WD My Cloud Slow: How to Fix Transfer Speed Problems (2026)

What Speeds Should You Expect?

Before troubleshooting, understand what’s realistic for WD My Cloud devices. These are network-attached storage devices limited by network speed, drive speed, and processor capability.

Realistic Speed Expectations

Key insight: If you’re seeing speeds around 10-12 MB/s, you likely have a 100 Mbps connection somewhere in the chain instead of Gigabit. If speeds are under 5 MB/s, WiFi or a major configuration issue is usually the culprit.

Fix 1: Check Your Network Connection (Most Common Issue)

The overwhelming majority of “My Cloud is slow” complaints trace back to network configuration. Work through these checks systematically.

Verify Gigabit Ethernet Connection

Your My Cloud has a Gigabit Ethernet port (1000 Mbps), but it’s only as fast as the slowest link in the chain. Check each component:

1. Router/Switch ports: Log into your router’s admin page and check the port status where My Cloud is connected. It should show “1000 Mbps” or “1 Gbps” — not “100 Mbps” or “10 Mbps”. Older routers often have only 100 Mbps ports.

2. Computer’s Ethernet adapter: On Windows, open Device Manager > Network adapters. Your Ethernet adapter should support Gigabit. On Mac, System Preferences > Network > Ethernet should show “1000baseT” when connected.

3. Ethernet cables: Cat5 cables max out at 100 Mbps. You need Cat5e or Cat6 cables for Gigabit speeds. Check the printing on your cables — if they say “CAT5” without the “e”, replace them.

Stop Using WiFi for Transfers

This is the single biggest speed improvement for most users. WiFi introduces massive overhead and variable performance:

• WiFi shares bandwidth with all devices on your network
• Signal strength varies by location and interference
• WiFi protocols add significant latency to file transfers
• Even fast WiFi 6 rarely matches wired Gigabit for sustained transfers

Solution: For large file transfers, connect your computer directly to your router via Ethernet cable. Even a $15 USB Ethernet adapter for laptops provides dramatically better performance than WiFi.

Use a Network Switch

For best performance, connect both your computer and My Cloud to the same Gigabit network switch, then connect that switch to your router. This keeps file transfer traffic between your computer and My Cloud off the router’s backplane, reducing congestion. A basic 5-port Gigabit switch costs $15-25.

Fix 2: Optimize My Cloud Settings

Disable Media Indexing During Transfers

My Cloud continuously scans files for photos, videos, and music to build searchable libraries. This uses CPU and disk resources, slowing transfers:

My Cloud Home: Indexing runs automatically and can’t be disabled, but you can minimize impact by uploading files when you’re not actively using the device.

My Cloud EX2 Ultra:

• Access the dashboard
• Go to Settings > Media
• Disable Media Serving and DLNA during large transfers
• Re-enable after transfer completes

Disable Cloud Access During Transfers

Remote cloud access uses bandwidth and CPU cycles. For fastest local transfers, temporarily disable it:

EX2 Ultra: Dashboard > Settings > General > Cloud Access > Off

Check for Background Processes

Several background processes can slow My Cloud:

• RAID rebuild: After drive replacement, rebuilding can take hours and slows performance significantly
• Firmware updates: Updates install in background and temporarily affect speed
• Backup jobs: Scheduled backups or cloud sync running in background
• Plex scanning: Media library scans use significant resources

Check the dashboard status for any running tasks before diagnosing slow speeds.

Fix 3: Computer-Side Optimizations

Windows: SMB Protocol Settings

Windows file sharing performance depends on SMB protocol configuration:

Check current SMB connection: Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

Get-SmbConnection

Look for your My Cloud connection and verify it shows “SMB3” — SMB1 is significantly slower.

Enable Large MTU: In PowerShell as administrator:

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableLargeMtu $true

Mac: SMB Performance Tuning

macOS defaults to conservative SMB settings. Create or edit /etc/nsmb.conf:

[default] signing_required=no streams=yes

Restart your Mac after saving the file.

Disable Antivirus Scanning on Network Drives

Real-time antivirus scanning of network files dramatically slows transfers. Exclude your My Cloud’s mapped drive from scanning, or add an exception for the network path.

Transfer Fewer, Larger Files

Transferring thousands of small files is always slower than fewer large files due to per-file overhead. When possible:

• Compress folders into ZIP archives before transfer
• Use robocopy (Windows) or rsync (Mac/Linux) instead of drag-and-drop for better handling of many files

Fix 4: Firmware and Hardware Checks

Update Firmware

Outdated firmware can cause performance issues. Ensure your My Cloud is running the latest version:

My Cloud Home: Updates automatically. Check Settings > About in the app to verify.

My Cloud EX2 Ultra: Dashboard > Settings > Firmware > Check for Updates

Check Drive Health

Failing drives slow down dramatically before complete failure:

EX2 Ultra: Dashboard > Storage > check SMART status for each drive. Look for reallocated sectors, pending sectors, or high temperature warnings.

If SMART shows warnings, backup immediately and replace the drive.

Consider Device Age

Older My Cloud devices have slower processors that limit throughput. The original single-bay My Cloud (circa 2013-2014) has a much slower CPU than current models. If your device is 5+ years old, performance limitations may be hardware-bound.

Factory Reset (Last Resort)

If nothing else works, a factory reset can resolve software corruption issues:

• Backup all data first — factory reset may erase everything
• Hold the reset button for 4-5 seconds for soft reset (keeps data, resets settings)
• Hold for 40+ seconds for full factory reset (erases everything)

Fix 5: Remote Access Speed Issues

Slow remote access (from outside your home) has different causes than local network slowness.

Your Home Internet Upload Speed

Remote access is limited by your home internet’s upload speed, not download. Most home internet plans have asymmetric speeds — for example, 200 Mbps down but only 10 Mbps up. That 10 Mbps upload means maximum 1.25 MB/s remote access speed.

Run a speed test at home to check your actual upload speed. There’s nothing My Cloud can do to exceed this limit.

WD Server Status

Remote access routes through WD’s servers for connection setup. Check status.westerndigital.com for any service issues.

Relay vs Direct Connection

My Cloud can connect remotely via relay (through WD’s servers — slower) or direct (peer-to-peer — faster). Direct connection requires proper port forwarding. Check your My Cloud dashboard for connection type.

How to Test Your Actual Speed

To properly diagnose slowness, measure actual transfer speeds:

Windows Speed Test

# Copy a large file and measure speed copy "C:\testfile.zip" "\\WDMYCLOUD\Public\" /Z

Or use the free tool CrystalDiskMark on a mapped network drive.

Mac Speed Test

# In Terminal, copy a large file and measure time cp /path/to/largefile.zip /Volumes/Public/

Or use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (free from App Store) on a mounted share.

Interpret Results

• 80-110 MB/s: Excellent — you’re getting near-maximum Gigabit performance
• 50-80 MB/s: Good — some overhead but acceptable
• 20-50 MB/s: WiFi bottleneck or network congestion likely
• 10-12 MB/s: 100 Mbps connection somewhere in chain
• Under 10 MB/s: Significant problem — check cables, router, and settings

Specific Scenarios and Solutions

Slow Photo Backup from Phone

Phone backup speeds are limited by several factors:

• WiFi overhead and signal quality
• Processing each photo individually (thousands of small files)
• My Cloud indexing each photo as it’s uploaded
• Phone battery/thermal management throttling

Solutions:

• Keep phone plugged in and on same WiFi as My Cloud
• Backup overnight when network is idle
• Temporarily disable media indexing on My Cloud during initial backup
• Use WiFi 5GHz band instead of 2.4GHz if your phone supports it

Slow Plex Streaming

Buffering during Plex playback usually indicates:

• Transcoding occurring: Check Plex dashboard — if CPU is at 100%, playback device doesn’t support the format
• Network bottleneck: Use wired Ethernet for streaming devices
• Library scanning: Streaming is slow while Plex scans for new content

See our Plex setup guide for optimization tips.

Slow Time Machine Backup (Mac)

First Time Machine backup to My Cloud is always slow. Expected times:

• 100GB over WiFi: 8-12 hours
• 100GB over Ethernet: 1-2 hours
• 500GB over WiFi: 24-48 hours
• 500GB over Ethernet: 4-6 hours

After initial backup, incremental backups take 5-30 minutes. See our Mac guide for optimization.

Slow After Adding Many Files

My Cloud indexes new files for search, photo galleries, and media serving. Adding thousands of files triggers intensive indexing:

• Performance returns to normal after indexing completes
• Check dashboard for indexing status
• Temporarily disable indexing for faster transfers: Dashboard > Settings > Media > disable services

When to Consider Upgrading

If you’ve optimized everything and speeds still don’t meet your needs, the device may be at its hardware limits:

Consider upgrading if:

• You need consistent 4K streaming to multiple devices
• You require faster than Gigabit speeds (2.5GbE/10GbE)
• You have 5+ users accessing simultaneously
• You need intensive Plex transcoding

Better options for power users:

• Synology DS220+ or DS920+ — better CPU for transcoding
• QNAP with 2.5GbE ports — faster than Gigabit
• Dedicated Plex server — unlimited transcoding capability

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

• WD My Cloud Overview
• Setup Guide
• Troubleshooting Guide
• Windows Setup
• Mac Setup
• Plex Setup
• NAS Drives
• WD Red Plus

Last updated: February 2026. Troubleshooting guide for WD My Cloud transfer speed issues.