Windows 10: WD TV Live - External HD no longer showing in Windows 10 Network

Hello everyone,

I have a WD TV Live Streaming Media Player. There is a WD My Passport external hard drive attached to it via USB.

Until last week, I could connect via my windows 10 network to the my passport and transfer files from my laptop directly to the My Passport that is attached to the WDTV. I have been able to do this for years.

Now for some reason, I see the wdtv icon on my networking window, but the My Passport is no longer showing under "Computers" as it used to (please see attached pic, the red squares illustrate what I mean).

I didn’t change anything, I have windows 10 Pro (upgraded from win 7 on the anniversary) and it is really a pain to have to connect the external drive to my laptop every time I want to transfer files.

I know it is possible to watch content the other way around, from wdtv connecting to my pc, but I prefer to attach an external device to the wdtv as a source of content because the quality is better.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this issue?

I read somewhere that WDTV uses old SMB1 protocol that is no longer supported by windows 10 - BUT - if this is so, how come I still see the WDTV device on my network and how come I always managed to see the My Passport under Computer (in Networking) and transfer files from my laptop, wirelessly, to that external drive?

Any ideas and help are more than welcome!

Many thanks in advance!!!!





:)

 

Trying to list my WDTV player as computer in my network

My Western Digital TV Live media box used to be listed as a computer when I checked my network devices on my computer when I had Windows 8.1

This made it easy to transfer videos from my laptop to the external hard drive connected to my WDTV box over the network and also to watch videos on my laptop that were on the external drive of the WD box.

Now with Windows 10, if and when the WD box decides to show up in my network, it is as a media player, which it is, but I am not able to access it to upload or watch movies.

It used to work without making any changes in settings or anything. It just worked.

You would think an upgrade to an OS would be a good thing but it's not working for me. Kind of like when I try to wirelessly connect to my own network and Windows 10 tells me sorry, you can't connect to that network.

 

What is Normal File Structure in Windows 10?

I am new to Windows 10 and have noticed what seems to be a strange file structure. A click on File Explorer generates this list:

Quick Access

Dropbox

OneDrive

This PC

WD Disk(L)

Network

Homegroup

Under WD Disk(L) there is a subfolder named WD Disk(L) and as one might expect the contents in the two folders are identical.

WD Disk(L) is an external backup disk.

Is this file structure normal with Windows 10 and if it is I will live with it.

 

SMB1 has not been removed from Windows 10, but it is a deprecated feature and there's a task in Win10 that will actively remove it if it hasn't been used for 15 days.

I don't know if it will help your problem, but you can try turning SMB1 on and, if that solves your problem, turn off the auto-removal. Look for it in Control Panel, Programs and Features, Turn Windows features on or off. Turn on SMB 1.0/CIFS Client, that will be sufficient (you don't need the server).





I require SMB1 to be able to see my SmartTV and a usb HDD shared by plugging it into my router.

 

Thanks, I will try and let you know if it solved - but - isn't it super dangerous to have SMB1? Isn't there any other way to solve this?

 

No, no other way if you want to connect by seeing its name, not if the device you want to connect to requires SMB1. You may be able to connect by IP address without it, but Network Discovery won't find its name.

In a corporate network with both the SMB1 client and server enabled it can be a risk. That was one of the routes WannaCry used to propagate itself. On a home network behind your router's firewall (and only the client enabled) it's not a big risk IMHO (anyway, I have no choice - my TV only supports SMB1).

 

It worked - but how do I know if my Router has a firewall?

Really afraid of SMB1 in a home network, will also try to connect via IP as you suggested, see what happens.

Thanks!

 

Most (all?) routers have their own firewall, configurable through the router's admin interface. Exactly how (and how configurable) depends on the router model. More on that here from Lifewire...

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-enab...rewall-2487668

 

Configured already

Still super worried about SMB1 *Huh

 

The WannaCry epidemic was almost a year ago and Windows 10, especially with Defender enabled, was not targeted and double-locked down SMB1 with updates since. Good read for you -
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...2-d9ed05f9264b

 

More on that here....

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...r-version-1709

I'm afraid the 'Product Clearinghouse' blog article says that customers have reported WD Live TV as requiring SMB1....

 

It's true, it does require SMB1. I doubt writing WD will make any difference, WDTV Live is a legacy product, don't think they will invest any development time into it anymore. *Sad

Thanks for the links, will check them out!

 

Hi,

Have one of these myself. I use it to playback a vast collection of movies in ISO format which it plays back flawlessly.
Can't remember I ever put in on the network, I use the USB connections and a 3 way cinch cable to connect it to an "old" TV set.

Cheers, *Wink

 

Hmmmm, that's an idea...will check it out, thnx! Cheers!