Let's face it, the inevitable was bound to happen... You forgot to turn the stove off! Good thing you had a Complete UniFi Protect System in effect and can view your kitchen to provide reassurance you still have a place to live. But wait, you can't view the previous recordings to prove that you in fact didn't leave it on, because your hard drive failed (or ran out of storage). Ubiquiti devices, such as the Cloud Key Gen2 Plus, Dream Machine Pro, Network Video Recorder, and Network Video Recorder Pro all feature some form of HDD bay(s) for storage of UniFi Protect video surveillance or for other apps, like Access. Without a functioning HDD, you cannot save motion-activated or 24/7 recordings from UniFi Cameras, and can only view the video stream in Real-Time locally or remotely. In some cases, you'd prefer a bigger hard drive to store more footage or simply replace a failed one. Nonetheless, Ubiquiti makes it seamless to replace or upgrade the stock hard drive with another one of your choosing. There are, however, some things you should know before you take it upon yourself to upgrade to that sweet 10TB model you've been drooling over. Not all hard drives are made the same, and that as you can guess has caused some known compatibility issues between the models. Listed below are most of the well-known models that have caused some form of issue(s) with certain model NVRs:
Vendor |
Series |
Model |
Capacity |
Notes |
| Seagate | Ironwolf | ZA960NM10001 | 960GB | Does not meet the Power requirements* |
| Seagate | Ironwolf | ZA1920NM10001 | 1.92TB | Does not meet the Power requirements* |
| Seagate | Ironwolf | ZA3840NM10001 | 3.84TB | Does not meet the Power requirements* |
*The Cloud Key Gen2 Plus does not support hard drives that require a 12V supply in addition to the default 5V supply.
Dream Machine Pro, Network Video Recorder, and Network Video Recorder Pro
Vendor |
Series |
Model |
Capacity |
Notes |
| Seagate | SkyHawk | ST10000VX0004 | 10TB | Does not fit the drive tray. |
| Seagate | Ultrathin | ST500LT032 | 500GB | Does not have bottom screws. |
| Western Digital | UltraSlim | WD5000MPCK | 500GB | Does not have bottom screws and connectors do not fit the tray. |
| ANY | ANY | SMR Drives | ANY | Drives fit the tray but cause issues. |