WD MyCloud - Using it for 2 TimeMachine backups?

For anyone that happens to read this thread, and for what it's worth after the poor experience that I've also had, I have just been looking at this exact issue with my own WD MyCloud 3TB. Looking at how Time Machine works, it appears that it uses the Time Machine enabled share on the WD MyCloud device to create what Apple call a 'Sparse Bundle' which is essentially a virtual disk that Time Machine then backs the contents of your Mac into. It is actually this virtual disk that is encrypted with your Time Machine encryption password, NOT the whole volume on the WD MyCloud device. It is therefore possible to have multiple Mac's back up to the same Time Machine share on a WD MyCloud!

As we speak I have both a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro both backing up to the same Time Machine enabled share on my own WD MyCloud, and can confirm that each backup is being stored in it's own 'Sparse Bundle' virtual disk on that share with no issues.

Hi. Just got a WD My Cloud unit. I had trouble with back ups at first, but as I researched the communities at WD, I found I had made a few errors:

1st, I didn't use the TimeMachine share for my original backups. That is a special share used only for backups, obviously... Something to do with indexing and some other routine checking that can slow down the backup process.

2nd, I didn't set up each machine to log in with it's own User identity. I think this is important for the My Cloud to identify separate computers and make separate sparce files for each computer.

3rd, I tried logging in at first as a User on that user's account instead of logging in as a Guest like WD tells me to in their backup instructions.

Lastly, I have a Pace router supplied by ATT along with their Uverse internet service. It, and a couple of other brands, has no UPNP service. I had to get a "dumb" ethernet switch (a cheap TP-Link), which does accommodate plug and play, to get the My Cloud unit up and running in the first place. I think there are still some unresolved problems since, although I got both my MacBooks to backup successfully, they don't seem to be able to connect properly all the time.

Hope this helps.

How have you tried?

TM should have no problem as it just creates a sparsebundle for each computer.. it will not do anything to an existing backup.. Just try.. if you run into trouble tell us exact error messages.

The WD MyCloud is supplied with a hard drive that is formatted for use with both PCs and Macs....called FAT32.

But, that format will not work for Time Machine backups, which require a drive that is formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Best to check with WD Support to find out if the drive can be formatted this way. If yes,the following link will provide the steps to do so.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2063795_format-hard-drive-mac-os.html

I've also just purchased a WD MyCloud drive and connected it to my network switch. I have Time Machine running OK for one Mac, and I can see how you limit the size of the Time Machine share to stop the backup just taking up the whole disk over time.

However, when you have several Macs backing up to the same drive, wouldn't you want to separately constrain each Time Machine backup into its own limited space - to prevent the largest / fastest changing backup taking up all of the space and then constraining the other smaller backups?

I had expected to be able to create separate Time Machine backup shares, each limited by a separate size limit, and use one for each Mac. However, it appears that you can only designate one share on the MyCloud as the Time Machine storage location (which explains why it is by default a public share -- which seems very scary if you expose the drive on the Internet.....)

Anyone successfuly using My Cloud for multiple Mac backups?

I also bought a mycloud 3TB from a well known computer supplier under the promise that I could easily make two time machine back ups. I have them named differently as a parse file each in the time machine file. One works, the other doesn't. My mac book pro works but I have not updated this to Mavericks. My imac does not work, and this runs on mavericks. I read somewhere that you have to mount the drive by its static IP address (but I haven't a clue what this means). It's a shame because the back up for my mac book is great. If I had this for the imac I would almost be happy, except that there seems to be no way of limiting the size of the second back-up. Anyone?

If this fails, I'm taking it back and will get two separate external drives.

Thanks if you can help!

Just to fill you in. After several attempts to make this work, I have given up and swapped the myCloud for a desktop seagate 2TB external hard drive. I am currently trying this over a network, with a partition per computer.

However, I know this can be fraught with problems. The macbook has backed up though, the imac is on a slow go. I was disappointed with the myCloud. It's not as simple as it sounds, and the security feels a bit wooly.

In all honesty, probably just connecting a hard drive to a computer via usb or thunderbolt and backing up that way is the easiest, safest and cheapest method. You just have to make yourself do it with the macbook and other portable devices. Or you could put all your eggs in one basket and spend £250 on an apple time capsule.......

I created two users on my My Cloud, then signed in as the two different registered users on each mac, then used the default Time Machine Backup folder to backup both computers. Works fine.

Hi, do you solved you problem??

I have a similar problem...

I want to be able to create 2 differents timemachiesbackup folder and use this with 2 different users and give a quota to the two different share, it's possible??

Or if it's not possible, can I set for example 300GB of quota for every users and than I can use a single timemachinebackup folder of 300+300 GB of space (I can set time machines in space in the option menu) so in this way every user have the maximum of 300GB quota.

I don't knwo if we understand me because I'm italian and I don't speak english very well....

Dario

I also bought a WD My Cloud 3TB with the idea of backing up via TimeMachine two macs. Maybe I missed something, but for me the TM backup only works for one mac. I set up TM backup for my Macbook Air and it worked fine. But after I had set it up for Mac mini, the Air backup was corrupted and had to be backed up from scratch.

So currently I use it for TM backups only for the Air. The Mac mini is done via Seagate 2TB USB3 external drive.

To be honest, I am disappointed with the WD My Cloud, as it is neither easy, nor fast, nor seamless. The admin interface is slow. And wireless file transfer is also quite slow.

A much better purchase would have been another large USB3 or even thunderbolt external hard drive.

Hi All,

Thanks for replies. I still have my seagate hard drive backing up two computers (1 iMac and 1 macbook pro). It works fine, although any restoration will have to be done over wifi, as apparently, you can only restore from time machine via the method through which you backed-up?!? Don't know how true this is as yet (touch wood) I have not had to restore from the wireless back up.

What is interesting is that contrary to opinion, you can partition a normal external drive and back up to it wirelessly using time machine. My time with the WD cycloid was disappointing, and it seems a year on that things have not been improved?

Thanks

You'll need to go into the "Dashboard" under Shares and create a new share-- call it "MyWifesTimeMachine" or something (No spaces because it won't allow them) Then go under settings>system scroll down to the bottom a bit and you'll see MacBackups. Find and select the new share there and enable it for macbackups. This did the trick for my fiance's new MacBook Pro on our MyBookLive. Good luck.

The reply got from WD Support:

It's impossible to create separate folders to separate Mac backups on WD MyCloud. Only one share is enable for Apple Timemachine. This is by design and it is not possible to create more.

So this clearly doesn't work and isn't possible using MyCloud...I'm wondering if a better option would be to put OS X Server onto my Mac Mini (its only around $20 on the App Store) and then have my Mac Mini do all of the backups for the laptops in the house (2 now, 4 next year when my kids need them for school...). I think they can then have their own quotas and space on a disk attached to the Mac Mini. (Maybe I use my MyCloud disk attached to the Mac Mini to do that...) Anyone tried this?

(Maybe I use my MyCloud disk attached to the Mac Mini to do that...)

No, you cannot use network drive.. you need a MyBook, or one of the many hard disks that you plug in by USB. (Or Firewire or Thunderbolt). It must be formatted HFS+.. that is the problem.

I run synology NAS and it has no problem with multiple Mac computers running backups so I am not sure what the MyCloud issue is. It is certainly possible to do it using standard Linux firmware.. but WD maybe is not interested or hasn't the knowhow.

I'm wondering if a better option would be to put OS X Server onto my Mac Mini (its only around $20 on the App Store) and then have my Mac Mini do all of the backups for the laptops in the house

You don't even need server OS.. although that adds quotas which is not really that big a deal.

If you have a spare mini to use on backups that is fine.. if not a Time Capsule is still the cheapest Network target for Time Machine.

You can buy a Gen4 TC cheap and put a 4TB disk in it.. makes a pretty solid unit..