Why is my MyCloud with OS5 so unreliable?

I’ve pretty much given up with this thing. It works for a while and then I have to restart the drive. I’ve tried all the types of resets and everything works for a few days and suddenly, it will stop responding until I pull the plug on it again.
Support has been great and always get it working but it just won’t stay working for long. Are the newer MyClouds models any more reliable than my old V1 model?

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@homeyjay
The old first generation WDMYCLOUD uses OS3 and can only be used on your local network.

My first generation works fine on my home network. I reboot it once a week.

The second generation can be upgraded to OS5.

My second generation My Cloud works fine, and I don’t have any problems with it. I reboot it once a week.

Mine must be a v2 I guess as it has OS5. Why do you need to reboot your drive every week? Is this what WD recommend?

What color is the front LED when the unit is unresponsive? How exactly does the unit stop responding? What program or application are you using where the issue is appearing? Can you access the My Cloud Dashboard? What firmware version is the My Cloud running? Does the My Cloud Diagnostics and or Alert/Notification icon (alarm bell icon top right) indicate any issues? Have you configured the My Cloud for a static or reserved IP address? If not its best to access the local network router/gateway’s administration page and reserve an IP address for the My Cloud. Is the correct time zone along with date and time configured for the My Cloud (Dashboard > Settings section)?

@homeyjay
I reboot my devices because of my studies and training. A reboot clears the RAM. reloads the OS etc. You can do a search for boot sequence if you want to see each step. I perform the reboot for all my devices each week and it includes my cell phone.

The information below comes from a Bing Chat search.

" Computers need to be rebooted for a variety of reasons. One reason is to clear the computer’s memory and start fresh. This can help if the computer runs slowly or errors keep popping up1. Rebooting can also help to install updates and patches1. Another reason to reboot is to ensure that all hardware and software components are properly working12. A reboot can often fix the problem if something isn’t working right1. Finally, rebooting can help to protect your computer from malware and other security threats1."

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The light is blue even when not responding. I can’t access the admin page and it doesn’t respond from any file transfer attempt from my Mac, family iPads, Kodi on my Nvidea Shield or anything else on the network. Nothing will connect and the screen will not refresh. No file structure is visible on the drive.
As soon as I reboot, everything is accessible!
On my Mac, I use Finder to access the network, File Browser on all iPads.

This is the error that usually get (see below). The loss of power is me rebooting the drive. The network is working fine but I changed all cables last week just in case they were guilty!
Just updated to the latest firmware too.

I am with Cat0w. A periodic reboot is good to fix many things.

HOWEVER. . . . . .a purist would say you shouldn’t have to do it. If you must reboot; it’s indicative of underlying problems. (i.e. memory leaks). Of course; its like a slow oil leak on a car. . .putting in $5/month in oil is better than spending $5,000 to fix a leak.

Is there a way to make the drive reboot once a week automatically?

For the lower end OS5 My Cloud units there doesn’t appear to be a scheduling option to power down or even reboot the My Cloud (see Dashboard > Settings > General > Energy Saver). More on the Energy Saver option in the My Cloud online user manual. One could setup a SSH script on another local network device to issue the reboot command to a My Cloud. There is a post in the OS3 EX2 Ultra subforum that discusses one possible way to schedule a reboot of a My Cloud. Unknow if it works on OS5 firmware:

Or if one doesn’t want to gracefully shutdown/reboot the My Cloud one could simply use a smart plug or smart outlet and schedule it to perform a power cycle of the My Cloud. Doing such a forced abrupt power cycle may cause issues however. Even the old mechanical style timers for lights could be repurposed to force power cycle a My Cloud.

It’s just frozen on me again but this time I was copying a directory of video that was over 4.5gb. Is there a file / folder size limit that I can copy?
Thinking about what’s happening, it always seem to become non-responsive when I’m copying something or some time after I’ve copied something.

Technically; I suppose you could “pull the plug” on a NAS device.

I have done it myself a few times. The O/S should be stable enough to recover from an “interrupted operation”. I would not recommend it.

If rebooting a machine is equivalent to periodically adding a bit of oil to a car. . . .
“Pulling the plug” would be equivalent to periodically being knocked unconscious.

There is a non-trival risk of operating system file corruption that could brick the device - - - especially on older devices with “less powerful” hardware. Lots or reports of bad things happening to Gen II MyClouds (and MyCloud mirror) when the devices went through the dreaded “indexing” process and had the power pulled.

I routinely reboot my NAS devices and computers. . .I always do it from the Menus.

I’ve never had a problem with size. See image below.
image

Does the My Cloud freeze on any computer or device on the local network copying large file(s) to the My Cloud or only from one specific computer or device?

It freezes on my Mac and PC. It looks like if the size is over 5gb, it stops responding and the only way back is a re-boot.

How are the computers connected to the local network, using WiFi or using wired Ethernet? How long is the copy process taking before the My Cloud becomes unresponsive?

As a troubleshooting step, if one has a computer with Ethernet port one could connect the My Cloud direct to that computer’s Ethernet port and try copying the large file to see if the issue persists and the My Cloud unit becomes unresponsive. It may be one way to rule out the local network router/gateway being a potential source of the problem. Another troubleshooting step is to connect the My Cloud to a network switch and connect the network switch to the local network router and see if the issue persists.

Thanks Bennor for all this help but I may have solved the problem bu turning off the power save feature. I just copied a 6gb directory to the drive and for the first time it completed it without crashing!!
I’m copying some more large files just to test the thing. Will let you know if this works!

@homeyjay

Are you talking about Energy Saver?

image

On a WDMYCLOUD
WDMyCloudImage

Yes, that’s the one!

Huh. So they finally made that feature do something. . . .

. . . makes me wonder, however, how fast (slow) are these files transferring? I take it you were on a WiFi connection, and as a result it was taking forever?

No, actually it’s pretty fast - 6gb file in under a min or two max!