WD MyCloud NAS Anti-Virus Essentials Software

By JP Habaradas on August 14, 2015 @jaypee

Remember the Western Digital MyCloud EX4100 NAS device that I reviewed and featured in a giveaway a few months ago? In that review I forgot to mention that one of the cool features it has is the ability to install third-party apps like Git, Joomla, phpMyAdmin, Transmission and WordPress just to mention a few.

If you own one or plan to purchase it, here’s another reason for you to like this device. Starting now, all WD MyCloud NAS device owners/users will be able to install the Anti-Virus Essentials app to help keep their device and their network safe.

Here’s the official announcement that was sent to me via email:

WD’s My Cloud NAS are now equipped with the new Anti-Virus Essentials software, providing scheduled or on-demand background scans to detect any viruses on your NAS device and help keep it safe from malicious attacks.

The WD Anti-Virus Essentials software is compatible and works with the following MyCloud NAS models:

My Cloud Mirror
My Cloud EX2
My Cloud EX4
My Cloud EX2100
My Cloud EX4100
My Cloud DL2100
My Cloud DL4100

Installing an app on your WD MyCloud NAS device is fast and easy. If you haven’t tried it before and/or don’t know how, don’t worry because I’ll show you how to do it. Just follow the steps below:

HOW TO INSTALL THE ANTI-VIRUS ESSENTIALS APP

Click on the “Add an App” icon.

Click “Accept“.

Look for the Anti-Virus Essentials app and click on the small white box on the left.

Click “Install“.

That’s it! With the WD Anti-Virus Essentials app, users will get FREE up-to-date virus protection for their MyCloud NAS devices. Users have the option to run scheduled or on-demand folder, system or full scans to protect their valuable data, documents and other files.

Anyone else own a WD MyCloud EX4100 or any WD MyCloud NAS device? Have you tried installing the WD Anti-Virus Essentials app? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Owner and editor of JaypeeOnline. Self-proclaimed geek. New media writer and consultant. WordPress advocate. Loves blogging, gadgets, video games and sports. You can follow him on Google+, Facebook or Twitter.

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16 Comments

Rob

March 6, 2016 at 8:49 PM

I bought a My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 and I try to add the Anti Virus Essentials app and it is not available. (In fact, there are a number of apps listed on the WD Support Page that are not available via the My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 add app functionality.) Do you know why this may be the case?

Reply
- JP Habaradas
  
  March 8, 2016 at 10:41 AM
  
  Hi Rob, did you try to add the app via the MyCloud device dashboard? I haven’t had the chance to try out the My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 but one reason that the apps aren’t showing up is that they aren’t compatible with it.
  
  Some apps are only compatible with certain My Cloud NAS models. You might want to check the My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 product page or documentation.
  
  Reply
Dale

February 22, 2016 at 10:20 PM

It has been installed on EX2 for several weeks. Was fine with the phantom viruses, but recently the scan process ran-away and esssntially killed any other access. Took a reboot and then it ran away in less than 24 hours. Stopped it and dashboard response came fully back to normal. So, I’ve stopped it on all other WD NAS drives I manage.

Reply
- JP Habaradas
  
  February 25, 2016 at 1:56 PM
  
  Dale – Thanks for sharing about your experience. I haven’t encountered that on my installation but will look out for it and try to determine what caused it.
  
  Reply
Bill Jorth

February 14, 2016 at 12:18 AM

AV installed easily and scans routinely. This week it found a file it thinks is infected. But the notification did not include a file name or link to the file or a quarantine of the file. I can’t find any documentation on how to find it and clean it. Help?

Reply
- JP Habaradas
  
  February 25, 2016 at 1:54 PM
  
  Bill – Do you happen to remember the name of the files or the exact message that you saw? Unfortunately like what G. Holland mentioned in his comment, there’s no available documentation right now.
  
  If you know/remember which files were flagged as infected, why don’t you copy it in a blank USB drive and scan it on a desktop or laptop computer and see if it also gets flagged as infected.
  
  Reply
  - Bill Jorth
    
    February 26, 2016 at 12:49 AM
    
    I found the quarantine folder by going into the settings in the app. I didn’t have an option to view the file. I could eliminate it or leave it quarantined. No option to copy it to a thumb drive or other location.
    
    Reply
    - JP Habaradas
      
      March 3, 2016 at 7:51 PM
      
      Bill – Oh ok. Thanks for sharing. Do you recognize the file that was flagged? Maybe it was just a false positive? I guess you’ll just have to make do with what you have, either to remove or quarantine it.
      
      Reply
      - Bill
        
        March 3, 2016 at 7:55 PM
        
        The infected file was not identified to me. The only option was the keep “it”(whatever it was) in the quarantine or delete it. I’m still waiting for the next scan to complete to find out if it is really gone. Still no idea if I lost a file I needed.
      - JP Habaradas
        
        March 3, 2016 at 8:18 PM
        
        Bill – I see. That sounds like a lot of work just to figure out the file/s that have been flagged. I really hope that they work on this app and improve on it either via an update or from a new version. Thanks again for sharing.
G. Holland

January 15, 2016 at 1:49 PM

I’ve got the software installed on my WD EX2 NAS, but it’s essentially without documentation (at least insofar as I’ve been able to determine, is very slow, typically taking 36-48 hrs to complete a scan and the user interface is such that actually getting a report on the results of a scan is hard, at best. I’ve been having to work with 2nd or 3 level tech support after tedious escalations to find out anything and am still trying to determine if the 3 viruses it’s reporting are indeed real or just phantoms. Although WD tech support is very nice and fairly prompt to respond, the quality of their responses is very sub-par, at least on this subject. The kind of responses to simple questions like “My EX2 is reporting it’s found a virus – How do I find the detailed scan report” typically generates piecemeal answers and it takes days to get an actual complete answer. I think their product knowledge of 3rd party add-ins like the Anti-Virus program is woefully inadequate. That coupled with non-existent documentation makes for a messy scene.

Reply
- JP Habaradas
  
  February 25, 2016 at 1:46 PM
  
  I agree about the issue of documentation. WD should provide a little bit of information and resource for the users as not everyone are tech-savvy or knowledgeable in these things.
  
  I have it installed on mine but I don’t bother running scans because I’m the only one using it and I make sure that all the files I have in there are safe and previously scanned on my other devices.
  
  Reply
  - G. Holland
    
    March 3, 2016 at 8:10 PM
    
    Yes, I find the S/W to be virtually worthless as it makes false virus reports, especially if you’re also backing up Mac files to the device and the scheduling software if you’re doing scanning, is limited. To scan 2 or 4 Tb, you can’t do it in a single 24 hr period, it seems, and the s/w doesn’t seem to have any way to say scan from, for example, 11 PM on Friday through 6AM the following Monday. And you can’t delete/edit a defined scan if it’s in mid-flight, i.e., if it’s started, but paused because it ran out of time. Just an Ugly/Ugly user interface.
    
    Reply
  - JP Habaradas
    
    March 3, 2016 at 8:19 PM
    
    I agree with what you said. I think the software is half-baked and isn’t ready or fully equipped for real-world use. The lack of documentation doesn’t help at all. That’s why I haven’t really made use of it after installing it.
    
    I haven’t tried using it on my Mac or for scanning files more than 1 TB and haven’t experienced getting a file flagged as virus either real or false positive.
    
    Reply
Michael Belisle

August 14, 2015 at 9:09 PM

I just installed it. doing scan now

Reply
- JP Habaradas
  
  August 15, 2015 at 11:13 PM
  
  Hi Michael, thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Please do share with us the results of your scan and other experience you might have using the Anti-Virus Essentials app.
  
  Reply