Hi WD Community,
I am a fan of WD drives, have used many for years mostly without any problems, and recenty bought a WD My Cloud 4TB, which I like except for one thing (so far); despite the claims in the online documentation, it is not able to unlock a brand new WD My Passport Ultra used as USB Safepoint when the WD Security lock feature is used.
The WD online docs clearly claim:
‘The My Cloud EX2, My Cloud, My Cloud EX4, and My Book Live Duo Personal Cloud drives are able to unlock WD locked USB drives from the network drive’s Dashboard.’
I read that carefully BEFORE purchasing a WD My Passport Ultra 2TB to use as a USB SafePoint backup; I trusted WD to know their own features and capabilities.
In this forum posting I repeat below my initial report to WD Support, and I will also repeat the pathetic, utterly useless, response from one WD support team member because:
As an IT professional, I am utterly fed up with taking my time to very carefully describe problems to support teams of IT hardware companies, web hosting companies, and telecommunications companies, only to have clearly low skilled fools (probably poorly paid) not take a moment (probably under extreme time pressure) to even bother to read what I have writtten, wasting everybody’s time, wasting my money, and serving only the selfish stakeholders in such companies who are too mean to bother to spend an extra cent on decent support.
I will omit:
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The carefully submitted screenshots I prepared with my technical report.
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The name of the person who responded to my support ticket (which included a WD Cloud log), in the hope that WD support will deal with that person.
Customers deserve better than this, as does the reputation of WD.
Darren Kelly, Webel IT Australia
The initial ticket
Hi WD,
Firstly be reassured that I am an IT person and have performed the following diagnosis very carefully. Today I purchased at Office Works in Sydney, Australia, a new WD My Passport Ultra 2TB (model WDBBKD0020BBK-PESN), which I freshly re-formatted from NTFS to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) after registration and before attempted use as a SafePoint for my WD Cloud 4TB (this device report).
[When attached (without password lock) to WD Cloud 4TB it says the connected USB drive is model My Passport 0827]
The WD My Cloud 4TB is model number WDBCTL0040HWT-AESN.
If I have a password lock in place on My Passport Ultra 2TB and insert it into the USB slot (with the My Cloud 4TB on):
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My Cloud identifies the external My Passport Ultra drive when connected to USB (takes many seconds).
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My Cloud indicates it is locked and offers the lock symbol with unlock functionality.
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On entering correct password it just hangs with a message “Updating …”.
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It stops hanging if I physically remove the USB drive.
Tried rebooting My Cloud with My Passport Ultra USB drive inserted BEFORE attempting unlocking:
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WD Cloud hangs on "Rebooting … " until physically remove USB drive.
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Once I physically remove My Passport Ultra from USB slot the My Cloud reboot cycle completes ok.
I have very carefully repeated many combinations of these sequences. It is definitely faulty. If I disable the password lock on the My Passport Ultra (using WD Security on a Mac) everything works. I can insert the external My Passport Ultra into the USB slot, the WD Cloud detects it, and I can use it for SafePoint backups.
According to this link unlocking this drive from a My Cloud should be possible:
’ The My Cloud EX2, My Cloud, My Cloud EX4, and My Book Live Duo Personal Cloud drives are able to unlock WD locked USB drives from the network drive’s Dashboard.’
WD support responded requesting I upload the log, which I did.
Then this response, which beggars belief:
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is [OMITTED]
Our most sincere apologies for the inconvenience this caused, I’ll be providing assistance to the situation described. In regards of the drive encryption and connecting the My Passport to the WD My Cloud, this process will not work as the encryption tool you’ll be using locks the drive and will only be unlocked on a Windows or Mac computer.
The WD My Cloud runs on a Linux based operating system, which won’t allow you to connect encrypted drives. The link of the process you sent was designed for the WD ShareSpace, WD My Book Edition series.
If you would like to “encrypt” the unit, with the drive unencrypted already you will need to access the WD My Cloud’s dashboard. This process might work, if you click on Shares, and access the share with the name of your external HD, and then follow the instructions below.
How to create a Share on a My Cloud device
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10424/
If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.
Sincerely,
[OMITTED]
Western Digital Service and Support
My no-holds-barred response:
Hi [OMITTED],
I appreciate that you have replied, but your reply is of no use to me.
…
In regards of the drive encryption and connecting the My Passport to the WD My Cloud, this process will not work
as the encryption tool you’ll be using locks the drive and will only be unlocked on a Windows or Mac computer.
What on earth are you talking about ?
The word ‘encrypt’ does not appear ONCE in my initial ticket submission.
I described the password “lock”, a standard feature of WD Security.
The WD My Cloud runs on a Linux based operating system, which won’t allow you to connect encrypted drives.
Again, utter nonsense. A completely stupid stock-quoted response from somebody
who clearly did not even bother to read my initial support ticket description carefully.
If you would like to “encrypt” the unit, …
NO!!! I just want to use the password lock feature that I very clearly described.
And I carefully included screenshots of the WD My Cloud unlock feature.
Now give me the courtesy of reading this:
‘The My Cloud EX2, My Cloud, My Cloud EX4, and My Book Live Duo Personal Cloud drives
are able to unlock WD locked USB drives from the network drive’s Dashboard.’
But, it does NOT work, as my carefully provided screenshots prove.
That was “unlock” not “encrypt”.
If you can’t tell the difference you are unfit to be working in technical support,
Darren Kelly, Webel IT Australia
