Why is 'kdd' using all my bandwidth?

I noticed my Internet is slow so checking Task Manager I have a process called ‘kdd’ using most of my wifi bandwidth (up to 30Mbps). This is part of the WD Discovery app but what is it doing?
I setup a sync of a Folder on my desktop weeks ago so I have a copy of my photos on the My Cloud Home, total folder size is only 160GB. The folder is all green ticks which I assume means it has successfully sync’d, so what is kdd doing?
The traffic is both send and receive which makes no sense as I’m not touching any files on the My Cloud Home, merely using it to store a copy from my desktop. So I would expect the traffic to be send only, and only once off for the initial sync.
Why WD why? Why does you product not make sense?

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@hamburger please collect the WD Discovery Desktop App logs and open a support case with us so that we can investigate the issue.

https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=20661&lang=en
https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=20306&lang=en
https://support.wdc.com/support/case.aspx?lang=en

Has this issue been resolved? I have the same problem.

Hello, has this issue been solved. I have the same problem…when shutting down MyCloud Home Duo, the traffic of 4 Mbit/s to 20 Mbit/s is no longer the case. Therefore this constant trafficing is coming from MCHome and KDD.

KDD is the process that mounts the Desktop App. Chances are that you have Desktop Sync enabled which monitors chances between the content on the MCH and the Sync Client (Computer). If you click “Un Sync” does the issue go away?

Thanks for your reply.
I have been monitoring this for a couple of days longer.
Please forgive my ignorance, but what is meant by

And yes, Desktop Sync is enabled! And all libraries have been synced long time before already and have the same content on the MCH and Desktop PC. So why is KDD or MCH still have a high trafficing?

I am not prepared to un-sync because when I enable the sync again, MCH will generate new library folders on MCH with …(1) and so on…(and that is another topic which is frustrating, these new folders with (1) and so on).

But like I said previously, when I shut down MCH there is no high traffic anymore.

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Does anyone have any ideas why my traffic is so high? I have not un synced the Desktop Sync because mounting takes such a long time and duplicate folders are generated aswell. Like I said, turning off MCH the traffic is low.

@anon30240336 We have been investigating this issue.

We have found that if you keep Windows Explorer or macOS Finder Windows open,
there is a process that watches for any changes between the local file and the file
on the MCH. This process is used to update the folder and file sync icon.

Can you confirm the following:

  • Bandwidth usage is more when you have Windows Explorer or macOS Finder Windows open and accessing the Sync Folders using the Desktop App
  • Bandwidth usage is Low when you do not have the window open and accessing the MCH content

@SBrown, there is no windows explorer open! There is nothing open. I just turn on my pc and log in. Like I said, when I shut down MCH, there is hardly no traffic. Also I checked again and saw that the sizes of local files/folders are same as MCH files/folders.

…any solutions found?

Hello,
are there any solutions for my issue?
Or can you give me another contact or do I need to open a ticket?

A little update in my case…the traffic is reduced (as expected) when I log out of the Desktop App. As soon as I login again, the traffic increases. As in my earlier posts, this high traffic remains for hours on end.

Br
Richy

I’ve only taken a precursory look through the responses here, so forgive me if I’m repeating something. but, the kdd.exe is the executable the WD Discovery application uses to launch. I see this is old but it’s a high search result so I’ll wax educational for a minute to try to help anyone who stumbles in here as I did.

Now, this may not be precisely accurate, so please don’t kill the messenger as I take a few educated guesses here. Without knowing how things run on the back-end, I’ll throw out a “high-level” explanation with a few educated guesses to try to help explain. I haven’t, and don’t intend to, project up their application and debug their code, thereby violating their intellectual property rights. Instead, I’m passing this along in the hopes it helps someone, somewhere, so here we go.

The WD Discovery app is WD’s new, overarching, control application. Many software companies are doing this now. (Microsoft with their Office App, Adobe with their Creative Cloud App; I’m referring to the apps you can get from the Windows store) These apps run in a new application layer that is higher than the Operating System and has newly introduced features. Most importantly, they interact with the Windows Store or Mac App Store. These apps act as a launch point for the Software company’s integrated applications, both in-house apps (i.e., WD Security, WD Drive Utilities, WD Backup) and 3rd party apps (i.e., Plex, Social and Cloud Import, IFTTT, Sonos, Network Import, and the like).

When one of these apps needs something to be done, it may proxy a request up to the kdd.exe. By “proxy,” I mean the origin app may send large tasks to another app, the kdd.exe app, in this case, to have the other app complete the request. Proxying most often occurs when the proxy app can complete the task more efficiently for whatever reason. If and when this occurs, the proxy app spins up worker processes that are identified as “kdd,” in task manager (Windows) or Activity Monitor (Mac). Once these kdd processes complete their job syncing whatever it is synchronizing, it stops running and stops consuming resources.

As a matter of interest, these types of processes are iterative. Iterative means tasks (instruction sets) are queued up and processed sequentially. (i.e., in a static operational sequence) For this reason, killing any of the kdd processes merely returns the process to its original state. If killing a process that is 95% complete, it resets and waits to run again. Once run, it begins its quest again, starting from square one, transferring all the data for the sync again.

Ergo, if you have a process that requires 5 days to complete and you kill it, it stops what it was doing. It waits until the next time kdd.exe starts, most likely at your next system startup, and it initiates the entire process again. This process starts from the beginning again and runs through its instruction set from the beginning (hence the term “iterative”), now requiring an additional 5 days to

Note: Lower amounts of memory (less than 8g) and the speed of the (CPU) processor (lower than an Intel I5) reduce the speed of your computer.

Likewise, the bandwidth available to your computer may be insufficient or being monopolized by other devices on your network. System resources and Bandwidth availability are the most common culprits behind these processes running for extended periods. Remember that you can easily throttle the percentage of the total bandwidth available to that specific app in settings if desired.

You may notice a second, third, or fourth kdd process running as well. These proxy requests, as well as other tasks, are accomplished when kdd.exe spins up worker processes that run independently, in the background, to complete a designated task. These worker processes do things the kdd.exe application doesn’t because it is waiting to service the user’s (i.e., your) interactions.

As an example, you can sync your Facebook accounts, LinkedIn accounts, Google, and iCloud accounts with the “Social and Cloud Import” app. When run, the kdd.exe process spins up kdd worker processes. These worker processes perform the analyses and data syncs in the background.

Likewise, if you’ve installed and enabled WD Backup to back your computer or phone up to a local or network location, the kdd.exe may spin up a kdd process. These are often large transfers that take a while to complete the first time. These processes maintain synchronicity with regular, albeit smaller, and quicker updates, once the more substantial initial sync has completed.

I noticed kdd processes consuming large swaths of my resources after initially installing WD Discovery. I am fortunate to have a 1.8 Gbps internet connection. I also have two RAID 0 Solid-State Drives (SSD) on the laptop, where KDD runs. I also have SSD drives in my Network Areas Storage (NAS) device. The NAS is where all the PCs and phones for 15 of my family and friends back up. I only notice this process monopolizing bandwidth when a backup runs for a phone or system. When it runs, I can see it moving files and hear the NAS grumbling as it processes them. Likewise, kdd processes sync data changes with any of my, or my user’s synchronized data.

If you have multiple users connected, i.e., through their phones, the kdd service on your system can be spun up and tasked with performing tasks for those accounts as well. I currently have 15 users syncing with mine, and I notice my PC spinning up these kdd worker processes regularly. The KDD.exe, WD Discovery app, uses kdd processes to load-balance tasks at the behest of the WD myCloud device.

I’m not sure how long you have let it run, but it may be worth it to let go for a few days and see if it finishes. You can limit the app to 20% of your system’s bandwidth so you can still work and do other things on your system while it runs. These transactions that are syncing your data can take days to complete even if you leave your system on and connected 24 hours a day. It should, however, finish eventually, and from that point, be a minor process that doesn’t consume much of anything. These transactions should be uneventful and run in the background unless you add a new user or service connector or add a large volume of data to a sync account.

Sorry, I can’t give a more targeted explanation without seeing logs and having more details and sorry that this has turned into such a long explanation. I’m not trying to throw a “know-it-all” card over all of the questions and responses here. I want to help clear the air a bit. Hopefully, someone seeing this down the road can make more educated guesses at what their system, and these kdd processes, are doing.

Best of luck,
Cheers

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I bought a My Cloud drive as a dedicated drive for my local backups of my Windows 10 PC. After a while I became aware that the machine had slowed considerably, which I initially attributed to the background backup running. Finally, the machine became so painfully slow when doing anything requiring disk read / write that I investigated.

Through use of task manager and resource monitor I became increasingly convinced that the problem lay with kdd. After several futile attempts to improve the situation and reading Crazgod’s excellent post, I sanity checked what I wanted from the drive, and concluded, that I didn’t need any of the cloud functionality, simply NAD functionality

Having concluded that I needed to uninstall WD Discovery and opt for simple NAD access, I ran up against the problem that Windows 10 could not see the MyCloud drive. Fortunately I finally blundered upon WD’s instructions on how to map the WD Network Drive on Windows 10 on WD’s support site at How to Map a WD Network Drive on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and this enabled me to access the NAD, opening the way to complete removal of WD Discovery. Once I removed WD Discovery, the problem was resolved.

I think that this would be worth a try for anyone who doesn’t really need the cloud functionality. I is disappointing that I have had to do this, but I can at least finally use this drive for the purpose for which I bought it.

I enjoyed this detailed account.

I had wondered what the kkd was in my WIN10 Task Manager, Thanks

I was running Sony PlayMemories, Chrome, several tabs open, and Thumbs+ by Cerious Software… WDMyCloud was my backup drive by WiFi but was just standing by.

As a PC user since a XT with a Maths co-processor 8087 and AutoCad 2.5 onwards, your article was a welcome read, even if I don’t understand how you figured it passed all those tasks backwards and forwards for five days!

Cheers Bill aka Spelio on Flickr My Planning Office @ Stromlo, wander your mouse over the i… | Flickr

Same problem on Mac here???
Any help