Managing your storage

Storage Manager lets you manage the SSDs in your Umbrel — add new drives, choose how they work together (RAID), swap out old ones, and monitor their health. Storage Manager is currently available on Umbrel Pro, with support for other multi-drive setups coming soon. You'll find it in Settings > Storage Manager.

Looking for external storage instead? See External storage.

FailSafe vs Full Storage

When you have more than one SSD, you choose between two modes:

• FailSafe — Keeps copies of your data across your SSDs so if any single drive fails, your data stays safe. If your SSDs are different sizes, extra space on the larger ones goes unused. Under the hood, this uses ZFS with RAIDZ1.
• Full Storage — Combines all your SSDs into one large storage pool, giving you maximum space. However, if any SSD fails, all your data will be lost. Under the hood, this uses ZFS with striping.

FailSafe protects against drive failure, but it's not a replacement for backups. It won't protect against accidental deletion, theft, or damage to your device.

Switching modes

With one SSD, your Umbrel runs in Full Storage mode. When you add a second SSD, you'll have the option to enable FailSafe. This is the only time you can enable it — any additional SSDs you add after that will simply expand your existing storage. Switching modes later requires backing up your data, factory resetting, and restoring.

Adding SSDs

Shut down your Umbrel, install the new SSD, and power back on. For physical installation steps on Umbrel Pro, see Setting up Umbrel Pro. Storage Manager will detect the new SSD and walk you through adding it to your storage.

Swapping or replacing an SSD

If you need to replace an SSD, go to Settings > Storage Manager and click Swap. Storage Manager will walk you through every step — including when to shut down, physically swap the drive, and power back on. What to expect depends on your setup:

• FailSafe — You can swap out any single SSD without losing data. FailSafe will rebuild your data onto the new drive. No backup needed. After physically swapping the drive, return to Storage Manager to start the rebuild.
• Full Storage with an empty slot — You can add the new SSD first and your data will be migrated over before you remove the old one. No backup needed. After installing the new drive, return to Storage Manager to start the migration.
• Full Storage with all slots full — You'll need to back up your data, factory reset, swap the drive, and restore from your backup.

SSD health

Storage Manager monitors the health of each SSD, including temperature, wear level, and errors. You'll see warnings if a drive is overheating, wearing out, or showing signs of failure — giving you time to replace it before you lose data.

If a drive fails or goes missing while in FailSafe mode, Storage Manager will let you know that your protection is reduced and prompt you to replace the drive to restore full protection.

What to know

• If an SSD goes missing (disconnected or failed), Storage Manager will alert you and guide you through next steps.
• You can continue using your Umbrel normally while SSDs are being added or storage is expanding. Enabling FailSafe requires a brief automatic restart partway through, but you can resume normal use right after.