Although we don't know for exactly how long, there's no longer any question of limiting Synology NAS units to the brand's own hard disks.
In the space of a few months, Synology has made two decisions that we would kindly describe as controversial. Firstly, the NAS giant had the audacious idea of encouraging users to use only "certified" storage units. The problem was that this certification was only available for the brand's own hard drives, meaning that all drives from manufacturers such as Seagate, Toshiba or Western Digital - not just anyone - could no longer function properly on Synology NAS units. This constraint is not exactly a novelty for Synology: the XS and XS+ NASes have been affected for some time now, but these are professional NASes often purchased with a complete bundle including NAS, storage units, maintenance service...
The new DSx25+ range is the first consumer NAS to be affected by this limitation.
To make matters worse, Synology has also decided to block a hardware feature that is built into the chips used by the manufacturer in its NAS units. It's a feature that doesn't concern everyone, but whose disappearance will handicap quite a few users all the same: hardware transcoding. The idea is to make it possible, without consuming too many resources, to broadcast content appropriate to a given device, for example by reducing the image definition. Everything suggests that this decision comes at a time when Synology is looking to make savings, since several sources mention the desire to no longer pay for " the necessary licenses for the H.265 codec " to justify this purely arbitrary withdrawal.
The complete Synology DSx25+ NAS range © Synology
Fortunately, the Synology community is no slouch, and as much as it can cheer the software success of DiskStation Manager - the brand's NAS control interface - it can express its anger when mocked. Since the first announcement, discontent has risen sharply and Synology has sensed that things are a little tense. The brand has therefore decided to review its copy with the roll-out of the latest version of DSM, 7.3. Please note that 7.3 cannot be installed from the NAS; it must be downloaded and updated manually. What's more, once 7.3 is installed, it will be impossible to go back to 7.2.
Of course, 7.3 brings various bug fixes and security fixes, but more importantly for the issue at hand, this 7.3 revisits storage unit certification. Synology explains that it is working " with drive manufacturers to expand the range of certified storage media, offering more reliable options ". So, hopefully, soon at least some disks from major third-party manufacturers will be officially supported. In the meantime, Synology has decided that 7.3 allows on " NAS DiskStation Plus Value, and J of the year 2025, the support, installation and creation of storage groups with third-party disks ".
