What is the purpose of the Xiaomi router's USB port? Plug in a USB drive and turn it into a family shared drive, allowing direct access from your phone or computer—get a lightweight NAS for free
my mom always complains that her phone album is overflowing, and even after deleting 128GB of storage, it still runs red. I suggested buying her a NAS, but when she saw the price, she was reluctant to part with it. Later, I rummaged through the dust on the back of the router and found that the USB 3.0 port had never been plugged in all year—just plugged in a spare external hard drive, and the whole family's photos and movies could be stored inside, and both phones and computers could access it directly. was like getting a lightweight NAS for free. This article describes the entire process of my tinkering with this system, including the format selection pitfalls, how to connect computers and phones, and whether the speed is up to par.
first check if your machine has a port and what kind of port it is
Not all Xiaomi routers have a USB port; confirm this first before proceeding. The situation of the machines I have and the ones I've helped others handle:
| model | USB situation | can it be used as a shared drive |
| AX9000 / AX6000 | USB 3.0 | Energy, the fastest batch among |
| AX3000T / Redmi AX6S | USB 3.0 | Energy, Enough for Daily Life |
| AX3000 / AX3600 | USB 3.0 | Energy |
| Entry-level models like AX1500 / AX1800 | without USB ports | no chance, so don't flip the back |
| older R3 series with a built-in hard drive | hard drive | Yes, but the firmware is old and there are fewer features |
just glance at the back of the router. The USB port is a rectangular flat port, just like the one behind the TV. If it has a mouth, keep reading; No way, this path won't work. If you want to experiment with shared storage, check out my previous article on soft routers and NAS introductions, try a different approach.
by the way, Redmi devices: Redmi AX6S, AX6000, and others with USB ports work exactly like Xiaomi's own, with the same backend interface. The steps below are universal.
format is the first pitfall: I messed up on my first night
I rummaged through a drawer and pulled out an old external hard drive from years ago, plugged it in, but the backend absolutely refused to acknowledge it. Swapped in a USB drive, instantly recognized. Later, I realized the problem was with the partition format.
Xiaomi router's USB storage only supports a few formats: FAT32, exFAT, and some new firmware supports NTFS. My old hard drive is in ext4 format—I used to plug it into a TV box for flashing, and the router ignored it completely. The problem with FAT32 is that a single file cannot exceed 4GB, but a single Blu-ray disc can exceed 4GB, so my suggestion:
- U drive, small storage : Format to FAT32 for convenience, enough for storing documents and photos
- for external hard drives or HD movies: use exFAT, no 4G restrictions, can read and write on both Win and Mac
- NTFS: Most new firmware recognizes it, but older firmware only reads and doesn't write. Try plugging in to see if you can copy files
- ext4/other Linux formats : If the router doesn't recognize it, you need to reformat it on your computer
Formatting on the computer: Select Format on the Windows right keyboard, and erase it in Disk Tools on Mac. Note that formatting will clear the entire disk; if there is anything inside, copy it out first. I first loaded over 70GB of old movies from my old hard drive into the computer, set it to exFAT, and then plugged it back into the router. The backend immediately recognized it, and both the capacity and used space showed up as normal.
Enable sharing: Locations of the three backend switches
Connect your phone to the router's WiFi
(this step is essential, as data data won't be detected). Go to 192.168.31.1 in your browser and enter the management password to access the backend. I previously wrote about those basic management operations in the of 192.168.31.1 login, and here I'll directly discuss sharing-related operations.
After
the backend, look for the "Storage" or "USB Storage" menu. Different firmware versions have slightly different names, some hidden under "Advanced Settings." There are several switches inside, and I explain them one by one:
first is full sharing. open the entire hard drive to the local area network. I suggest just using this one—simple and straightforward. It's not like your home is a data center, so there's no need for user quarantine.
second is the Samba service (some interfaces call it the file sharing protocol). this is for accessing the computer. Windows file manager and Mac Finder rely on it. It must be opened.
third is DLNA (sometimes called media sharing). Once is enabled, the TV and TV box can directly access movie music from the hard drive, without installing any apps. If you have a Xiaomi TV at home, I strongly recommend turning it on—the experience is very smooth.
also has an "Anonymous Access" option, which is allowed on the home LAN; But if your home Visitor Network isn't isolated, guests can still flip your records. Pay attention to this. I've written about how to set Visitor Network isolation in isolation you can check your setup.
Accessing Computer: Enter an address in the file manager
computer access is the simplest among them. Open "This Computer" on Windows and enter in the address bar at the top:
\\192.168.31.1
press Enter, and the router's shared disk will appear, just like accessing the company shared folder. Right-click it and select 'Map Network Drive', assign a drive letter (for example, Z:), and when you open 'This Computer', you'll find this drive directly. It works just like a local hard drive.
For
Mac, go to the Finder menu, go to 'Go to' → 'Connect to Server' (shortcut Command+K), enter smb://192.168.31.1, click Connect, and select Guest Identity. After mounting, the hard drive appears in the sidebar and desktop of the Finder.
a Windows pitfall: Win10/11 by default disables the insecure SMB1 protocol, while Xiaomi routers use SMB2/3, so there's no conflict; But if one day you get the message "You can't access this shared folder," first check if Windows "Network Discover" and "File Sharing" are enabled. In the Control Panel's Network and Sharing Center, check the private network option.
Mobile Access: Installing an App
phones are divided into two situations.
iPhone: The built-in "Files" app supports it. Open the File app, tap the three dots in the top right corner, select 'Connect to Server,' enter smb://192.168.31.1, log in as a guest, and the router's hard drive will be listed in the 'Location' section. After selecting the photos, share → save them to the file→ choose this location to complete the backup. No need to install any third-party apps, which Apple really makes peace of mind.
Android phone : Xiaomi's built-in file manager has "Remote Sharing" or "Network Neighbor," which will automatically find the router's shared drive. Just enter a blank password and you'll need to enter it. Other Android brands have varying built-in file managers. Install either the "CX File Manager" or the "ES File Manager" (I personally recommend the former—it's clean and ad-free), and create a new SMB connection pointing to 192.168.31.1.
real experience on mobile: Backing up photos and videos works fine, and watching movies on the drive is also fine. But don't rely on the router's built-in feature to automatically back up your phone's album ; its role is to "manually toss files in," not to automatically sync it. If you really want automatic backup of phone photos, that's the job of a NAS. I previously wrote a comparison solutions for automatic backup of phone photos to a NAS, and the difference between a router hard drive and a real NAS was clearly explained there.
Speed ceiling: Set your expectations first
This must be said first, so you won't be disappointed. If the router's USB sharing can't run the gigabit network , its CPU is just a router chip, not a specialized one.
my tested data (AX3000T + USB 3.0 external hard drive, computer wireless network card AX200, connected on 5G band): copied large files to the hard drive, write stability at 25 to 35MB/s; Reading from the hard drive can reach 60 up to 80MB/s. Computers connected via wired routers are faster, with read speeds just over 90MB/s.
what does this speed mean: storing photos, playing 4K movies (at the level of streaming at average bitrates), and downloading discs—it's more than enough; If you want to use it as a work drive for video editing or frequently reading and writing large files, it can be frustrating. Watching movies is the most suitable scenario—TV can be played directly with DLNA, and a movie at 10GB or 2GB is more than enough.
there are two small details that affect speed. First, accessing shared drives on 2.4G WiFi is so slow that you want to smash something. The actual throughput of 2.4G is only 20 to 30 Mbps, so you must connect to 5G bands. How to choose a band—I've written about WiFi channel and band selection . Second, don't use those junk cables that drag multiple USB cables. I initially used a 9.9-yuan one-to-three conversion cable, and the speed was cut in half. Switching to the original cable worked fine immediately.
Who is suitable for making trouble, and who is not
After two months of
fussing, my conclusion is that this set suits the following types of people:
- have spare USB drives or external hard drives at home and don't want to spend money on a NAS, the
- need is to share movie photos with the whole family, play videos directly on TV
- store cartoons or study videos for the kids, and watch them just by turning on the TV
but I would advise against these situations:
- want to automatically back up your phone's photo album—routers can't do it, and the NAS
- has data security requirements—routers don't have RAID or snapshots, so if the drive breaks, data is lost
- if you plan to access the internet—router sharing basically doesn't go out, remote access relies on NAS, I've written about it Among the several remote NAS access options, routers are not the scope of discussion
to sum up: have a Xiaomi router with a USB port and an unused hard drive, spending twenty minutes to get a family-share drive is worth it; Buying a router or hard drive just for this isn't worth it; it's better to save up for a NAS directly. my mom uses it to watch TV dramas every day, and even the 128GB phone storage has turned red to green. That's the right way to unlock this system.
