OS 6.5.1 on RN316: Unable to modify many settings

I have two of model RN316, 6-bay, about 2-years apart in purchase dates. The first was updated from OS v6.1.4 (hereinafter called "Unit 1", which was purchased in 2014) and the newer from OS 6.4.2 (hereinafter called "Unit 2" which was purchased in 2016). I am now discovering that many of the settings either cannot be changed, or after I attempt to change them, they go back to "default" settings, which is really to say, they cannot be changed.

For sake of technical description: both units are using WD Red NAS drives, 6x4TB in Unit 1 and 6x5TB drives in Unit 2. Both RN316's were purchased with no drives, and the drives installed and initialized during the start-up process. Up to the update to OS v6.5.1, the units were operational, providing data access to the network entirely independent from one another (both mapped independently into a Windows workstation environment via SMB). All sync'ing between the units was accomplished via sync software on a network server, which had functioned flawlessly with no issues prior to the update. The software sync was not attempted after the update, as I’ve been running into other problems and haven’t gotten that far in the testing/troubleshooting.

For sake of testing, I temporarily disabled the network firewall, but my network is still using/requires NAT to access the real-world. Thus far, neither unit appears to have any kind of real-world access (for example, OS update link does nothing) but Unit 1 was able to get to the Amazon Login screen, but did not appear to do anything else. I do not know if this is some kind of inability to work with NAT or not, as I have not tested this aspect.

The issues [discovered so far] are a follows:

Issue A) IPv6 disable: Unit 2, NIC2. I can get into the network devices menu and bring up the settings for NIC2, but no changes are being accepted for IPv6. I make the change, click "Apply" the window closes and the GUI goes back to the network page, but the settings are right back to the same as they were (no changes made). It does not appear to matter if the NIC is plugged into an active network port or not; no settings changes are accepted regarding IPv6. I am not using IPv6 anywhere in my network, thus the desire to disable it on the NAS units (Unit 1 is disabled, likely a carry-over from the previous OS, so isn’t having this issue).

Issue B) Both Units: Network Time - the units default to Netgear time servers which were about 20-mins fast. Upon trying to change the internet time servers, I discovered that if I changed server 1 or server 2, they would accept the new DNS name, but would not actually sync to the correct time. Upon entering the server 3, all three would blank and revert back to the netgear time servers (for srvrs 1 & 2, with 3 blank), and remain the ~20-mins faster than real time. Upon unchecking the "Syncronize clock with an Internet server", I have now discovered that I cannot reenable it.

Issue C) Backup from Unit 1 to Unit 2 using rsync: (using the procedure given in: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/29741/~/how-do-i-back-up-data-between-two-readynas-os-6-systems-(using-the-backup?cid=wmt_netgear_organic) the moment I enabled "rsync" on Unit 2, the share was no longer available via SMB, even though the unit was showing the unit and share with SMB protocol still enabled. No matter what I do, I cannot regain access to the volume via SMB. I can ping the unit successfully, but cannot access the data on the network (which is not a big deal, as I still have Unit 1 online and accessible). I have not yet tried to disable “rsync”, although this would also disable the unit-to-unit backup ability, which would defeat the purpose.

Issue D) Cloud Sync - While this very well could be my lack of knowledge (and/or ability to find a how-to on the internet) I have been unable to enable the sync feature to “AmazonDrive”, even though Unit 1 has an option for it. The GUI bring up a pop-up window allowing me to log into Amazon (but not necessarily AmazonDrive) but after the login, the GUI goes back to the Cloud screen with no indication as to what happened or if there is anything going to happen, and the Amazon Drive option is still indicating “off”, even after the login attempt. Unit 2, even with the same OS loaded (v6.5.1) does not have an AmazonDrive option.

Issue E) GUI is different on each unit: While I can accept the technology “under the hood” might have changed in the two years between purchase dates, one of the reasons I updated both models was so the options and GUI would be the same. In the case of my two units, I am finding that there are differences in the various pages even with the OS being the same on both units. This is especially and obviously so on the Cloud page, which are nothing alike. Unit 1 has 6 options for cloud, whereas unit 2 was only 3. While there were other differences, those on the cloud page are of greatest concern at present, as I was trying to get cloud sync to function.

Summary: IMHO, there is nothing more frustrating with a network device than settings which will not update, and ultimately cause functionality of the device to either break or be limited. This appears to be the case with both my units. Overall, I am not even slightly impressed with this new OS and very much wish I could revert to an older OS, but the update page claims that reverting to prior OS’s (prior to v6.5.0) is not possible. With so many of the functions/settings unable to be changed, and many other features not working at all, I am seriously considering if I should start investigating another NAS solution.

Has anyone had similar issue, and if so, would you be willing to share your solutions/work-arounds?

I will attempt to post solutions/updates as I find them.