“What is needed” will be expressed in terms of what I see as the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Problems with WDMyCloud.com gateway:
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Very Slow.
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The files on a page load very slowly. On a page that had 8-10 thousand files it took 9 minutes to get to the end of the alphabetically arranged files, by just holding down the Down arrow key.
This contrasts to the WD MyCLoud App which very quickly scales the folder and produces a scroll bar that will go anywhere in the list without delay.
Loss of Function
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The WD2go.com site provided for mounting a drive for each share on the MyCloud (in my case usually starting with N:). This allowed normal operations by programs on the computer, such as a backup program. It allowed for normal copying, etc., without altering the properties of the file. It allowed for rapid and practiced mouse and keyboard actions.
The WD MyCloud.com site has lost all of this and has not replaced it with anything comparable. I would say this would be very close to a make or break feature.
Now files and folders have to be “downloaded,” a more tedious and less useful process. Folders downloaded are zipped and the File Properties are retained. Individual files when downloaded lose their original properties. This is inconsistent.
File Properties
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Changing the file properties when transferring files to Windows is unnecessary and unintuitive. Because the MyCloud is part of a network whether LAN or, effectively, WAN, it should not be be treated as `some place out there’ that I downloaded a file (or files) from). Files should retain their properties. This is critical in backup: for auto-choosing of files to backup, overwriting, synchronizing, etc.
Sending links to someone is a different case but for simplicity no files should have their dates, etc., changed.
Streaming Media
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Files download before playing after choosing yes to play them. This can take a long time for a, for example, 2Gb video.
In contrast, the App streams and starts to play virtually instantly.
Problems with My Cloud App
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Sending links to other people
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When you Right-click to open the option to “Copy link”, it produces an extremely long link. I am sure security is involved with this but in this case the WD MyCloud.com website performs better. On the website when you Right-click and chose to “Share” and then “Get link” a link of about half the size is created.
I also have no trouble with the website-derived links whereas I have timeouts and other problems with the App-derived links. I am not sure if the link from the App has ever worked:
The link that is provided for a file or folder should be able to connect with the file or folder but it does not work for me. If this is transient because of ongoing web development making it occasionally unstable I must be choosing the wrong times by chance.
The longer link is always identical, whenever you get it. In the case of the WD MyCloud.com site this is not the case and I am sure this is also taking care of security. This is just an observation but suggests the shorter link serves the same purpose and could be used in the App.
File Properties
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So far as I can see, you cannot copy files out of the MyCloud with the App, you can just open them. If that is the distinguishing feature of the App vs website gateway, OK , but the App’s speed an efficiency should be incorporated into the website.
GENERAL
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If the website development is not finished, WD should not have gotten rid of the wd2go functions or website itself until the job is done over at WDMyCloud.com.
At the time of writing this, the App cannot connect with the MyCloud. Among other things I get a `security certificate’ warning.
I feel this is incomplete but I am going away on a volunteer mission for months, I have no time left to investigate and comment and I really, really, need the functionality (mounting a drive for each share) of the original WD2go website.
