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Forum Discussion
rowets
Nov 05, 2018Guide
R8000 Firmware v1.4.1.30_1.2.26 won't restore config from previous firmware
Hi guys
I've just upgraded to the latest version of the firmware for my R8000. There was lots of messing about (Netgear servers must have been busy or something) but after the firmware was appl...
- Nov 13, 2018
So my accepted solution (NG want me to provide one), is to no longer use NG for saving lots of config as they can trash my data whenever they want and expect me to type it in again - not doing that!
Instead I'm using a Raspberry PI as a DHCP server and disabling this feature on the NG router.
That way I can properly back up the settings.
rowets
Nov 05, 2018Guide
Yes, it was a problem selecting the correct model from the web pages, I have a R8000P (sorry about that), I'm in the UK and it wouldn't let me select the exact model from the web page
When trying to connect to N/G it just sat there for ages trying to download the firmware, but it got there in the end
I don't think it's a corrupted download as the router is working perfectly.
The reboot I understand, I've that many times in the past on firmware upgrades
But after this firmware upgrade, it went into a complete reset of the router, eg, new network names, new passwords, and all the fixed ip addresses that I'd set up and all the other settings that I can't remember.
Is it expected behaviour that this firmware will completely reset the the router and the config files created on previous firmwares will not work
IrvSp
Nov 05, 2018Master
rowets wrote:
But after this firmware upgrade, it went into a complete reset of the router, eg, new network names, new passwords, and all the fixed ip addresses that I'd set up and all the other settings that I can't remember.
Is it expected behaviour that this firmware will completely reset the the router and the config files created on previous firmwares will not work
Sorry, I can't comment on this specific router, but I've owned my NG routers and others as well and I've never seen this?
I'd guess it might be possible due to the problems getting the file down, could have been a timing issue even, I do not know?
I guess since you are at 'square one' with the router you might want to go back a level, set a few settings, like SSID names and then upgrade again and see if they hold? If they do, it might have been something odd happened? Not knowing what actually changed code wise in the firmware it would be hard to tell if it could/would wipeout settings or not?
Since it is working, you might want to turn off AUTO-UPDATE if the firmware supports it. Of course, sometime in the future, a security fix might be made you'd want to update at that time.
- rowetsNov 05, 2018Guide
I've always turned off auto update, so that I can control the updates myself.
I must have had about 7 or 8 NG routers in the past (running the R8000P and two repeaters at the moment) and I've never seen this sort of thing in the past.
I'm really hoping this isn't going to be the way that NG will be working in the future.
Since starting this post I've been manually entering the fixed ip addresses again and I'm still only half way thru!
I have no idea what other settings I've lost :(
If this happens again, I'm moving away from N/G as this is unacceptable to wipe the router and backups not work.
If I could manually upload a csv of the entries then that would help, but there is only the backup restore feature and the files are encoded, so I can't even manually add the entries.
Thanks for your suggestions
Trev
- rowetsNov 06, 2018Guide
Just for anybody who might get caught like i did, this is the statement in the netgear release notes, which is absolutely shocking
- Write down all the settings which you changed from the default values, since you may need to reenter them manually.
This is exactly what happened to me after upgrading to the latest firmware
I really can't believe that NGs backup and restore strategy consists of Pen and Paper
I'm really disappointed that NG cannot merge settings going forward between firmware upgrades
Reentering around 60 reserved ip addresses took several hours, something i am not prepared to do again and NG should realise this approach is unacceptable in this day and age.
This strategy is riduclous, I like NG products but I'm not manually entering all the data again after a firmware upgrade.
I don't care about most of the 'latest and greatest' features, I looked at that when I bought the router in the first place.
However, something as basic as having backups that always work on later versions should be something that is always supported on any product.
Now that I know this is how NG work, I will never buy another NG product whilst they expect users to use Pen and Paper as a backup strategy!
This is what NG expect of their users, so beware of firmware upgrades - you have been warned!
- IrvSpNov 06, 2018Master
That message had been in ALL the firmware at one time. Also had said at one time you must use a wired connection, now it is suggested.
Now for the R8000 it does still say that, still, I never had to do that, nor on the old R7000 I had. It does say 'may' so it isn't a sure thing you will lose everything?
I'm just wondering if it was to the long time it took to get the firmware down? Maybe the router internally did some resetting to see if it could improve the d/l? Like I said, I've not seen this complaint before (doesn't mean it doesn't happen) and in all the years I've had various NG routers it never happened to me.
You might not have read older README's, but at one time you were told you had to RESET and manually re-enter settings after updating ... which over time became the 'warning' that you get now.
A long time ago I took screenshots of all my pages I made changes to and keep them for reference just in case.
Why you lost the settings is a mystery?
I too wish the settings save were human readable. Either CSV, TXT, XLS, or HTML. I suspect the reason is so there is no way to alter them as loading in an altered set might cause some problems, especially if you don't how to change it?