What should I do if TP-Link router cannot detect my USB flash drive or hard drive

1. Format your hard drive. If you don’t know how to do that, contact computer support.

2. Contact TP-Link support with information including model number of hard drive, capacity, partition table (MBR or GPT) and format type (FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, etc.)

1. Check hard drive format type

Currently, the FAT/FAT32/NTFS format is supported and some models like C8/C9/C2600/P5 also support exfat/hfs+. However, it does not support ext3, which is a Linux partition format.

2. Check Capacity

TP-Link router supports at most eight partitions in theory, if the hard drive has more than eight partitions, it just loads the first 8 partitions. (On the same drive, the total capacity of each partition cannot exceed 2TB for WR842N, WR1043N, WDR3500, WDR3600, WDR4300; in theory the router can detects a maximum capacity of 8 * 2TB. Similarly, the other models with USB functions like archer routers, the total capacity of each partition of usb drive cannot exceed 5TB).

3. Check Encryption 

For the hard drive encrypted by hardware, it can only be loaded after decryption.

4. Additional Power Adapter

Usually our router can power up the hard drive, but for some, additional power supply may be required.

If your hard drive needs a power supply more than 500mA, but it does not have an additional power adapter, then this hard drive can not work properly with our routers since ours only provide 500mA power supply on the USB port.

5. Contact TP-Link support with information including model number of hard drive, capacity, partition table (MBR or GPT) and format type (FAT32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, etc.)