfer speeds with the following devices.
My Cloud 2 TB firmware v04.05.00-342.
Verizon FIOS modem/router.
Dell laptop running latest Windows 10.
New-ish Samsung smart TV
Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone
I can stream moves fine from the My Cloud to the TV with no buffering and I can quickly download a full high quality music album to the phone. But transfers to/from my laptop seem to take for ever. I tried to upload about 130MB of photos from my laptop to the My Cloud (through mycloud.com) and it took over ten minutes. And that was at 9pm when I was the only person using any divises in my appartment. I ran a speed test after uploading the photos and it said 68Mb/s.
So why such a slow upload to the My Cloud? How come the TV and phone can transfer quickly but my laptop is slow?
Are you away from home? Is that why you are using mycloud.com instead of drag and drop or copy and paste?
If it were me moving the photo’s I would select all of them and drag and drop them in my pictures folder or the folder I select on my, My Cloud.
I have Windows so I could also Copy them to the Pictures folder of my, My Cloud. See example image below. Click on, tap or activate image to enlarge it.
I suspect it is because a videos is a large file that most likely resides on the same area of the disk. The photos are probably hundreds of files maybe located on different parts of the disk. Each photo it requires that the OS open file file read the file. Send that file to the My Cloud which needs to allocate disk allocate an inode then write the file. Then close the file update the inode and possibly journal the inode. All of these activities take place on different parts of the disk. Which causes head movement.
That is my thoughts on the slowness.
PS I missed the mycloud.com statement which would definitely add more time.
When it comes to using the MyCloud.com interface I assume this means your Dell laptop is at a remote location? Otherwise there is no need to use MyCloud.com to access a local network My Cloud. Short answer, many factors affect uploading/downloading speed through the MyCloud.com web portal no matter how fast the “advertised” speed is for the connections at each end.
Now the very long answer. So assuming the laptop is at a remote location that complicates matters. Your TV is (I assume) accessing the My Cloud through the local network using either WiFi or Ethernet. As such there are fewer potential speed bottlenecks between the two devices. Plus when streaming media generally is different than pure copying a file from one location to another. Streaming does not typically download the entire media file to the TV (or other client device) all at once, rather the My Cloud media server sends chunks of data to the client device (the TV) as the media is played/streamed. That is one main reason why you may not notice slow transfers when streaming media unless the connection (typically wireless) is poor or one is trying to stream one or more huge media files at the same time through a 10/100 or Gigabit network connection or a slower speed WiFi connection. The client device buffers data before it begins playing it then receives more data in chunks as it plays.
For remote access one has a large number of potential bottlenecks that affect speed. First is the upload speed at the remote location. Next is how one is connecting to the internet at that remote location. Using WiFi? If so what are the capabilities/speed of the WiFi adapter in the laptop, the WiFi router it connects to? Both can affect speed transfer. Next is the connection between the remote location and the My Cloud. One cannot control any network issues affecting speed between broadband points. Next is the download speed of the broadband connection the My Cloud uses. Then the network speed of the My Cloud connection to the router. Next, the actual speed capabilities of the drives storing the data are a factor. Not using SSD means one deals with how fast a mechanical hard drive can write data to it’s internal “platters” (magnetic storage). There are many more issues but the final one is the size and number of files being transferred. Large number of small files can affect the read/write speed of the source and destination drive. Depending on the media encoding of audio files they may be significantly smaller sized that image files.
On many broadband connections the download speed is often faster than the upload speed. Plus when using a remote location’s internet they may have additional network/firewall settings that limit your connection speed by using things like router QoS limits so your massive file transfer doesn’t affect other users on that local network. Using a cafe style WiFi hotspot node likewise may have similar speed limits in place.
Was your phone using WiFi or a cellular data connection at the same remote location as the laptop? Using Cellular Data is a different broadband connection (generally) than using a laptop using WiFi to a local network router. Was the phone test made at the same location as the My Cloud connected using WiFi to that local network My Cloud? Way ore information about the exact test setup is needed to fully and accurately compare transfer speeds when comparing two different devices.
How did you run a speed test between the My Cloud and the remote devices? Did you use an online speed test like speedtest.net? If so that is only testing the broadband speed (from your computer/phone to the remote speed test server), not the actual speed between the remote device and the My Cloud.
So as you can see many factors can affect one’s transfer speed especially when at a remote location. Only a few of the possible reasons for slow speeds are mentioned here there are many others.
Just to clarify I was at home when I was uploading the photos from my laptop to my My Cloud. I used the website because I’ve had problems being able to see the My Cloud in Windows Explorer. When I first got the My Cloud I used a desktop program that came with the My Cloud. I think I was running Win 7 back then too. But it looks like that program is no longer supported on Win 10. Can someone suggest another program or is mapping the My Cloud in Windows Explorer the best way to go?
The My Cloud Desktop progra is end of life since 2016 and no longer works with the My Cloud running recent firmware updates.
If one is having trouble seeing the My Cloud in Windows 10 File Explorer, make sure SMB1.0/CIFS is enabled. Microsoft disables SMB1.0 in recent patch updates.
One can always “map” a My Cloud Share to one’s computer.
If one was using the MyCloud.com web portal from a local computer on the same local network as the My Cloud that could be one cause for slow transfer speeds. Uploading a file from the local network computer, to the internet to WD network that routes it to the My Cloud, then back to the same local network where the My Cloud resides? Yeah that would likely be a bit slow depending on one’s broadband speed.
