What should I do if I forget the NAS administrator password? The reset port on Synology's body has three beeps to clear the password without losing data

went back to my hometown for half a month during the New Year, and when I came back, I tried to log in to my NAS to download some videos. When I entered the password, it showed an error. After typing three times in a row, it blocked me. I pulled out the codebook, and the line of text was altered so much that even I couldn't tell whether it was 1 or l. My first reaction was: Oh no, maybe I'd have to reinstall the system, and maybe the photos of the T on the drive would disappear. After a night of fiddling, I figured out one thing: the management password for NAS and the data on the hard drive are two different things. If you lose the password, you probably don't need to reinstall it, and there's no need to remove the drive . I tried out three machines at home (one white Synology, one Feiniu, and one black Synology gifted by someone else). The three roads are completely different, so in this article, I'll rank them by machine.

do two things before you start, which can save you all the subsequent steps

first thing: confirm your password is wrong, not that the NAS wasn't connected at all. The first time I made a mistake: the machine's IP was changed by the router's DHCP, and the address I logged in wasn't even from it. No matter what password I entered, it was pointless. First, ping to see if the machine is there, or use Synology's find.synology.com to scan the local area network. Feiniu can also find the machine directly using the fn Connect app. If you can't even find the machine, it's a network issue. Go to the I wrote about NAS can't access the you can't access. Don't keep stubbornly stubbornly fixating on passwords.

second item, check if there's a 'Forgot Password' link on the login page. If you had linked your email to Synology DSM before, clicking it would send a reset email, and it would take two minutes to finish, with nothing moving. To bind the entry point, go to the Control Panel's Notification Settings, select email, enter an address that can receive emails, and verify it. But honestly, eight out of ten people didn't install this feature after installation, and I was no exception. I only realized this feature was just for show when I actually forgot the password. Here's another tip: repeatedly entering the wrong password triggers "automatic lock," located in the security settings of the Control Panel. The default lock lasts quite a long time, so even if you remember the password, you have to wait. So I couldn't log in and keep trying passwords; every time I made a mistake, the block would go overtime. Read this page before I started.

White Synolink: Press the reset hole twice, after three beeps, leave the password blank

Synology has a small hole on the body with a RESET label printed next to it, so you need to poke it with a paperclip or a card ejector pin. Versions from DSM 6.2.4 onward (including DSM 7) operate in two rounds: hold the button for about 4 seconds while powered on, then release immediately hear a beep and ; Then, within 10 seconds, hold for about 4 seconds. will hear three beeps this time. After listening, release . Then the machine will restart. Go to find.synology.com and find it. The login page has empty usernames and passwords, so just go in and set them again.

I've tested

this setup myself. The key is exactly what it changed and what didn't. I'll list it clearly for you:

two pitfalls must be mentioned. First don't press too much : If you keep pressing after three beeps, you might enter migration or reinstallation processes, which means you really need to activate the system. Hear the beep and release it counting times. Second, this reset isn't suitable for all machines: the XS series enterprise models clearly state that password reset is not allowed and must be contacted by official technical support; My friend's Black Synology is even worse—the buttons on the body aren't even connected to DSM, and pressing them doesn't respond even when you press them. I'll explain that separately later.

After resetting, don't forget a few things to follow: reconfigure the static IP (if the network reverts to DHCP, it's easier if you have a static IP bound to your NAS on your router); If firewall rules have been previously customized, they need to be reconfigured; The first thing to do is change your password to be stronger. the ransomware mentioned that weak passwords combined with naked access to the public internet are just opening doors for bad people.

Feiniu fnOS: Without the reset hole, you have to go into GRUB to change the password

Feiniu is much more complicated. The system is installed on its own machine (many people install it on N1 or old laptops), without Synology's official button logic for "pressing the hole to reset password." The proper way is to use GRUB to boot into single user mode and change passwords on the command line. It sounds scary, but it's basically just pressing one extra button when powering on.

steps: restart the machine, press E when the blue GRUB interface appears, enter editing; Find the line starting with Linux, move it to the end of the line, leave a space, and add rd.break (or init=/bin/bash); Press Ctrl plus X to start. After entering the command line, first write permission to the system:

mount -o remount,rw /

Then change the administrator password (when I installed it, the admin called admin, I just executed the following sentence and was prompted to enter the new password twice):

passwd admin

rebooted, you can log in with a new password, but the data hasn't changed at all. There's a prerequisite for this process, which beginners can easily get stuck: you need to connect the monitor and keyboard to the . The GRUB interface only appears for a few seconds when the device boots; remote SSH is impossible. My N1 usually runs without a head, and the night I searched for the password, I found an HDMI cable and a USB hub to get it done. Some brands offer a USB drive solution: on the FAT32 USB drive, create a FNIOS_RESET directory, leave an empty reset_admin_pwd.flag file, power off and plug in the USB drive, press and hold the reset button on the device for 10 seconds before powering on. If the light changes, it will reset. I use the N1, following the GRUB route. This USB drive method has been proven effective on a friend's branded machine. By the way, newer firmware (from 0.9.18 onward) can now bind two-step verification in the system. Once you bind it, it's more secure than any password.

Synology: Reset is probably useless, you need to modify files in the boot disk

Hei Synology is the one I spent the most time with. Even if the device has a reset button, common Jun or ARPL boots don't pass button events to the DSM, so pressing them is pointless; The official 'Forgot Password' email cannot be retrieved or used. The method online is to remove the boot USB drive and plug it into the computer, use tools like DiskGenius to find the etc/shadow file in the system partition, copy it out, delete or change the admin password field (the password is a string of garbled text encrypted with salt values), then overwrite it. It sounds complicated, but in reality, it's just three steps: "copy out, change a line, copy back." DSM 7's partition layout is different from 6, so be more patient when searching for partitions.

if you're planning to install Black Synology, check out the on installing Black Synology first. Before installing, remember all the tricks about guidance and passwords, so don't wait until you're locked outside to remember. During the password tinkering with Heixiang, although the data was still there, all operations were done in the system partition. If your hand trembled and you chose the wrong disk, it was hopeless. If you weren't confident, you could just remove the disk before making a move.

Prevent Forgetting Again: Three Habits Are More Reliable Than Memory

After all this trouble, I've set three rules for myself. First, in DSM, linking your email gives the login page a 'forgotten password' safety net—this is the lowest-cost insurance. Second, Feiniu upgraded to the new version with two-step verification, and the phone verification code is better remembered than the 16-digit password. Third, the same old method my mom taught me: write the management password and backend address on a slip of paper and stick it under the machine. family shares a NAS this is the best way to do it, so that if someone changes the password, only they in the world will know.

to wrap up, here's a matching answer: Bai Synohui first tries to recover via email; if that doesn't work, he resets the port with two rounds and three beeps; When switching to GRUB with Flying, remember to connect the monitor and keyboard in advance; Black Synology directly runs the shadow file in the boot drive. Before you start, make sure the machine can find it and it's not automatically locked outside. Three minutes of judgment can save you three hours of fuss. When it comes to system partitioning, remove the hard drive before operating—data security always comes before passwords. If this machine is shared by the whole family, after repairing it you can easily review the basic settings in the first configuration —password, email, and two-step verification all in one go. Don't end up running around naked again after fixing the password like I did.