USB port for Time Machine Backup?

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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  1. Is it possible to do ongoing Time Machine Backups to an external drive that is attached to the USB port on a 2013 2TB mycloud (WDBCTL0020HWT-00)?

  2. If #1 is yes: I attached a 12TB WD Element external drive to it and it showed the data on it was 0 GB of 0 GB (which I know is incorrect. I’ve been using it as a back up location for the last few weeks). I then attached an older 64 GB thumb drive and it showed 13GB of 64GB. So I know the USB port works.

  • Is this a formatting issue? What is the recommended format for the WDBCTL0020HWT-00 to be able to access my external drive?

  • Would the problem be that I need to buy an older external drive?

  1. If #1 is yes, what do I need to do to make it possible to select the mycloud USB port attached external drive as the save location for the Time Machine back up? At this time, I do not see that 64GB usb as an available back up disk in Time Machine. (Obviously it is too small, but it should still show up in the “Select Disk…” prompts.

My mac is a 2014 macbook pro running BigSur. I am using My Cloud OS3, my device is not supported for OS 5.

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On the USB drive issue. One needs to ensure the USB drive is in a format that the My Cloud supports. For the single bay My Cloud models the USB drive should be formatted for: NTFS or HFS+ or FAT32. In some cases one may also have to delete all the partitions on the USB drive and re-partition the drive with one single large partition before formatting that partition to one of the three supported formats.

External USB Drive File Systems Supported on a My Cloud
https://support-en.wd.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19225

One should be able to change the Time Machine save location through the My Cloud Dashboard > Settings > General > Mac Backups > Time Machine > Configure setting. Then select the USB drive Share as the new Time Machine backup Share.

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FYI a number of similar past questions on using a USB hard drive attached to the My Cloud for Time Machine backup can be found using the forum search feature, magnifying glass icon upper right.

https://community.wd.com/search?q=time%20machine%20usb%20hard%20drive%20category%3A105

For example, two past discussions:

How to expand Disk size for Time Machine Backups
https://community.wd.com/t/how-to-expand-disk-size-for-time-machine-backups/230284

Time Machine connected to the USB Port
https://community.wd.com/t/time-machine-connected-to-the-usb-port/90994

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Thanks! I have been using the search feature, but hadn’t thought to search with the words “Time machine.” I’m sure that will help a lot.

Thanks for all you do!

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Bennor, I wish my family could bake you cookies and send you 2 large pizzas. :slight_smile: A 5 months long journey getting the data/photos from my family’s various old external devices consolidated, a new 12TB WD external drive into our fireproof safe, those old devices and drives recycled, and Time Machine Backups happening with our mycloud is officially…COMPLETE! It would have been impossible without the awesome support you give each day on this forum. I’ll never buy anything, but WD for the rest of my life. Please forward this to your boss, on my behalf.

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Good to see you figured it out. :slightly_smiling_face: I am, like most others here in this user to user support forum, not an employee of WD. Came here with my own My Cloud problems and stayed to learn more about how to fix or hack the My Cloud device from others, and help others from time to time when I can with their issues over the years.

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Then just tell me where to ship the cookies. :slight_smile: sloanauto at geemale

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Hey guys,

I’m trying to assign my WD external USB drive to time machine on my EX2 Ultra.

Every time I try to assign the USB ‘share’ to time machine, the change doesn’t ‘stick’. it always reverts to public every time.

The WD external is partitioned to EXFAT so I know it’s not a format issue.

Any ideas?