I purchased a 2TB My Cloud… the unit has created a few hidden files that are duplicating the items that I sync. Question 1) Can I delete this folder? Question 2) How can I keep my unit from creating this file. Question 3) how can I just backup and not sync?
The hidden folders are part of the WD Sync process. They may contain the files that allow one to restore a deleted file or restore a previous version of the file. If you want to just backup your computer then use Smartware (Windows) or Time Machine (Macintosh).
Another option is to not use WD Sync at all and use a third party sync program like Free File Sync (
http://www.freefilesync.org/) which others are using to sync to their My Cloud’s.
Also, if you haven’t done so already, you should read the My Cloud User Manual (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=439&type=25)and the Smartware User Manual (http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartware/um.asp) to learn how to use the My Cloud, WD Sync and Smartware.
http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=11395
Additional help and videos can be found at this link: http://www.mycloud.com/learn/?id=mycloud
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Bennor, thanks for your help. However, I still need to know how to stop the Cloud from creating all of these history files. I have 2tb of space, 500gb of files, and once a week I am having to locate and delete 1.5tb out of this history file.
The “Cloud” is not creating the files, WD Sync program is. As explained its part of the way WD Sync works. The program keeps up to five previous versions of a file it syncs. There doesn’t appear to be a way to disable that version feature or reduce the number of versions retained within the WD Sync program. There is some possible explanation on the .WDTemp folder in particular in the following post/thread:
https://community.wd.com/t/wdtemp-folder/145676/16
For some the WD Sync program works fine, for others its nothing but problems. Again, the solution is, if you need a sync program but are having trouble with WD Sync that cannot be resolved, don’t use WD Sync use a third party program like Free File Sync (link posted above). The downside however with third party solutions is remote syncing isn’t possible or requires additional unsupported modifications via SSH or using the insecure FTP.
If one only needs a backup program use Smartware for Windows or Time Machine on Mac or use a third party backup program. There are several free third party backup programs, here are a few of them:
EaseUS Todo Backup Free: http://www.easeus.com/
Macrium Reflect Free: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
Paragon Backup and Recovery 14 Free: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
FreeFileSync also does ‘simple backup’; just select ‘Mirror’ mode, rather than ‘Sync’.
Mirror mode replicates any changes to the primary disk to the backup disk, in one direction only. New or changed files will be updated, deleted files will be deleted.
Sync mode replicates changes made at either end, on the other end(s).
I use Mirror mode for my media backups from MyCloud to removable disks, and Sync mode for sundry files synced between PC and MyCloud; I can make changes at either end, and they are reproduced at the other. I run an FFS script when I’ve finished using the PC, and it does the sync, and then shuts the PC down.
Thanks everyone. This is now resolved. No longer syncing, backing up.
For the last few weeks I was repeatedly getting “running out of disk space” warnings from Windows, and “unable to sync file” warnings from WD Sync program.
Downloaded “treesizefree” to check what the problem was and saw .WDTemp folder occupying 1/3 of my hard disk space.
What WD Community members have said in other posts on this subject seems to have been the case for me. It seems likely WD Sync program is creating copies of “unable to sync” files in the .WDTemp folder.
Solution: I have deleted .WDTemp and have stopped the WD sync program. Will use a third-party sync agent as suggested.
Many thanks to the contributors to this thread (and the other threads on this subject).
How do you find the hidden files?
Thanks
Hi cpt_paranoia
Have just downloaded FreeFileSync but am unable to set it to run the mirror when I finish for the day. Can you please advise me how to run the FFS script on it.
Thanks for your help.
The Free File Sync website’s Manual page explains how to setup a “batch” job to run using Windows Task Scheduler or OS X Automator. The Manual page also has an entry on how to setup FFS as a Windows Service.
http://www.freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=schedule-a-batch-job
http://www.freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=run-as-service
Assuming you have configured FFS to perform the mirror backup using the GUI, all you have to do is create a batch job: File/Save As/Batch job. Select the option to shutdown on completion.
Save it to your desktop, or to a location and drop a shortcut to your desktop.
Then, when you’ve finished working on the PC, run the batch job by double-checking on the shortcut.
Hi Ray, have you found the way to find hidden files?
One can use SSH to access the My Cloud at the firmware/root level to find hidden folders/files using standard Linux directory and search commands.
One enables SSH through the My Cloud Dashboard first, then one can use SSH programs like Putty (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) on Windows to search through the My Cloud directories to find hidden files/folders.
Thanks Bennor. I don’t know how to use linux (as well as Putty program). Is there any alternative using Windows programs?
C / WDTemp
OMG…this is NOT for anyone less than PhD…just kidding.
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I have 2TB My Cloud. Using SmartWare from two Win7 PCs. Cloud drive is NAS on home network…almost full…soooo.
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Installed Putty SSH software. Root directory looks like:
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Which directory contains the hidden files created by WD Sync? I did change Smartware to only keep one backup for each file
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How do you “cd” to the proper directory using Putty and how do you then delete these hidden files? Help!!
Are you using WD Sync? If not then the various discussions on removing the hidden WD Sync folder are not going to help. WD Sync is a different program than WD Smartware.
If one has filled their My Cloud with user files, then one can start by using the My Cloud Dashboard > Shares page to see which specific Share is consuming the most space. From there one can use Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder to search though that share for the file(s)/directory(s) that are consuming the most data and then remove them if needed. Depending on how the Smartware program is configured it may be performing File Versioning or creating a History of files so a user can recover previous versions of the file. If this is the case see the Smartware Help for any information on turning off that feature (if it exists).
How to access the Dashboard on a My Cloud (single bay) device
One generally uses Linux commands to navigate on the My Cloud when using SSH. So for example one would type ls or dir to list the contents of the directory. One can then use cd to change to another directory. To move up one directory one can use: cd ..
Hi,
I meant to say the "SmartWare" has created many hidden files..I
don’t use WD Sync. I can’t visibly see anything in “shares” that
is eating up 1.5TB of space…
I was told that these hidden files are a function of WD Sync, not
SmartWare. My shares are indeed visible in Explorer, but the drive
is still 96% full…
This is so weird as to what is occupying the 1.5TB of space
I did indeed turn off versioning in SmartWare
Thanks
Doug
One method of determing which files/directories are taking up the most space is to use SSH and issue Linux commands that will list files or folders by their size. For example using the following (from the root level on a first gen v4.x My Cloud) will list the top 10 folders by largest size (see screen capture below).
cd ..
du -a /* | sort -n -r | head -n 10
More options for listing files/directories can be found in this link or by searching the internet for examples of listing Linux folders/files by their file size.
It may also make things easier to use a GUI program like WinSCP (https://winscp.net/eng/index.php) rather than Putty where one can use mouse clicks to navigate through folders via SSH.
Hi Bennor,
Thank you so much for pointing me to the FTP program Win SCP...I
am familiar with FileZilla, so this is close to that…
My root directory looks like:
It seems that I have duplicate files in DataVolume as I do in
NFS…It appears that “shares” is a shortcut to DataVolumes. But I
still don’t readily see what is eating up so much space on My
Cloud drive.
If I delete all the files in NFS, it's not clear that I can
restore them?
Thanks
Doug
