Resetting QNAP TS-210

There are two ways of resetting (not: restarting) QNAP TS-210 — basic and advanced method. This article discusses both of them along with implications on your QNAP after each type of reset.

To reset the NAS by the reset button, the option Enable configuration reset switch in System Administration > Hardware must be checked.

Basic system reset

When you press and hold the reset button for 3 seconds, a beep sound will be heard. The following settings will be reset to default:

• system administration password: admin,
• TCP/IP configuration: Obtain IP address settings automatically via DHCP,
• system port: 8080 (system service port),
• security level: Low (allow all connections).

Warning! Do not press the reset button longer than 3-4 seconds, i.e. until you hear the first beep! If you keep pressing reset button for 10 seconds, you will reset everything (!!!) and your device will be restored to factory defaults (see below). We surely don’t want that, right? :>

Advanced system reset

When you press and hold the reset button for 10 seconds, you will hear two beeps at the third and the tenth seconds. The NAS will reset all the system settings to default as it does by the web-based system reset in Administration > Restore to Factory Default. The only exception is, that all the data are left untouched. The settings such as the users, user groups, and the network share folders you previously created will be cleared. To retrieve the old data after the advanced system reset, you may create the same network share folders on the NAS and the data will be accessible again.

After that

After the system reset (any of above methods), you can try to locate the NAS via QNAP Finder. By default, you can login to the NAS by admin/admin. More information can be found here.

After resetting admin password to defaults and logging to web-panel, you will be prompted to change the password. In some rare cases you may notice, that after changing password and re-logging-in, you’ll be again asked to change the password and so on, without an ability to login successfully. This is caused by the fact that in some rare cases, admin user account might drop out of administrators user group. This is a normal behavior for any successful login of user not belonging to administrators (web panel is in this case available only for changing password, not for doing anything else).

You can fix it only, if you have SSH (shell) access to QNAP with this password and only can’t login to a web-panel. To do it, login via SSH and check the group file – administrators must exist, and amin must be a member of the group:

[code language=”shell”]
cat /etc/group

administrators:x:0:admin
everyone:x:100:admin
guest:x:65534:guest
[/code]

Edit /etc/group file and add the administrators line, if it is missing in the group file.

If after resetting password, you can’t access both via web-panel and SSH, then you are really sucked! :[ Full reset of NAS or asking support for help might be the only way then.