Wanting to get started with your WD My Cloud device? Here's our guide to getting yourself sorted out - We'll run you through how to connect the drive to your Windows 10 device, as well as create your account, add users, change shared permissions, and map your WD device to your network drive.
Step 1: Establishing a connection with your Windows 10 device
First up, you want to plug in your WD My Cloud drive into a power socket, and then plug in one end of the supplied ethernet cable into your router and the other end into the dedicated ethernet port on the back of the NAS drive.
Wait until the LED light turns blue before you fire up any programs on your Windows device.
Next, head to files.mycloud.com/setup to begin the registration process.
Click get started, followed by selecting your language, and ticking the box to confirm you agree with WD's user license agreement.
Once a connection is established, you will also see that in your network folder, there will be a device called WDMyCloud (Found in your Windows 10 File Explorer) - This will be where you can add files directly to your My Cloud network via the public folder. We will discuss more on this area later in the article.
Next up is getting yourself onto the user portal...
The user by default will be called admin - You'll need to type in and confirm a password you would like to use for signing into your admin portal for future use (You can click next if you would prefer not to set up a password, but we recommend it as a way to add security to your account and data.
Next, enter your first name, last name and email address into the boxes provided if you wish to create your own cloud access. This will allow you to access your own WD device from other remote networks using the login details you provide here.
Once you have saved your admin user details, you'll have the option to immediately add other local users, such as friends or family. Again, provide them with a username, then enter their first name, last name and email address to allow them to join your WD cloud. Once you are happy, click next.
You will now be asked to submit your preferences to automatically update firmware if you'd like access to WD's product improvement program, and if you would like to register your product with WD My Cloud (Mainly for helpful guides and for giving feedback).
Once you have submitted these preferences, you will be sent an email providing the login details for your account.
Step 2: Adding/removing/managing new users on your My Cloud drive
Once your owner account is fully registered to the device, you can add local and remote users. Local users are accessing the drive via the same WIFI network and hence will not need cloud access.
To grant general cloud access, head to the cloud access section and toggle the cloud service option to on. The connection status will change to connected (Port forwarding status established).
Adding users to your network
To add a remote user, you'll also need to grant them cloud access. To get started, follow the steps below:
1. Sign in to your My Cloud account at mycloud.com
2. Head to the user's section
3. Click on the add user icon (This is a figure with a plus (+) sign located next to it.
4. Fill out the user details as listed below:
First name
Last name
Email
Password (What they'll be required to enter to gain access to my cloud network remotely
Confirm Password
5. The person will receive an email asking them to register with the details you entered in the last step. Once they are approved, they will be added to the list of users, and a private folder will be created in their name within the WD My Cloud network drive. You will be notified they have joined your list of remote users - You will be able to see their users by going to the user section of the My Cloud home web application.
Now the user is set up remotely, you can give them cloud access to the network. To do so, head to cloud access, click on the user from your list of users, then select get code. Once the user receives the code in their email inbox (or spam folder), they can get following the instructions on-screen to be granted access to that specific device only. They can use that same code to register more devices with their existing details if they wish.
Removing a user from your network
(Please note that you cannot remove the admin user)
To remove a user, head to the users section, click on the user you'd like to remove and click on the remove user icon. Please take caution when removing users, as if any content they have saved is not backed up by the user's own personal storage or the cloud device, it will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
Step 3: Managing shared access to folders
It is essential to know that they will always have access to view the primary public folder once any user is added to your group. You are, though, able to assign groups, such as for family and friends.
By creating groups, you can grant different access to the folders within your WD My Cloud drive.
To add a group and/or manage group access;
Head to the users section from your dashboard, and click on the groups tab.
To add a new group, click on the add group icon (This is two figures with a plus (+) sign located next to them. Enter a name for what you'd like the group to be called (e.g. family) and then click save.
To manage a group's access:
Click on the group you wish to edit and scroll down until you reach the share access section.
You can choose between 3 different types of access, these are:
Read/write access - Group members can view and make updates to the shared folder
Read only access - Group members can view the shared folder, but are not allowed to make any changes to it
Deny access - As you'd expect, the group cannot access the folder at all
Step 4: Mapping the network drive folder of your WD My Cloud home device
Mapping your network drive is an essential part of ensuring you can access your drive and the folders within it locally, this way you can access the same drive on different devices, even if you are on a different network.
To map your WD Cloud public folder;
Head to the File Explorer and locate your WD Cloud drive. It should be called WDMyCloud.
Right-click on the public folder, then select the map network drive option.
Choose an available letter from the drive list (drop-down), ensuring to tick the box that says Reconnect at login. Enter the drive location of your WD My Cloud device (\\WDMYCLOUD\Public). Click finish, your drive will now have been mapped.
Step 5: Get your files added to the drive!
The last thing to do now is simply to begin adding files to your new cloud drive. To do so, simply drag and drop the files from your local storage, into the WDMyCloud network drive. You have the option to drop them into the public folder, or into one of the shared/private folders you have with different groups.
If you need to learn how to perform other actions on your WD My Cloud personal NAS drive, such as create backups, or add new devices such as mobiles, TVs and tablets, and more, click the link below. It is a complete user guide for My Cloud users.
Hopefully you (As well as your friends and family) are now ready to start adding files to your drive, such as videos, documents, photos and music!
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