[ Tutorial ][ SSH Method ] Downgrade v4 firmware to v3

Original thread and tutorial by  PVS0705 can be found  here

This guide will show you how to perform the downgrade without the aid of a file browser such as WinSCP

  1. Enable SSH
  • login to your WDMyCloud dashboard ( http://wdmycloud/ ) → go to Settings → Network → and change the slider for  SSH to  ON
  1. Download Putty, an SSH client

Download Page

Direct Link to Download

  1. Open Putty and connect to WDMyCloud via SSH
  • Enter the address to your WDMyCloud in the Host Name ( or IP Address ) field.

  you can either enter the hostname which is  wdmycloud or the IP Address which you can find by looking on

  the dashboard; go to Settings->Network-> and it will be listed next to IP Address

  • Click Open on the bottom to initiate the connection

  • If this is your first time using SSH for your device you will need to accept the  Host Key by clicking  Yes

NOTE: with putty, copy and pasting commands is quite simple, you will select the commands from this screen,

             go back to the putty screen, and to paste you will just  RT-CLICK your mouse anywhere on the screen.

              CTRL+V (paste) by default is not supported in putty.

  • enter the following command and press enter

    nano /etc/version

 depending on which version of firmware you have, the number you see may vary but for most it will probably

 say 04.00.01-623

 use the right arrow on the keyboard to scroll right to the end, delete the entire line and paste in the following

03.04.01-219

 save the file by doing the following: hit  CTRL+X then press  y then hit enter.

  1. Import the version 3 firmware, extract and install (downgrade)
  • enter the following commands. each line is it’s own command. one line at a time then press enter.

    cd /DataVolume/

    wget http://download.wdc.com/nas/sq-030401-230-20140415.deb.zip

    unzip sq-030401-230-20140415.deb.zip

    rm -f sq-030401-230-20140415.deb.zip

    /usr/local/sbin/updateFirmwareFromFile.sh /DataVolume/sq-030401-230-20140415.deb

  • You will then see a lot of verbose output from the update process. Give it some time, mine took about 8 to 10 minutes.

Here is the output of the upgrade (downgrade) process for those interested

http://pastebin.com/6yn2186q

Once the LED on your device is a solid blue (not purple) you can access the GUI. You have successfully downgraded your device.

Few side notes:

  • If you plan on using putty (which I am sure you do, otherwise you wouldn’t have downgraded) then secure SSH access

  to your device by changing the default root password. Restart the session in putty by rt-clicking the top of the program

  and clicking “Restart Session” or just open putty and connect with above instructions. Login with the default root

  and welc0me. Once logged in issue the following command  passwd and hit enter. You will then have the ability

  to change the root password to something more secure.

  • If you like keeping things tidy and would like to remove the firmware file issue the following command once back into

  shell

rm -f /DataVolume/sq-030401-230-20140415.deb
2 Likes

nice guide thanks for posting.  so far no problems with the latest .623  but the .4xx or what ever it was called was horrible for me.   So far .623 is as good at the 3x FW.   

The only thing keeping me from v4 is btsync not working

Did not work for me.  I ended up without the ability to log in (webserver working but no username/password box) and no SSH.  So, suggest adding steps to enable SSH (via root shell) before rebooting and then means to fix the apache2 login.

-Ben

Hello,

I am planning to downgrade from V4 to 3.

Since I’ve some concerns here. What can I do if something goes wrong?

For example if

  • I loose connection both GUI and SSH.

  • Device does not boot with the old firmware

Is there any way to hard restore from usb for the worst case scenario?

Thanks…

I am having exactly the same issue.

No login , no ssh.

I have enabled ssh before flashing but it was disabled after reboot.

Do you have any solution except taking out the hdd?

I had some trouble booting for the first time after the downgrade from the current latest FW to the on in this tutorial.   I thought it was dead…  I kept getting a flashing white light. Then it went yellow.   I unpluged it repluged it in , hit the reset a bunch of times.   I rebooted the router ect…  Finally it came alive and is working better than any version 4 firmware.   remote access is perfect mapping drives ect…  

  

Please Moderators this should be a “sticky”

Another (easy?) way:

Goodle drive link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_6OlQ_H0PxVRXF4aFpYS2dzMEE
My mirror: http://anionix.ddns.net/WDMyCloud/

  1. Download  this script and  this arhive

  2. Unpack all to any folder (To Public, for example)

  3. Turn on SSH access in web interface.

  4. Download PuTTY for Windows (For MAC/Linux use openssh-client)

  5. Connect to “wdmycloud” (Or to IP of WDMC)

  6. User: root, Password: welc0me (zero (number) in password!)

  7. Run this:

    cd /shares/Public
    chmod a+x install.sh
    ./install.sh

  • All settings will be lost (reset to defaults).
  • But all your data will be kept.
  • Maybe need perform “quick reset” to fix “zero capacity”.
1 Like

After the downgrade I was agitated with the result as well. I was unable to access the device through the Web UI (dashboard) and SSH. I was furiously looking for a solution. Finally it seems that the issue is caused by the user management. 

What helped for me was a SYSTEM RESTORE. Resetting the device with power off.

At the same time as you plug power into the WD My Cloud device, press the Reset button
and hold for about 40 seconds. The device undergoes a system restore and powers on.

System Restore (info from another topic)

Changes all settings back to the factory default values, makes private shares
public, and returns the administrator password to none. Your content remains untouched
and intact.

Unfortunatelly you will lose your original settings and you will have to do an initial setup, but it works.

Far better then to be furious.

Kryptonit3 wrote:

The only thing keeping me from v4 is btsync not working

Btsync is not a good idea with these drives. They are already plauged with sleeping issue. btsync would keep the drive up and spinning almost all the time.

If you really wanted to use it on fw 4.x. you could put could in a request to have the user “fox_exe” recompile for fw 4.x if he hasnt done so alreadt. He has a fw 4.x repository thread here. Look it up.

Hello Kryptonit3 and warm thanks for providing the list of steps on how to downgrade v4 to v3 firmware, it was easy on my Mac as it has ssh on Terminal.app.

However, I tried finding the latest v3 firmware ever released, and it seems WD has pulled it out of the downloads list, can anyone help point to the very latest v3 firmware ever released?

I downgrade (in process, as we speak) to v03.04.01-230 (2014.04.15) but I am sure there was another release after that. Anyone can help? Warm thanks!

Konsti

Per the current firmware release notes for 04.04.02-105, firmware version 03.04.01-230 was the last v3.x release, the next firmware after that was 04.00.00-607. See the following link for a listing of firmware and links to download (most) of them:

https://community.wd.com/t/wd-my-cloud-v4-x-and-v2-x-firmware-versions-download-links/148533

Thank you Bennor, for your quick and kind update. I am happy to have used this very latest v03.04.01-230 (2014.04.15) firmware. It’s amazing how much more snappy it was, I had forgotten about it !

After an issue of not connecting to the UI and being forced to do a “System Reset” two times (that 40sec pin insertion in the rear, second time while plugging power) I am back in v3 without losing my data, except setup parameters.

A final two questions to you Bennor or anyone else:

  1. With the previous shares being kept intact (except users being removed) is there a need to do anything via SSH and re-assign the folders/files to a specific user, something like a “chown” command?

  2. Is there a way to remove that exclamation (warning) triangle about new firmware (i.e. v4) being available? The Auto-Update is obviously switched off…!

Thanks again, everyone.

Don’t know about (1), but for (2) you can fool the device into thinking it has the most recent FW installed.

SSH into your MyCloud using Winscp or Putty, then navigate to the folder “etc”.

Once in the “etc” folder scroll down to the bottom and you will see a file called “version”.

Edit the version file and change the version name from 03.04.01-230 to 04.04.02-105 and save the file.

Of course you will have to do this every time WD issue a new FW. I suppose you could try fooling around to see if a high version like 04.05.xx-xxx would avoid the need to repeat this task. I haven’t tried it.

Just about to follow these instructions to downgrade.

My question – the admin console, Utilities, Firmware tab has a manual update option. Why is it I cannot downgrade by simply using this mechanism vs. having to go through the process detailed above?

Well, the dashboard interface will only allow you to upgrade to a higher version number. Hence the workaround methods described above.

The reason why it is not easy to downgrade using the Dashboard is due to WD putting code in that checks and blocks prior firmware versions during the upgrade process. See the following thread that explains how to edit (via SSH) the file /etc/version and change the firmware version to allow for downgrading to a prior version.

https://community.wd.com/t/easy-method-to-downgrade-to-previous-version-of-the-firmware/93489

Thanks for that. Although I love learning new things, I’ve never used SSH before. So this other method might be best.

Bennor,

I just completed the process for the downgrade using the “easy” method. Pretty cool. Even the Dashboard works better (faster)…like it used to…

Question, via Finder on my Mac, I see WDMycloud, but when I try to connect it fails. Same thing when I try to access via the application. I also hear the drive churning away. Is it a correct assumption that the two are related. Perhaps the drive is indexing or something and therefore will not allow me to actually log in and see the files?