Updated May 5, 2026
Plug a USB drive into your Umbrel and it will appear under External storage in the Files sidebar. You can browse, upload to, and manage files on it just like your internal storage.
Always eject a drive before unplugging it. Click the eject button next to the drive in the Files sidebar. Unplugging without ejecting can corrupt data on the drive.
If your drive's format isn't supported, Files will offer to format it as exFAT (for compatibility with Windows, macOS, and Linux) or ext4 (for better performance with umbrelOS).
External drives can be used as backup locations. When setting up backups in Settings > Backups, choose External Drive as the backup type.
On supported devices, you can share an external drive, or folders on it, over your local network. In Files, right-click a folder on the drive and select Share over network, or go to Settings > File sharing > Configure, choose Specific folders, click Add, and select the drive or folder under External storage.
If the drive is disconnected, the share will show as unavailable until the drive is connected again. Always eject the drive before unplugging it.
External storage is available on Umbrel Home, Umbrel Pro, and x86 (Intel or AMD) devices. It is not supported on Raspberry Pi — the Pi cannot reliably power external drives via USB, which can lead to data corruption.