What Is the Best Free WD Sync Alternative?

• What Is WD Sync?

• What Is the Best Free WD Sync Alternative?

• WD Sync not working, try this method

• WD Sync Alternative for Windows – Sync Center

• WD My Cloud Alternative for Windows – AOMEI Backupper Standard

• Conclusion

What Is WD Sync?

WD Sync is a file synchronization software for Windows 10/8.1/8/7 that can be used both in a Local Area Network (LAN), as well as a Wide Area Network (WAN). This allows users to sync their folders with their My Cloud storage devices through a secure connection over the Internet.

If you have WD digital hard drive and My Cloud account, you can sync files to WD My Cloud for data security. And the saved data on cloud drive will not be affected by computer issues, such as, system crashes, disk failure, virus attack, etc. It makes up for the disadvantages of local backup or external backup.

For Western Digital hard drives, you can consider the most popular one, WD Blue 1TB for best budget, WD blue 4TB famous for best capacity, WD Black 6TB know as best performance.

What Is the Best Free WD Sync Alternative? 

WD Sync can help users who have WD digital hard drive to stay away from computer failure, but there are some users report that WD Sync is not working and they need the best free alternative for it, just like the following case. And more, the WD Sync software is no longer available for download, and technical support ended on April 30, 2020.

“Does anyone know some good and simple alternative software to WD sync? I’m having too many problems with WD sync app. It quits unexpectedly, no storage devices found, certain types of files or folders are not synchronized, save several versions of the same file because of conflicts, some files do not open any more after synchronization, WD sync hangs when logging into mycloud.com. It’s just not reliable! Thanks.”

All in all, it's an emergency to fix WD Sync not working or find a WD Sync alternative. Don’t worry about too much, and I will introduce how to fix it and two alternative software to WD sync, namely Sync Center and AOMEI Backupper Standard. Both alternative software is free, but which one is the best choice? You need to check it yourself and then decide.

WD Sync not working, try this method

According to some users, WD Sync is not working sometimes. It is in pending status and not sync all files. This occurs when a file of the exact same name is added or modified during an active WD Sync operation. Also when the My Cloud cannot process the change fast enough, the file remains in pending status.

To solve this issue, you can follow the steps below:

Step 1. Stop WD Sync and exit the WD App Manager.

Step 2. Move the pending files out of the WD Sync folder to another location on the computer.

Step 3. Start WD Sync and delete or add some content to the WD Sync folder. Sync changes to the directory hosting the pending files can be seen using MyCloud.com or the My Cloud mobile app.

Step 4. Wait for 3 to 5 minutes, then the WD Sync software will update the My Cloud of the changes.

Step 5. Copy the files back into the WD Sync folder in the same location or in another directory.

Step 6. The files moved back into the directory should start syncing to the My Cloud.

WD Sync Alternative for Windows – Sync Center

Speaking of WD sync alternative for Windows, you may think about Sync Center. It’s a free sync tool built-in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 and can sync offline files between local computer and network server. Thus, you can keep copies on your computer of files stored on the network and work with them, even when you are connected or it's not available. 

To sync offline files with Sync Center, use the following steps:

Step 1. Map network drive to local computer.

Press “Win+R” to open the Run window, type IP address of your network drive, right-click the shared folder and select “Map network drive” from the context menu. And then go to the mapped network drive, right-click the offline files or folders and choose “Always available offline”. Finally, just wait until the process ends.

Step 2. Go to “Sync Center” and enable offline files.

Type “Sync Center” in the search box and select it, click “Manage offline files”. And then, in the “Offline Files” window, click “Enable offline files”  and restart your computer to activate this offline folder.

Step 3.  Schedule sync offline files with “Sync Center”.

Go to “Sync Center” and “View sync partnerships”. And then, go to Folders(1) and double-click Offline Files. Afterward, click the “Schedule” button on the menu bar and schedule sync network files locally with on-screen instructions.

Now, you may successfully sync your offline files between local computer and server computer, and it's limited to this. Meanwhile, some users complain that Sync Center is not working as expected. It doesn't matter, you use AOMEI Backupper Standrd to make up for this, whether you want to access data on the server computer or sync network files to local computer. Keep reading below and try it yourself. 

WD My Cloud Alternative for Windows – AOMEI Backupper Standard

File synchronization makes an exact copy of your files on two or more locations, so you can access or edit them at anytime. If that's what you want, you could consider using AOMEI Backupper Standard.

Honestly, it's one of  the best free alternative software to WD sync. You could use it to easily and quickly sync files in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP, even with open files. It works stably without any error. Besides, here are some advantages of this software:

• You can enable Schedule Sync like daily/weekly/monthly to continuously protect your data. 

• You are able to get the sync task status (success or failure) as long as you set Email Notification. 

• You still can sync files from or to multiple devices, such as internal hard drive, external hard drive, USB Drive, network drive, NAS, cloud drive etc. So it helps to forms the 3-2-1 backup strategy for improved data security.

To sync files to WD My Cloud, use the following steps:

Step 1. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and open the software. Then, click “Sync" and “Basic Sync” in order.

Other methods to sync files to WD My Cloud (available on the premium version):
✔ Real-Time Sync: It allows you to sync files in real-time, for example, you modify files in 2 minutes after syncing, it will sync the changes immediately when detected.
✔ Mirror Sync: In this method, everyone is not allowed to modify, delete or add files in the destination, and even if it does, it will be cancelled at the next scheduled sync.
✔ Two-Way Sync: With it, no matter you change files in the source or destination folder, it will sync changes to the other side.

Step 2. Click “+ Add Folder” and select the folder containing all files you want to sync.

Tip: If you want to share files only with certain file extensions, such as, *.doc;*.xls;*.ppt;*.temp;*.bak;*~*temp;temp*, click the funnel-shaped button and directly type the file extension you want to exclude or include. We call it Filter settings, before using it, you need to upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional.

Step 3. Click where the arrow point and select a folder on WD My Cloud by selecting Share or NAS > Add Share or NAS Device and inputing network path. You can choose to sync local folders to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, NAS or other storage.

Step 4. Click “Schedule Sync” and enable it, then select daily, weekly, or monthly. Also, you can set sync notification in the “Options”. 

Tips:
✔ Except for different sync frequencies, you still can use Event triggers and USB plug in on the premium version.  The second option is recommended if you want to automatically copy files to USB drive when connected, thus you don't need to connect it manually every time. 
✔ By default, the Basic Sync feature does not sync the deleted files automatically unless you check "Sync the deletions in the source directory to destination" in the "Options" feature.

Step 5. At last, click “Start Sync”, it will sync all files at the first time and then changes only in the next time. 

Notes:
✖ Please don't modify the source folder name of schedule task, otherwise this software will not sync any changes.
✖ This software does not sync files larger than 4GB to drive formatted with FAT32 file system. 

★ Bonus tip: backup files to AOMEI Cloud

As cloud storage is becoming more and more popular, AOMEI offers users its own cloud - AOMEI Cloud. After you sign up for an AOMEI account, you can use 1TB storage for free within 15 days. Just click Backup > Cloud Backup to have a try.

Conclusion

Sometimes users report that WD Sync not working, and in this case, you can either fix it or find WD sync alternative. No matter what you want, this article help you. Among all the methods, free file sync software - AOMEI Backupper has high compatibility.

With it, you can not only sync files from or to WD My Cloud, but also other recognized devices. And you can run this sync task automatically based on your needs, such as, daily, weekly, monthly. In the premium versions, you can enjoy more, such as USB plug in, real-time sync, mirror sync, etc. And it also works if the WD Backup not working.