{"id":34702,"date":"2025-04-20T04:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T04:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/34702\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T04:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T04:43:08","slug":"synology-is-tightening-restrictions-on-third-party-nas-hard-drives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/34702\/","title":{"rendered":"Synology is tightening restrictions on third-party NAS hard drives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Synology is preparing to roll out new restrictions on third-party hard drives in its future network attached storage (NAS) devices later this year, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2025\/04\/synology-confirms-need-for-synology-branded-drives-in-newer-plus-series-nas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confirmed to Ars Technica<\/a>. The changes could make it much harder to use third-party drives in Synology\u2019s devices for typical use cases, like backing up household computers or as local media servers. The good news is that if you already own a Synology NAS, the company says the change won\u2019t affect you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Synology says in an EU <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synology.com\/en-eu\/company\/news\/article\/DACH_VL_plus\/Synology%20is%20increasingly%20relying%20on%20its%20own%20ecosystem%20for%20upcoming%20Plus%20models\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> that \u201cstarting with Plus Series models released in 2025,\u201d only Synology-branded drives and those the company has certified to meet its specifications will \u201coffer the full range of features and support.\u201d According to Ars, Synology plans to update its compatibility lists to reflect which third-party drives that it has certified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The new restrictions mean that without Synology-approved drives, you might not be able to do things like pool storage between disks or take advantage of drive lifespan analysis offered by the company\u2019s software. The change doesn\u2019t apply to Synology J- and- Value-series devices, and won\u2019t affect consumer-grade Synology Plus devices that were released in 2024 and earlier. Nor will it affect hard drives that are migrated to this year\u2019s devices from its existing NAS systems, according to Synology\u2019s press release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">As for why it\u2019s making this change, a Synology spokesperson told Ars, \u201cExtensive internal testing has shown that drives that follow a rigorous validation process when paired with Synology systems are at less risk of drive failure and ongoing compatibility issues.\u201d The company says similar things in its press release, writing that the restrictions will \u201creduce compatibility issues and increase system reliability and performance.\u201d Synology did not immediately respond to The Verge\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Restrictions like this are irritating. To Synology\u2019s credit, it\u2019s introducing them in a way that\u2019s less egregious than something like a printer company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2023\/3\/11\/23635168\/hp-printer-update-brick-third-party-ink-dynamic-security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blocking third-party ink with a software update<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t fix the fact that owners of its future NAS devices will have fewer choices \u2014 and therefore fewer chances to save money \u2014 when it comes to buying the drives to stick into them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Synology is preparing to roll out new restrictions on third-party hard drives in its future network attached storage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1685,12,326,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-34702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-tech","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114368466745095945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}