My Cloud Home Reviews

by Seven Thousand

Listen, I’ve been a loyal Western Digital customer for all of my hard drives for ages. But the MyCloud Home for iOS is a proverbial tragedy.

I was hoping that this product would be a cloud drive for use with my iPhone and my iPad Pro. In a word: Nope!

So, basically, it’s just a giant one way photo backup. I would give MyCloudHome and entire experience zero stars if I could, but hopefully one will suffice to get the point accross.

This is iOS11 now; the Files’ app file manipulation is one of the key features! A one way photo backup machine is utterly pointless. And to add insult to injury, it looks like rudimentary file manipulation does exist in another Western Digital App, but the MyCloud Home device isn’t compatible with it.

I would not have spent the money had I known all of this. I’ve found online that people have indeed complained as of last year, and it looks like no progress has been made. Am I allowed to return the hardware after it’s opened? Because otherwise, if you guys aren’t going to fix MyCloudHome, this was a colossal waste of money.

by TapND

MyCloudHome still thinks I have a photo to upload and it continues to have a badge icon of 1 even after reinstalling / restarting. There is no way for me to see the queue of files to see where it is hanging up. Posted on the forums and no response from WD.
No options available to select which photo albums on your phone you want to actually backup so MyCloudHome is now backing up my main album and photo stream duplicating photos on the My Cloud Home. Again posted with no response.
It seems like a slapped together app to provide remedial functionality. App hasn’t been updated in 3 months even though there are bugs and feature requests on the forums. Disappointing from such a large and well known company.

by Big Papaa

Tried to log on to my drive today, my drive is showing off-line changed out the cable unplugged reset checked from my computer check the router, still showing off-line. The router shows that it is connected to the drive however MyCloudHome shows it is off-line. I called support and they told me that they are doing maintenance to the server. However this has been going on for at least 12 hours maybe a little bit more however they cannot give me an estimate of when it will be done but I have noticed on the reviews that there are other people that have been complaining about the same problem for about four or five days now so I don’t know if this is a bigger issue or if they will ever get it back online I will just have to wait and see if it does not come back online I will have to try to find another way to get my files off the hard drive they are not super important however they are memories to me mostly pictures which I may or may not have back ups.

by Ghugs19

About a couple of months ago, I noticed my apps with IFTTT and My Cloud Home stopped working, with an error message stating “My Cloud Home could not complete the action.” I would disconnect and reconnect the IFTTT app, and it would work fine...for a short time. Then I would have the same issue again. I contacted IFTTT, and their troubleshooting showed a “timeout” error on the My Cloud Home side. I contacted WD, and all they basically did was try to troubleshoot my drive (which works fine), and told me IFTTT was a third party app, and they couldn’t not provide any support.

I had the perfect setup with my apps and IFTTT/My Cloud Home, and complaining on here “may” be the only way I can get some help. I love the device, and the features (when they work). But this issue needs to be resolved by WD, or I’ll have to find other options.

by '15Legacy

MyCloudHome only really offers the bare minimum of acceptable functionality, but even then the implementation is less than adequate. Specifically:
- The built in previewer is awful in terms of compatibility, and it routinely freezes when rendering decent-resolution PDFs, whereas normal PDF viewers have no problems.
- You can upload files from other apps, but you can only do so to the general root folder: you have to go back into MyCloudHome , refresh, and them move it to the desired folder manually. This is inexcusably tedious.
- You can export files, but you can’t edit them without doing so. If I have a word document I wish to edit, I have to export it, save it on my iPad, edit it, then re-upload it, delete the original version, and move the new copy into the folder. All other cloud service applications allow live edits of popular formats in most major applications (editing word files in word, PDFs in most available viewers, etc.). This too is just ridiculous.
- Navigating folder structures is tedious: there’s no button to go back to the root directory, you have to just keep clicking the back button to go up and up from the folder you were in. It does not take advantage of an iPad’s larger screen size.
- There’s no integration into the iOS Files application, though all other cloud storage apps do this.

These issues need to be addressed- MyCloudHome is so awful it inhibits good access to my files, thus making me consider returning the MyCloud Home.

by David A. Goldfarb

I bought the WD MyCloud Duo with the hopes of having my own big cloud server, accessible from all my devices, just like Dropbox or OneDrive or iCloud, but with more space and no subscription fees. It connects well enough to our PCs, but file handling is cumbersome from an iPad or iPhone. I want to be able to edit MS Word documents on my iPad and my PC and even my iPhone without having to make a copy of the document and then transfer it back to my MyCloud Home server. With OneDrive, it’s all the same file, I close it on one device, and I open it on another device, and I’m not creating duplicate versions that can become confused later. I want to transfer sheet music PDFs to the ForScore app directly, but the only way to do that is to send them from MyCloud to another cloud service like dropbox, and open them from there. I’d like to share files with a work group that uses many different devices, like we do currently with Dropbox and Slack, but it’s too inefficient if we can’t just click on an audio or video or DOC file and open it.

by Bg652

This is the second My Cloud Home. The first had to be returned because something broke internally and could not be accessed. I only had it for less than a year and had to be replaced. Now the this one is all of a sudden now states that the device is offline. Can’t access it through the apps or desktop version. Tried following the FAQ’s to resolve the issue but to no avail. I am able to access it through the desktop as an external drive. If I’m away from home, I can’t access the it. It’s of no use. Absolutely no help from Western Digital. Will be spending all day trying to copy everything from the My Cloud Home back to my desktop. I’ll be looking for a more dependable device from someone else so that I can access these files while I’m on the road. Wouldn’t recommend Western Digital at this time.

by Mudak326

I had a WD MyBook (that used a different app for accessing files) until the recent hack attack rendered it unsafe to use. So I purchased the MyCloud Home as a replacement NAS. While this is a worthy successor device, MyCloudHome itself is missing some features that the older app has. Specifically:

1. If I am trying to open an unsupported file (like Windows WMV), the "Open In…" dialogue is completely useless as the only thing it tries to do is open in Apple's Photos app and doesn’t let you choose the actual app in which to open the file.

2. The older software "remembered" where you stopped when watching a video or listening to music. Not only does this one not remember the location, but it has difficulty buffering when you try to drag the location bar to where you stopped last time.

by Bacl2jack

The biggest disappointment is the lack of integration with IOS Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint in particular). That forces you to download copies and launch the Office apps order to view the file content. After all that you can’t even edit the original file. This extra step is counterproductive. My hope is this will be resolved sooner rather then later. Google and Dropbox have figured this out, it can’t be that difficult. NAS is about more then just photos and videos. Come on now!!!

by TigTurbo

I was really excited to get a my a cloud home drive. It was easy to set up and I was able to get it up and running. I would give my cloud a high rating for those items. The auto backup option also throws my rating up there but only on this pluses.

However, the biggest let down was the integration of applications. I was hoping to have the option of my apps save directly to my cloud home drive however that is not the case.

I have to admit I was hoping to use this drive as a way to backup and store my data automatically as I would with iCloud to cut down on iCloud space costs. When I try to save and access files from my Cloud drive, I am unable to “see” myCloud to access files. I will have to physically save the file somewhere and then transfer the file later which can be confusing because I’m not sure which is the current file.

Also, it would be nice to be able to store my mail and calendar files to my cloud so all my devices can access the same file just as you can do with iCloud.

Hopefully this will be reviewed and improved.

Thank you
-CM

by Art And Grace

I live the fact that I have a personal repository where I can backup all of my files in a personal cloud. I was able to stop relying on Google Drive, to which I’ve become less fond due to Googles lack of decent personal privacy. I don’t upload or back up anything nefarious but I really don’t need them seeing medical, professional information, etc. It works great on a computer but I’m hoping with iOS 13 and iPad OS I’ll be able to map this drive to the files app for better integration with mobile applications.

by Ivysoft

I bought the Cloud Home Duo with the intention for my home office backup. I shared the space as a network drive between several home PCs. It works great as planned. Hopeful if the harddisk ever crashes, the dual hard drives will give me one extra peace of mind for recovery. After having this configured for some time, the software update came along which improved the efficiency of playing media file. In the beginning the media MP4 did not seem to play smoothly but now it works well. I should also note that the iPad and iPhone can access the drive information like a drive. One thing i wish the manufacturer can do is to allow me to define some shortcuts which instantly can take me into certain popular folders. Right now when i start my access, i always have to start from the root level which is hard on iPhone. In addition, they can make the system to have typical folder sort, like newest first or do you want to go back to that unfinished MP4 file. It would be a nice feature but very common in the NetFlix world. I.e. resume playing last file. If this feature can be available, i think the device world be perfect 5 star rated.

by Ben - Great Password Keeper

I’ve had a My Cloud Home for over a year now. The first year I got it set up and right away was able to off load a load of files soaking up data from my phone and laptop.
I’ve only recently gone back and tried to use some more of the intriguing features like sharing access to folders, accessing the data from off site, and creating recurring back ups. I’ve also been toying with adding more users and managing their access levels. Although it is very capable, it’s not always intuitive on how to manor it do what you want.

by NightFury14pluslightfury

I like MyCloudHome, but I can’t even go back and watch old videos I made because they won’t load! I have to go to the website for it to work. I would rather have there convenience of MyCloudHome than to go to some silly website just to watch MY videos. Overall, I think it’s a great app if you’re low on storage. It saves those precious photos and videos from getting trashed, and they’re saved in the cloud so you won’t have to worry about them getting erased. If you could change the slowness of MyCloudHome , maybe I will change to 5 stars.

by EliseM994

The functionality and capabilities of the Home Duo is just what I need. I really enjoy the freedom of accessing my files from any device. However, a few things that do occur would be worth be able to address in personal settings. One is the creation of a cryptic file that seems to be created (on my mac) every time I connect to the drive. And the second issue is that of a backup file that is created upon using any of the Microsoft Office applications. These are more annoyances than anything else. Just hoping a future upgrade will address these issues. Otherwise, I really do enjoy this product.

by RockDenver

I worked in IT/software engineering for over 25 years and have tried many backups and network storage appliances. This has been by far the most available and simplistic home storage at the price point. The apps for mobile work everywhere with rarely any hiccups. I like having multiple accounts for different family members.

2 overall negatives…which are not deal breakers for me:

1) I’d like my cloud home to be able to backup to another provider like AWS S3 or Google storage automatically. But I have developed a work around by using a script to replicate.
2) the PC/Mac WD clients are worse than the mobile apps… these apps seem to disconnect and require more maintenance then mobile. Mapping a drive, using automated backups from PC stops working from time to time.

by Tbone Jake

HEIC is the picture new standard for cell phone photos. Having to use a different app to open these pictures up defeats the purpose for having My Cloud Home. May as well use Google photo then. This is a definite need for change, not to mention video player for cell videos.

Make this change and it’s a 6 star app. Besides, we’ve already spent over $200 for the box unlike your competing applications.

by Muonic

Once upon a time when I first purchased a My Cloud Home I was specifically looking for a way to not have to have files tied up on my computer while not giving the whole farm away to a cloud service. I accepted loss of features in that goal. WD has iterated over the past year and a half or so and all of my complaints have been fixed both on the device and the iPhone app. Files is now supported. Sharing folders is less clunky. The photos indexing a album collaboration is actually useful and more.

by Ro'dog

I am pleased to know that my photos , Music, and files are backed up on my own external hard drive . No longer depending on Apple to totally have control of my data, I have been happy with apple’s cloud services up to now, but don’t want to pay any increases in my apple service in the future.

by Andymd

I got this cloud device recently and I did enjoyed a lot until the machine got disconnected from the computer, the computer app is 32 bits and the computer supports only 64. So the disconnections is going for almos 6 months, you have to sign in the web in order to save and manage your files instead of your computer, DOES NOT MAKE SENSE, isn’t it.
The company always said they are working on it, but nothing is done.
The bottom line is that the machine works perfect but it has connectivity issues. If that is not important for you, go ahead and get it, is a good device, other wise look for other brand that offer desktop solutions, don’t get stock in the web site.

by BB_iPhone

Device in theory seems great, but I cannot copy pictures from my Windows 10 OS computer to the My Cloud Home. Each time I attempt to copy the 136GB of pictures I get an error message saying that the My Cloud Home doesn’t have enough memory, even though I haven’t copy anything to the 4TB device. I contacted WD and the response was this is not a known issue and that they couldn’t help me. I’ve had it over 39 days and still can’t copy to it! Right now its just another drive that my PC accesses, but is unusable. Wouldn’t recommend this product because of the poor customer service and assistance to get it setup and working.

by That Garden Girl, Nicole

We bought this to easily share our pictures and such with each other quickly and easily as my fiancé and I are currently living in different countries. Unfortunately not only was it a headache to setup compared to the other drives he has, it requires a link to be sent via email to share each item! That’s insane and stupid.
Neither of us want to waste out time checking emails for the latest video the other made that morning, lunch break or trip out with friends.
He is returning the drive tomorrow, we are both very disappointed.

by *ETR-2016-mtvs*

I have an iPhone XR I download the apps to set up my cloud home external HD. This is the 1st time I am trying to use app after the set up and for unknown and strange reason the first thing I get is a screen with an “ Analytical ....” subject with some home and thee is exit , cancel button or anyway that will allow me to continue the use of MyCloudHome

by Sparky 223

I recently purchased the my cloud home hard drive for back up Mac /iPhone/iPad via the easy to use app for your phone. Incase of the devices crash. And I was getting my self familiar with how the application works and I noticed that the application is missing functionality. But overall it works as described