In the event that you are trying to set up the Seagate Central and are unable to find it on the network, Seagate recommends that you take a look at these troubleshooting steps. Step 1: LED status The Seagate Central takes about 3-4 minutes to fully boot. During the boot sequence, the LED on top of the drive will blink a few different colors and patterns, including amber and red. After 3-4 minutes, the light should settle down to a solid green. Seagate recommends waiting a good 7-10 minutes just in case. In the event that you get:
- No lights at all: Make sure everything is plugged in properly. The Ethernet cable should be connected between the Seagate Central and your router. The power supply should be connected between the Seagate Central and a power outlet. If you still have no lights, try connecting the power supply in a different outlet. You can also try another power supply, as long as you have one with the same specifications. The power supply that comes with the Seagate Central has an output of 12V 2A. If you are still not getting any lights, move on to step 4.
- No lights on the Central's NIC: Make sure the Ethernet cable is plugged all the way through at both ends. Make sure you are connected into a LAN port on your router. If the NIC lights still don't illuminate, try powering down the Central by unplugging the power supply, then connect the drive into a different Ethernet port on your computer and power the Central back up. If you still don't get any lights on the NIC, try using a different Ethernet cable. If the NIC's lights still are not lit, move on to step 4.
- A blinking green light on top of the Central: The Seagate Central is still trying to boot up. Make sure you give the drive 7-10 minutes just in case. Some routers take longer to assign an IP address than others. If the drive still only blinks green, try powering down the Seagate Central by unplugging the power supply, then try connecting the Ethernet cable into a different LAN port on the router, and power the drive back up. If you still only get a blinking green light, try powering the drive back off and try a different Ethernet cable, then power the drive back on. If you still only get a blinking green light, move on to step 4.
- A solid amber light: Make sure you give the drive enough time to boot. There will be a brief solid amber light as part of the boot process. Give the drive a good 7-10 minutes. If you still have a solid amber light after that, try powering the drive off by unplugging the power supply. Once the drive is off, unplug the Ethernet cable and wait about 2 minutes before plugging everything in again.
If after 7-10 minutes you still have an amber light, try powering off again, plugging the cables into a different LAN port on the router for the Ethernet cable, and a different outlet for the power supply. If you have a different Ethernet cable to try, try it. If you have a different power supply with output specs of 12V 2A, try it as well. If you still get a solid amber light, move on to step 4. - A solid green light, but the drive is still not detected: Please move to step 2.
Step 2: The Seagate Central gets a solid green light but is not seen on the network When the Seagate Central gets a solid green light on top of the unit, that means it sees itself as ready and joined on the network. There are a few things to keep in mind when the drive is not detected on the network as it should:
- Make sure the Central is connected to the same network as your computer: If you are using more than one router, make sure the drive is connected to the same router as the computer you are using. Using the Seagate Central across different networks is not supported. Even with just one router, you can still have more than one network. Make sure that your computer, for example, is not connected to the Guest network. This would prevent you from seeing or accessing the drive properly.
- Check for other devices to see if they see the Seagate Central: Check from another computer, a mobile device, or a DLNA-supported device such as a SMART TV or a BLU-RAY player. If another device can see the Central on the network, then your computer is having problems communicating on the network properly.
- Check your router's administrator page to see if it detects the Seagate Central: Most routers have a list of attached devices (often called DHCP tables). You can access your router's administrator page to find that list and see if the Seagate Central is listed among the list of attached devices. If it is not, power down the Seagate Central by unplugging the power supply and unplug the Ethernet cable as well. Then, reboot your router. Most routers don't have a power button, so you may have to pull the power supply on it. Wait about 30 seconds, then replug/reboot the router. Once your router is fully rebooted, reconnect the Seagate Central's Ethernet and power cables. Wait until the Seagate Central has a solid green light on top, then check your router's administrator page again to see if the Seagate Central is seen in there.
If the drive is now seen in the router, but is not seen by the computer still, move on to step 3. If the drive is still not seen on the router, move on to step 4. Step 3: The router sees the drive, but the computer does not If your Seagate Central has a solid green light on top and is seen in your router, but your computer does not see the drive, try pinging the drive. You will need the Central's host name to ping the drive. The host name will be Seagate-****** (the ****** will be the last 6 digits of the MAC address, which you can find on the Seagate Central's label, the same label that also contains the serial number of your drive). To try to ping the drive on:
- A Windows computer: Open the Start menu and select Run. In the Run window, type cmd and press Enter. The command prompt window will open. In there, type ping seagate-****** (use your host name that you checked before, example: seagate-123456) and press Enter. The computer should reply with an IP address for the Seagate Central.
- A Mac computer: On OSX 10.9, Go to Go, then Utilities. In there, open System Information. This will be the menu that's opened at the top of the screen. Now, select Windowand Network Utility. On previous versions of the MacOS, click on Go, then go to Utilities and select Network Utility from that menu. Once in Network Utility, select the Pingtab. In the field, type seagate-******.local (use the host name you noted earlier. Example seagate-123456.local) and click on Ping. This should reply with the IP address for the Seagate Central.
If you haven't already, also check these:
- Make sure the Central is connected to the same network as your computer: If you are using more than one router, make sure the drive is connected to the same router as the computer you are using. Using the Seagate Central across different networks is not supported. Even with just one router, you can still have more than one network. Make sure that your computer, for example, is not connected to the Guest network. This would prevent you from seeing or accessing the drive properly.
- Check for other devices to see if they see the Seagate Central: Check from another computer, a mobile device or a DLNA-supported device such as a SMART TV or a BLU-RAY player. If another device can see the Central on the network, then your computer is having problems communicating on the network properly.
If your ping request did not respond with the drive's IP address, please check step 4. If the ping reported an IP address, write it down and skip to step 5. Step 4: Try a direct connect At this point, the drive still has detection issues while connected to your router. The next step is to bypass the router altogether and see if we can see the drive while it's connected directly to your computer. First, unplug the Central from power and unplug the Ethernet cable from your router. Then, power your computer down. Connect the Ethernet cable so it connects your Seagate Central to your computer's Ethernet port. Then, power your computer back on and reconnect the Central's power. Note: If your computer has a Wireless connection, disable it for the time being. After both your computer and the Central have powered on, check the network status on your computer to see if you can detect the Seagate Central. On a Windows computer, check on theNetwork to see if Seagate Central shows up. On a Mac computer, check in Finder under Shared. If the drive is detected when connected to the computer directly, open up the Public folder inside the Seagate Central and click on the "Manage the Seagate Central" link. This will open the setup page and you can set up the Seagate Central from here. Once you have set up the drive, power it back off by unplugging power, and reconnect it back to your router. Reconnect your computer to the network as well and try to access the drive on the network again. At this point, we determined the drive is working as it was detected on your computer. If putting the drive back on the router makes the drive undetectable again, you may have some network issues. If this is the case, Seagate recommends you contact your computer or router manufacturer for help. If the drive is still not detected properly when connected directly to your computer, please contact Seagate Support. Step 5: The Seagate Central reports an IP address When you ping the drive from your computer and get a response in the form of an IP address, that means your computer is able to see the drive on the network and they are able to communicate with each other. With the IP address you have noted on hand, open a web browser and put the IP address in the address bar of the browser. For example: 192.168.1.110. Then press Enter. This should open up the setup page for the Seagate Central. If the setup page opened properly, fill out the form to create your account. Your drive should be ready for use after that. If you are entering the IP address properly but the page fails to load, please contact Seagate Support.
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