after usb backup working for years, "the volume cannot be mounted or recognized"

[tombj]

I've used the same setup to back up my qnap ths453dx since I bought it, and used hbs3 since it became available with no issues. I leave a powered off pluggable brand external USB drive attached to the NAS, and insert a drive and power it up when I want to do a backup. NOW qnap says "the volume cannot be mounted or recognized" with a little warning triangle, in the attached devices drop down at the top of the screen. I have all latest updated firmware and apps. I've seen others had this problem years ago with no specific remedy. How do I fix this nowadays?

[dosborne]

Test the USB drive on a PC?

[tombj]

I believe it is formatted ext4, I don't think a pc can read that...

[Cadster]

i had the same problem and was able to solve them by installing USB Serial Drivers from the community store.

[tombj]

Sorry buy I was not able to locate anything like that, where is the "community store", do you mean the official qnap app store?

[dolbyman]

No guarantees but I think this is meant by the hint up there

https://www.qnapclub.eu/en/qpkg/803

[tombj]

OK. Just formatted the drive ntfs with a pc, returned it to the NAS external unit and I think it may be working. The Nas seems to be confused and is showing a rotating working icon in storage manager and is showing no external devices attached now even though there is a snmp UPS attached and the external drive should be device #2. I'll wait a while then reboot.

[tombj]

now I see the device connected properly, but still get a rotating icon in file station next to the nas name and am unable to access the folders on the nas. eventually I get "the server is busy or the network is disconnected! MAke sure the NAS can be reached and then reload the page" dialog box. If I eject the external drive then go over and power it off, then refresh the nas window, I am then able to access files on the nas. Of course because of this I cannot set up a backup job because HBS3 needs to access the NAS file structure to select folders. Something is rotten here and I made NO changes to hardware or software or external disk or drive unit. I did notice the latest firmware update has configured itself so it did security and quality updates automatically, so I don't know when the last update was done or if that was what caused this, but how do I back up the NAS now?

[FSC830]

...
I did notice the latest firmware update has configured itself so it did security and quality updates automatically, so I don't know when the last update was done or if that was what caused this, but how do I back up the NAS now?

I do recommend never allow automatic installation of updates!
QNAP (not only, others, i.e. Microsoft too) have proved in history that automated updates could cause serious trouble!

If current firmware has an issue with USB a downgrade to last working firmware is a solution.

Regards

[tombj]

"I do recommend never allow automatic installation of updates!"

Neither do I, but I figured I'd give it a try. In any case downgraded to 5.0.0.2131 and it seems to be working, I can access the nas when the external drive is attached and was able to configure a backup job, and the backup is running. I don't know if it is successful yet but if not I'll report back.