I changed IP addresses, and now my files are gone. frowning

If you recently changed the IP address of your WD My Cloud device and now your files appear to be missing, don’t panic—your data is most likely still on the drive. This issue often happens when the device’s network settings or mapping paths change, confusing your computer or the WD software about where to find your shared folders. In most cases, the files haven’t been deleted; they’ve just become temporarily inaccessible due to an incorrect network reference or configuration error.

When you change the IP address of a My Cloud or NAS device—especially from DHCP (automatic) to static (manual)—your computer’s existing shortcuts, drive mappings, or WD Discovery connections may no longer point to the correct address. As a result, the folders appear empty, or the system may show a “No files found” error, even though the data still exists on the disk.

To start troubleshooting, try accessing the device via its new IP address. Open your web browser and type the new IP (for exampl) into the address bar to open the My Cloud Dashboard. If you can log in, check the Shares section. You should see your original shared folders listed there. If the data usage graph still shows occupied space, your files are safe on the drive—they’re just not being mapped correctly to your computer.

Next, verify your network drive mappings. If you previously connected to the device using its old IP address), you’ll need to remap it using the new one. On Windows, open File Explorer, right-click “This PC,” and select “Map Network Drive.” Enter the new path using the updated IP address. On macOS, open Finder, choose Go > Connect to Server, and type smb://<new IP address> to reconnect.

If you’re still not seeing files, it’s possible that the My Cloud device has reverted to default configuration or is showing a new empty “Public” folder after the IP change. In this case, check the My Cloud Dashboard > Shares settings to confirm all shares are active and not hidden. Also, verify the user permissions—sometimes the system reassigns access rights during network resets, preventing visibility of older folders.

As a final step, try connecting the device directly to your computer with an Ethernet cable and use the WD Dashboard to perform a rescan or rebuild of the file index. This can help the system detect existing data again.

In short, changing your WD device’s IP address doesn’t delete files—it just interrupts the connection path. By re-establishing access through the new IP or updating your mapped drives, your files should reappear safely.