BT Home Hub 6 firmware upgrade to SG4B1000E077 crippled the USB port

[misar]

For many years with the HH4 and HH6 I have used a USB stick as storage for photos, music and videos to play on the TV, laptops, etc. The HH6 was trouble free until BT applied an upgrade last week. This left access to photos and music intact but playing videos is now impossible.Previously the TV or VLC could play full HD recordings from the same stick. Now even the lowest quality material either refuses to play or plays for a few seconds before locking up.

It seems that that the update has greatly reduced the data transfer rate of the USB port. Sometimes (but not always) after a video stalls the drive can no longer be accessed across the network. Removing and replacing it has no effect although inserting another stick is normal (with the same video limitation). The only way to regain network access to an affected stick is to restart the router. I tried a factory reset in case the upgrade corrupted something but the problem remained.

This is NOT an issue with the WiFi speed, the need for SMB1 (it is active on Windows), the stick, the files or the apps used to play them. Everything is working correctly except the router USB port.

[AlunRog]

I posted this on another thread yesterday;

My hub started playing up yesterday refusing to allow a number of devices internet access, failing to load hub management pages, slow dns resolving.

I reset the hub and got must access working again, (not a quick job as a customised network set up). Today problems happening again, checked firmware and noticed update to SG4B1000E077 yesterday!

Anyone else having issues?

Then posted;

Weird things constantly! Echo Dots losing connection, fireTV sticks freezing and saying slow internet (connection speed 130Mbs), currently unable to load web page to Hub manager to see what's going on!

Today;

LG TV showed good internet connection but Prime Video, Netflix and Disney all failed to play due to no internet access. The Hub manager keeps failing to load for periods of time. I've had to reset twice but problems keep returning.

[misar]

@AlunRog 

I saw the other posts but as far as I could see they refer to all too common network issues. I am no expert but it did seem to me that a firmware update which restricts data throughput of a USB port is in a class of its own. It seems like the update might  be hogging the hub's (limited) processor and/or memory. Even by BT update standards that would be quite some bug in a routine firmware update for relatively old kit.

[AlunRog]

That was also my view on what I am observing. Is there any way to get the hub tell you its CPU / Memory usage. like the "top" command on linux.

[pd123]

Very similar problems here @AlunRog, since update yesterday.

[yeser1118038]

Hi I have a BT Router also and my USB sharing stopped working also. Have you found a solve for this yet?

If so I would be so greatfull if you shared the answer with me.

Thanks 

[misar]

There was another firmware update about a year after those posts: SG4B1000E081 24-Feb-2023

 However, after that update normal network browsing to the router seemed to be broken.  I then found that I could access the folders on the stick with File Explorer if I used the full folder path such as:
\\bthomehub\64gbusb\home\

Soon afterwards I noticed that the USB port was back to normal, including playing HD videos without any problem. It would not surprise me if BT fixed one problem and created another!