Reports Synology are walking back their 2025 drive restrictions

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#322937 8-Oct-2025 07:47

It’s been reported today that Synology are walking back their 3rd party drive restrictions in DSM 7.3. It’s great news for consumers and shows if there is enough blow back from consumers companies will walk back their anti-consumer policies.

I still wouldn’t trust Synology not to do something else similarly scummy. It’s great there is so much competition in the space now from both barebones or DIY NAS operating systems and also new entrants like Unifi and Ugreen

freitasm

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#3422928 8-Oct-2025 08:09

Not sure walked back or followed with plans. They always said they were goling to work to introduce models that have been tested.

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#3422929 8-Oct-2025 08:29

freitasm:

Not sure walked back or followed with plans. They always said they were goling to work to introduce models that have been tested.

The report is there are no restrictions on drives other than those on the incompatible list.

It’s a complete backdown.

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#3422975 8-Oct-2025 12:07

Here is the official press release, received moments ago:

Synology is committed to delivering reliable, high-performance storage systems. Rigorous validation of both hardware and software components has long been a core development priority. Synology storage drives, together with the third-party validation program, are engineered to provide the highest levels of reliability with DSM.

Synology is collaborating with drive manufacturers to expand the range of certified storage media, delivering more reliable options. In the meantime, 2025 model-year DiskStation Plus, Value, and J Series running DSM 7.3 will support installation and storage pool creation with third-party drives¹. Together with the existing support for third-party drive migration, DSM will provide users with greater flexibility in managing their storage deployments.

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#3422976 8-Oct-2025 12:08

Full press release

Taipei, Taiwan — October 8, 2025 — Synology today announced the release of DiskStation Manager (DSM) 7.3, delivering enhanced storage efficiency, strengthened security and reliability, and new productivity features.

"As data grows rapidly, advanced solutions are needed to manage, process, and unlock its full value," said Kenneth Hsu, Director of the System Group at Synology. "DSM 7.3 helps customers confidently address evolving data management challenges on a platform that is secure, reliable, and ready to support AI transformation."

Enhanced storage efficiency, system security, and collaboration capabilities

Synology Tiering automatically manages files between storage tiers based on access patterns, keeping frequently used "hot" data on high-performance storage while shifting rarely accessed "cold" data to cost-effective tiers. With customizable policies based on modification time or access frequency, users can precisely schedule when and how data movement takes place.

Security has always been the top priority in DSM development. Over the past 12 months, DSM has received more than 50 proactive security updates. In DSM 7.3, security is further reinforced with the adoption of industry-recognized risk indicators, including KEV, EPSS, and LEV, for stronger threat prioritization and protection.

Office Suite has also undergone significant upgrades to meet the community's growing needs. Synology Drive introduces shared labels, streamlined file requests, and enhanced file locking to facilitate team collaboration. Meanwhile, MailPlus further strengthens security with email moderation and adds domain sharing to unify identities across distributed infrastructures.

Empowering AI adoption with data privacy

Synology AI Console has been deployed on more than 430,000 Synology systems since its launch in August, 2025, enabling seamless AI-powered team collaboration and management in on-premises environments. In DSM 7.3, Synology AI Console further introduces custom data masking and filtering, allowing users to safeguard sensitive information locally before transmitting data to third-party AI providers, enhancing both security and workflow reliability.

In addition, Synology AI Console will soon add support for all OpenAI-compatible APIs in future releases, enabling seamless integration with private AI infrastructure and giving organizations the flexibility to deploy AI services with full data privacy and security.

Expanded storage flexibility

Synology is committed to delivering reliable, high-performance storage systems. Rigorous validation of both hardware and software components has long been a core development priority. Synology storage drives, together with the third-party validation program, are engineered to provide the highest levels of reliability with DSM.

Synology is collaborating with drive manufacturers to expand the range of certified storage media, delivering more reliable options. In the meantime, 2025 model-year DiskStation Plus, Value, and J Series running DSM 7.3 will support installation and storage pool creation with third-party drives¹. Together with the existing support for third-party drive migration, DSM will provide users with greater flexibility in managing their storage deployments.

1. Creation of M.2 based storage pool and cache still requires drives on the HCL.

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#3423092 8-Oct-2025 15:35

From what I’ve read and watched “collaborating with drive manufacturers” meant that the drive manufacturers had to bear all the costs of certification. Apparently WD told them to go whistle and do it themselves.

This must have been costing them significant sales to backdown like they have.