{"id":49594,"date":"2025-10-09T13:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49594"},"modified":"2025-10-09T13:49:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:49:05","slug":"synology-reverses-ban-on-third-party-hard-drives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/09\/synology-reverses-ban-on-third-party-hard-drives\/","title":{"rendered":"Synology Reverses Ban on Third-Party Hard Drives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hilbert Hagedoorn<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Synology has backtracked on one of its most unpopular decisions in years. After seeing NAS sales plummet in 2025, the company has decided to lift restrictions that forced users to buy its own Synology hard drives. The policy, introduced earlier this year, made third-party HDDs from brands like Seagate and WD practically unusable in newer models such as the DS925+, DS1825+, and DS425+. That change didn’t go over well. Users immediately criticised Synology for trying to lock them into buying its much more expensive drives. Many simply refused to upgrade, and reviewers called out the move as greedy and shortsighted. According to some reports, sales of Synology’s 2025 NAS models dropped sharply in the months after the restriction was introduced.<\/p>

Now, with the release of DSM 7.3, Synology has quietly walked the policy back. Third-party hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs can once again be used without triggering warning messages or reduced functionality. Drives from Seagate, WD, and others will work exactly as they did before—complete with full monitoring, alerts, and storage features.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Voorhees<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The change of direction was revealed in a Synology press release<\/a> announcing DiskStation Manager 7.3, the OS that runs the company’s Plus line of NAS hardware.<\/p>

This is great news for Mac users who felt betrayed by Synology’s previous announcement. However, as Linder also points out<\/a> it does not change the fact that the same “Plus” series of 2025 NAS hardware does not include hardware-accelerated transcoding of H.264 and HEVC video, which previous models supported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Rui Carmo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I’m happy that sanity prevailed, although not in time to prevent me from getting a second (non-Synology) NAS–which I suspect is what many serious customers went out and did, if only to test the waters.<\/p>\n

This was an amazingly bad own goal, especially it being absurdly obvious that their target audience would be knowledgeable enough to see through a lock-in strategy[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n