[WD My Pasport Wireless Pro] Really need help

WD External Drives My Passport Wireless
1

Hi all,

it is may be sully, but i’m totally lost… I just buy a my pasport wireless pro and i don’t get it…
I allready have 2 External hard drives (non WD’s) but with this one i’m totally lost ! I don’t even know where to start…

Can someone please tell me the steps one by one what i should do to :
Install everything …

I have the app on cellphone, i did download some on PC, but i don’t get it…

Thanks

2

You start at WD Support for your device, go into link where you will find tutorials to watch and a complete user manual to DOWNLOAD.

3

Yeah. . . this ain’t no ordinary external hard drive.

If you plug the USB cable into a computer, it will act as a normal external Hard drive.

If you power it up UNATTACHED to a PC, then it is a wireless drive that you access like a network drive. (because once setup, it will be visible to every device on the network, like a network drive)

Start with the manual for setting this up. . . . .and take a good look through all the options on the menus when you reach the device dashboard. It is a very capable device with many options.

Note that the first step of setup will involve logging onto the wifi network that the passport drive establishes upon powerup. From there, you will tell the device how to get onto your home network so you can access from anything in your home.

4

Mike, Thanks.

@NAS_user

Thank you for the details. Ok, so just with the cable, it is like any other hard drive, good to know.
Abouot the network drive, i did it with cellphone, and i could connect, this was the easy part :slight_smile:

I will try with the manual, but seems to me it’s a “large” manual for just a hard drive :stuck_out_tongue:

I also installed My cloud on my laptop, but where do i create the account of that “app” ? Because when i open it, i can only connect. When i do paspord lost, i get on this page : https://www.wd2go.com/ …

Except the installation (i need to work on that), i know it is wi-fi, so when i’m home i don’t need the cable to connect, but does it also work when i’m for example in another country and i would like to acces it (@ home) ?

5

OK . . . .first things first.

This is not really a HardDrive it is a weak, single disk, portable NAS unit. (network attached storage).
Therefore, things are a bit more “complicated” than for a “just a hard drive”

Your first step is complete. . .you got into the device. I have done it from a cellphone before as well.

Step two: Get it onto your home network. That way, you can access the drive from other computers in the house. If you turn on “Share Content on this network”, you can read files from other computers in your house.
** At home, turn this on.
** At St**Bucks, turn this off (so others can’t access your drive).

When at Starbucks, you will want to log onto the Devices WiFi, so you can see the drive. You will then piggyback through this router, through the St**Bucks wifi to the internet. Getting to the internet through the Drives Wifi is a two-step, therefore a slower than at home. Which is why you don’t do this at home.

Step Three: Remember: this is a “weak” NAS. The tools for accessing this drive from across the internet anywhere on the planet. . .are not there. The WDcloud internet access capability isn’t there. The WD app on your phone should work fine. . . if you are on the same network as the drive. Use the app to play media.

Of course. . .Most NAS boxes don’t have a battery, nor a built in wi-fi router.

The idea behind this drive is not to access files from across the world. . . the idea is to bring it with you. Not quite powerful/flexible enough to have at home as a remote server while you travel. Definitely powerful enough for you to use as a network hub for the family in a hotel room to share files, watch movies etc.

A main use case for this device is to stream to your phone/tablet while in the car. . . . or while on an airplane. You can also use it as a file server in your hotel room when you and two buddies are working on a project in East Timbuktou. The ability to download SD cards without running a computer is also pretty cool (very important in 2015. . but today, I just buy more SD cards)

Three Notes:

  1. As a media server, it’s fine. But not really powerful enough to truly run Plex. It runs Twonky fine. Transcoding just won’t work, so video files have to be in the right format for the final user. (transcoding is a no-go for almost all entry level NAS units as well)

  2. The battery and drive is not really an always on-NAS rated 24/7/365 quality. Using it 4 hours a day 3 days a weak is fine.

  3. Look into using Static IP’s for this device on your network. It makes life a bit easier for the inevitable troubleshooting.

6

Be sure to install the right WD My Cloud mobile app (not the “home” version ) on your phone and tablet so you can stream media from MPWP. I can enjoy movies and music stored on it.

7

Hello, thanks for all this information which is really helpful. I see more clear now. But there are still some questions that I have and for which I didn’t find any reply.

First: I tought that I could transfer files from my computer to the device without plugging it (so in Wi-Fi) but I have read that we have to connect the device to the computer with USB to transfer files, is that correct ?

What I would like to do is transfer some files from my computer to the device, but not all files / back up. I don’t want that all my computer is in the device, just a few things that I select. I physically connected the device My Passport to my computer with cable USB, a window is opening. Can I just create any folder where I can put all my files / pictures or not? If I can do this, I’m wondering where I can find all my files without physically connecting the hard drive to the computer …

Second: with my cellphone, can I transfer all my pictures & music to the hard drive in Wi-Fi?

Also, what is really “plex”?

Thanks.

8

OK. . .

  1. You can copy direct via USB or over WiFi.

1a) USB is USB 3.0 protocol - - → Very much faster than WiFi. For one or two small files. . .fine; WiFi. Copying over a library of movies - - → Use USB.

1b) On USB, device shows up as an External HDD. On WiFi, device shows (and is accessed like) a Network drive. (similar, yet different). . . . Depending on computer configuration, your PC may open up a window upon detection of the drive.

  1. Once you have the drive connected, you can backup anyway you like. I like using drag-and-drop from windows explorer. I often use a directory comparison program to see if backup is needed. That program has “awareness” of network drives. You can do what you want.

  2. I am not good with transferring files from iOS or Android over wifi. I am sure you can do it. Lots of advertising for software to get files from a phone to a NAS. It all should work with your drive. I tend to use a hardwire to the phone for this sort of stuff; so I can’t elaborate. I use wire because of speed and data cap issues. Note: This type of software sort of expects the NAS to have 100% uptime. I would not use a Passport Wireless like that.

  3. PLEX: Media server software. Heavily marketed. Decent. . . I find newer versions being dumbed down so much that I don’t understand what it is doing. I now mainly use it to get content onto TV streaming device, like a Roku or Chromecast. For phones/android devices, I stream either with the WD Cloud App OR VLC (a PC media player, that is also available on Android). Streaming video to a PC, I just click on the file in explorer, which fires up VLC as the player.

9

What is the Win file compare program you use?

10

An oldy but goody: folder match by SaltyBrine.

This isn’t for cloning drives or O/S’s, but is very good at identifying what files have changed in directories and then synchronizing.

I don’t really back up O/S software. I just let it burn and do a fresh install when I need to. (I don’t keep any data on the PC’s —> makes it much less stressful when a WIN10 update trashes the system)(and now you see why I have a pile of WD drives - → I buy these things like candy)

11

thanks, I will check out Folder Match soon.