Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs • Hacker News Board

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#61

Post by Netcob » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:07 AM UTC

bayindirh wrote: post #41

Thanks Synology, but it's too late. I have found out TrueNAS and ASUSTOR (which can run TrueNAS if I want to). I'll continue from that path. Thanks for all the fish, that was an enlightening experience. OTOH, I wish them luck. They look fine for un-techy folks to store their data locally. Would like them to stick around. Also, competition is always good.

Same - replaced my smaller Synology with a UGREEN, put TrueNAS on it first thing, runs great. The HDD thing was only the final nail in the coffin, but before that, there were plenty of ridiculous "upgrades" that made products worse than in the previous generation. Literally removing features, or continuing to use the same outdated hardware. That's what companies do that don't think they have competition.

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#62

Post by mjburgess » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:09 AM UTC

fennecbutt wrote: post #42

I have a ds920 4 bay from synology. It's a pretty decent product, their browser OS for it is incredibly good and useful, the performance is pretty good and I've stuck extra ram in it, ssd for caching reads/writes (altho I have it disabled for writes). But after what they've done recently I don't know if I'd use em again. I know everyone jusy says "build your own!!!11" I used to be like that too I love tech. But somet…

"build your own" just means buy a desktop PC and install an O/S

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#63

Post by INTPenis » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:11 AM UTC

osivertsson wrote: post #51

When leadership makes decisions that are so out of touch with their customers it also severely impacts internal morale. Yeah, so they reversed eventually. But the technical and support people at Synology probably tried to fight this and lost. That feeling of being ignored despite having given this company your everything for many years. I bet many woke up feeling that the magic that made Synology a good place to work…

Do you have inside info about this? I'm just wondering why the internal support people would fight a decision like only allowing supported drives, wouldn't that make their job easier?

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#64

Post by bayindirh » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:11 AM UTC

Netcob wrote: post #61

bayindirh wrote: post #41

Thanks Synology, but it's too late. I have found out TrueNAS and ASUSTOR (which can run TrueNAS if I want to). I'll continue from that path. Thanks for all the fish, that was an enlightening experience. OTOH, I wish them luck. They look fine for un-techy folks to store their data locally. Would like them to stick around. Also, competition is always good.

Same - replaced my smaller Synology with a UGREEN, put TrueNAS on it first thing, runs great. The HDD thing was only the final nail in the coffin, but before that, there were plenty of ridiculous "upgrades" that made products worse than in the previous generation. Literally removing features, or continuing to use the same outdated hardware. That's what companies do that don't think they have competition.

ASUSTOR's latest gen hardware is ridiculous. Ryzen processors, upgradeable ECC RAM, 4xHDD + 4xNVMe, 10GbE plus a PCIe slot...

You need to add an external GPU for TrueNAS installation, but they have an official video for that. On top of that, they connected the flash which stores the original firmware to its own USB port, and you can disable it. Preventing both interference and protecting the firmware from accidental erasure.

All over great design.

Yes, it's not cheap, but it's almost enterprise class hardware for home, and that's a good thing.

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#65

Post by sschueller » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:12 AM UTC

Damage is done, will take a lot more on their end than just reversing a decision they may implement again in the future.

Maybe open source your code or do something that is the exact opposite to vendor lock in in addition to the decision reversal.

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#66

Post by lexicality » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:12 AM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #3

Thank god they reversed course. I’m coming up on needing another NAS and I was not looking forward to digging through alternatives. I’ve run raw Linux servers, I’ve run UnRaid, and now I have Synology and it’s been the best “set it and forget it” solution yet. Yes, the hardware is overpriced but it works and I’m willing to pay a premium for that.

Good luck when it doesn't work though. I decided to take the hit and pay their exorbitant HDD prices on the basis that they came with a warranty etc and one of the drives failed within 3 months.

It was genuinely like pulling teeth. They demanded I ship the drive at my own expense from the UK to Germany and they didn't send a replacement for 3 weeks after it arrived at their warehouse. I had to buy another drive to repair my RAID cluster while waiting. Absolutely outrageous customer support.

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#67

Post by b00ty4breakfast » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

fasteo wrote: post #25

> According to some reports, sales of Synology’s 2025 NAS models dropped sharply in the months after the restriction was introduced. What did NAS customers purchase instead? I honestly can’t believe anyone at Synology thought this would turn out differently.

I think they were hoping they had enough "appliance operators" in their userbase that they wouldn't be able to go elsewhere or improvise with gear on hand. Which, given the people most likely to buy a prosumer NAS device is silly

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#68

Post by throawayonthe » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

fennecbutt wrote: post #42

I have a ds920 4 bay from synology. It's a pretty decent product, their browser OS for it is incredibly good and useful, the performance is pretty good and I've stuck extra ram in it, ssd for caching reads/writes (altho I have it disabled for writes). But after what they've done recently I don't know if I'd use em again. I know everyone jusy says "build your own!!!11" I used to be like that too I love tech. But somet…

> just plugs in and works as a tech guy installing TrueNAS likely isn't a barrier for you, and will almost definitely 'just work' more reliably

there are plenty "barebones" NAS offerings that have the nice formfactor but you bring your own HDDs and OS

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#69

Post by consp » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

nicce wrote: post #38

baobun wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The printer market is a cartel with everyone pulling the same bullshit. DIYing an affordable and performant printer is out of reach for the individual. Printer ink is not a commodity otherwise. Consumers don't really have alternatives. Desktop NAS market is very different.

> Desktop NAS market is very different. This was the first step or attempt to change that.

How? You need to restrict the HDD sales and put them into the cartel.

Re: Synology reverses policy banning third-party HDDs

#70

Post by closewith » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:14 AM UTC

fennecbutt wrote: post #49

closewith wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just want storage and not apps, Ubiquiti's UNAS line is a much better choice, especially if you're in their ecosystem.

Would not recommend, given my UDMs logs are full of random errors and issues all the time, which seems "normal" for them. Not to mention pretty ui but weird bugs and strange behaviours - plus ui looks great but feature wise it sucks. Next time I upgrade I'm just buying mikrotik again...

Fair enough, but I've used thousands of Unifi devices at work and at home and I don't recall ever having to look at the logs. Obviously YMMV, but their NVR storage has been rock solid.