Feature request: scheduled quiet hours to reduce disk activity

Posted by Nultima

I’d like SparkBox to have a configurable Quiet Hours / Low-Power Schedule to reduce unnecessary disk activity without shutting down the whole NAS. Ideally, I could set different active and quiet time ranges by day of the week, with a clear time zone and an easy temporary override. During quiet hours, SparkBox could optionally pause or limit background work—such as media scans, scheduled jobs, and new downloads—and resume it when active hours begin. It should avoid interrupting work already in progress: downloads, imports, backups, syncs, and other disk writes should finish or be safely deferred before a service pauses. A dashboard status indicator could show what’s paused, what is still keeping storage busy, and why. If the NAS supports disk standby, it’d be useful for SparkBox to explain or link to the relevant host setting, and perhaps integrate with it where supported. I realize SparkBox can’t guarantee a disk stays asleep if the NAS operating system or another app accesses it, and scheduled wake/shutdown depends on the hardware. The goal is to reduce noise, power use, and unnecessary drive spin time while keeping the box available—not to interrupt active jobs or risk data.

1 replies

Chris wrote:

Thanks for laying out the safety boundaries so clearly. I’ve recorded this request for a configurable quiet-hours schedule, especially the need to defer optional work without interrupting downloads, imports, backups, or syncs.