WD Passport Pro: Quick Test

So. . . . after my previous troubles getting plex to work on a 4TB Wireless Pro. . .the unit went dead. It started flaking out on me during my previous trials with Plex, but ultimately, I couldn’t connect to the drive wirelessly. Couldn’t access the drive via USB connection either.

Took a major foreign trip and decided to leave the drive at home.

Came back, ready to RMA the drive. . .but gave it one last try if to do nothing else other than wipe the drive.
It now seems to work. (!)

I am running diagnostics, since my confidence that the drive works reliably is shaken.

  1. I deleted all user data files from the drive.
  2. Ran a standard windows “Error Check” when in USB mode. . .it ran, and fixed some errors.
  3. Now accessing the drive via wireless. . . running a diagnostics “quick check” from the “Support” tab. Progress goes to 45% fairly quickly. . .then sits at 45% for several hours. Tried it a few times. Currently stuck at 45% for 6 hours on the latest attempt. Drive does not appear locked up . . . .I can readily log on with different devices, and it seems responsive to commands (including cancelling the “quick check”)

This does not sound normal? What should I be doing? Is there something to check?
Should I just RMA the drive and be done with it?
I plan to run the “full diagnostic” while I sleep tonight.

Thoughts?

Have you also tried scandisk from a PC or First aid on Mac? that may run faster.

Yes - I ran scandisk on a win 10 PC.

Scandisk runs fine.

I then did the "“quick check” on the diagnostics section of the “support” tab from the drives wireless UI interface - that procedure seems to stall at 45% progress. Is the device ok?

With Plex and large video library a lot of time is required to index the library. While this is happening the drive cannot be accessed. I turned off the Plex server and just use Twonky server. Works well and index’s library very quickly.

Fair enough. I understand your argument.

I am sticking with Plex since I have been using Plex successfully with another server.
For my tablet, I seem to have luck using VLC and connecting to the drive using SMB. That seems to work with Plex “turned on”.

BTW: I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I ultimately gave up on the drive in question and RMA’d it. I have been playing with the new unit for a few weeks (as well as my older non-pro device) and it is working fine.

Good to hear the new one is working well.
I have found copying files off a USB stick a bit of an issue, particularly if the iPad goes to sleep while copying. The copy fails instead of running in background. When selecting multiple files, I found some copied and some did not. Not sure if this is a buffer issue. I also experienced a "no device connected’ after correctly ‘ejecting’ the USB stick and plugging it back in. Putting it in a pc and running a file check fixed the issue and it worked when plugged back in to the wireless pro. I eventually got all my files copied over but I can see how people with limited computer skills could lose files using these devices.
Still as a photo store and media server, (my primary reason for purchase), it does the job pretty well for the price.

I must agree - - > I think these devices not for the faint of (technical) heart.

To make use of the full feature set, some definite tech savvy is required.

To be honest, however, one of the main purposes of this device is to “stream media”.
I have found that streaming media in general always involves more “experimentation” than one would expect or desire.

The only streaming option I found to be truly plug and play was Apple Airplay. Of course, that requires a full apple ecosystem which doesn’t quite suit me.

I think my current biggest “issue” with the Passport wireless products relates to SD card transfers. I do “want” the capability to backup camera cards while traveling. Copying files seems a bit “mysterious” in that I seem to be guessing when the transfer is complete. Not sure I trust copy operations would be complete without using a PC to view files. . .which sort of defeats the point of the use-case. As a result, I have not brought the Passport devices on the last few trips where airplane carryon weight was a concern (I required a laptop for other reasons, and brought smaller non-wireless external HD for backup)

From memory. Transfer progress with sd cards is shown by the battery bars and one of the leds flashes in the middle of the unit. Each battery bar represents 25% transfer completed. When 100% the flasheping centre led stops flashing.
You could also use your phone to access the drive and check everything copied over.