WD2GO on MAC - Public folder only? Windows works 100%...

[alexanderhuzar]

I am the IT Manager for www.matchmg.com I am assisting our vice-president. He has 2 WD MyBook Live 3TB drives configured and 100% working using Windows both on the LAN and through wd2go.com, all folders are visible, can read, write see all folders, no issues whatsoever.

When using a MAC, on the LAN, the drive is visible, but certain folders are hidden like the ones that the default login does not have access to. When you connect as (whatever credentials) all of a sudden, folders with permissions to be viewed by those credentials are visible.

When using wd2go on a MAC, I have no such option. Logging in with the administrator credentials (which have access to every single directory of the drive when using the LAN) results in only the Public folder being visible. There should be 2 other directories besides Public, one for each set of credentials that have been set up that are 100% working in Windows.

How do I access the "hidden folders" when I don't have the "connect as" button since it's some weird HTTP drive mounting system? The folder I want is in the root directory of the drive, on the same level as the "Public" folder.

Info:

I am a seasoned Windows administrator, but have only basic MAC knowledge.

The drives themselves have the latest firmware and are set to auto-update.

Issue has been replicated across 3 seperate MAC machines even on Mac OS Lion.

The test machine is an iMac running OSX version 10.5.8 with ALL the latest updates (confirmed as of 5 minutes before writing this).

Java version (latest) is 1.5.0.50-161 (obtained using terminal "Java -version" command)

[Laura_F]

Windows is using SMB, and Mac is using AFP (over bonjour, if you're using the auto-mounted finder). 

It sounds like Finder's automatically authenticating as Guest, which is allowed to use Public.

I'll research to find out if it's some sort of Keychain thing in Mac where you have to add Admin/password to the keychain for it to auto-connect with those credentials.

[Laura_F]

This seems like it could be a workable solution, just switch SMB with AFP:

http://superuser.com/questions/336665/how-to-automount-smb-shared-network-drives-in-mac-os-x-lion

[alexanderhuzar]

This is all a little over my head.  I'm a Windows user. Last tume I used "sudo -s" was when I was programming phone extensions and call queues into an asterisk server at my old job and even there I just copy+pasted commands. I'll try to figure it all out, but this is not for me, it's for our vice-president who is never going to type anything into terminal for any reason whatsoever never mind implementing an unsupported hack. I know it's Apple's fault for forcing consumers to do things the way it wants them to do, WD should not have given the option to use WD2GO for iMac if the authentication was not working. At least a disclaimer stating that only public shares are accessible on the iMac should have been put in place.

Is there an app for WD2GO from the app store for the iMac? On the iPad with the app it works great. Something like that would solve all the issues that we are currently experiencing.

What about a script. Is there the equivalent of a batch script for mac where I can just edit the login credentials and it will mount the drives for me?

[Laura_F]

Wd2go.com and local network access are two different things. When you are on the same network as the My Book Live, you do not need to use WD2go. 

The link posted should be a permanent solution, not one to enter every time. If you wanted to do something "every single time" you could open Finder, choose the "Connect to a server" option from the menu, then enter afp://mybooklive.local (or whatever the name of the device is). It'll then pop up a box asking for your credentials, which is where you'd enter the My Book Live admin/password information. Once you've done that you can pick which share you want to access. Unfortunately you'll have to do it for each share (folder), which can be tedious if you have a lot of shares. With one user, Bonjour wasn't working properly at all, so we put shortcuts on her desktop that she used whenever she wanted to access a certain share/folder. You have to hold down the command and options keys, then dragging the drive's icon to the desktop (from Finder).

You can also switch to the three-window mode in Finder, click on the My Book Live, then select the "connect as" button. That may be easiest to teach your boss to do, since he probably does it for other things too. Sort-of like pressing space-bar twice to get a period on your mobile device.

[wongshanjie]

Hi Laura,

I have 2 issues:

1. I have created an additional folder in my book live which I am unable to access when I use WDTVLive on my television set

2. I am unable to view .avi files using wd 2go on my iPhone. The app has been purchased.

Please help, regards,

Ajay

[Laura_F]

The WD TV Live would be using Twonky/DLNA to see your My Book Live. Make sure the new share/folder has Media Sharing turned on or it won't get indexed. 

AVIs are a container, so you'll need to find out what is in the container and find an app that will play that format. If the default player can't view them, you won't be able to watch them in the app, but you can play the file if you find another app that supports that format.

[Nanocl7]

I face this problem too. i had my new folder created outside public in mybook live. set to media sharing on. but still cannot see it on my wd tc live (via setup - system - media - locate - mybooklive), only folder i see i public.

if i use "choose source" (red buttom) in let say video tag, I can see the folder. but cannot save to media library. please advise

[TonyPh12345]

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Nanocl7 wrote:

I face this problem too. i had my new folder created outside public in mybook live. set to media sharing on. but still cannot see it on my wd tc live (via setup - system - media - locate - mybooklive), only folder i see i public.

if i use "choose source" (red buttom) in let say video tag, I can see the folder. but cannot save to media library. please advise

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Nano:  This has nothing to do with WD 2go.   You're confusing Network Shares with Media Servers.

You cannot add a Media Server to the Media Library.  You can only add Network Shares.   That's why you only see PUBLIC.

If you want to see your Media Server, you need to press the RED BUTTON and select "Media Servers" then select your My Book Live.

[stanleyuy]

I recently set up a 3tb unit using my macbook pro.  I didn't seem to have a problem and could see the unit simply using finder and all the public folders.   However,  when  I use my Widows 7 PC I could see the Mybook in network but when I double click it, it opens the browser and the setup page.   How can I see the contents of the Mybook using windows?