Recommendation: Replacement Western Digital MyCloud Unit
 

Dear Technology Experts:

For the past several years, we have used a Western Digital MyCloud external device to store all our data. It hooked into our home network and we could access our files from anywhere in the world.

Western Digital has indicated they will stop supporting the global accessibility early 2022 due to security protocols. So, we need to find a new solution.

We are looking at options... we prefer the local solution that does not have any ongoing costs associated with it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for what you use?

Thanks,

WIlliam

What kind of stuff (and a rough estimate of amount) were you putting on there? There's lots of solutions out there, but to focus it down, we kind of need to know use cases...

For example, Are you streaming something? Or just want some documents available? Automated copying of your photos back to your home? Maybe budget?

We currently have a 3 TB storage unit.

Hubby is big on taking videos and photos; especially with his new iPhone 13 Pro Max. As such, we probably need to move up to av4 TB storage unit.

it is the backup device for both our laptops. Also like to have those documents available when we travel.

we do not stream movies from it. But he does occasionally look at videos he has taken on it.

Budget is certainly in the picture.

My suggestion would probably be to move up to a NAS (Synology for example). The front layout might be a higher, but you get the flexibility to grow your storage (they have something called SHR/Synology Hybrid RAID), add redundancy and you can enhance the NAS with plugins. It might take a bit of work to learn how to deal with remote access, but it's worth it.

Alternatively, if you have a subscription to Office365, One Drive comes with a large amount of storage you could use, although I think the limit is 1Tb per user (depending on your subscription). There are other ways to do what you want, but they require quite a bit more time and effort.

Thanks.... truly trying to keep it simple.... two technology-challenged people here! :)

Then I would stick to an off-the-shelf NAS. Start with the basics and then move to connecting it to the internet (some NASs have apps that will help you set this up). One other alternative is to set up a computer and install something like syncthing on both the computer and your laptop. So far impressed, but I haven't put it through its paces yet.

Regardless, you should be able to find tutorials on Youtube for most of these to help guide you through.

Just to confirm, this is only for devices >5 years old, and WD is continuing service for newer MyCloud devices, correct?

I fully understand if you do not want to go that route (WD cutting it off so suddenly), but WD’s timeline does possibly indicate 5years+ of service for a new one.