Addons writing to /media when mount fails — how to safely use external USB disk with HA OS?

Third party integrations
1

Hi all,

I had MotionEye recording to an external USB disk mounted as /media/CAMDISK. When the mount failed for a few hours, MotionEye kept recording without errors but wrote everything to the internal HA disk, because when the mount disappeared Home Assistant automatically created /media/CAMDISK as a normal local folder. When the mount came back, the external disk became hidden and things got messy.

I suspect my setup is fundamentally wrong, so I’m asking for guidance on the correct way to do this.

My goal

  • Have an external USB disk connected to HA OS
  • Have that disk accessible both:
    • to addons (MotionEye, possibly Frigate later)
    • over the network via SMB
  • Avoid the silent fallback to internal storage if the mount fails

My setup

  • Home Assistant OS on Intel NUC
  • USB external disk connected to the NUC
  • Disk exposed using Settings → Storage → Network Storage (CIFS/SMB)
  • The mount shows:

usage: media
user_path: /media/CAMDISK

  • MotionEye stores recordings in paths like:

/media/CAMDISK/Living

This worked fine for months.

What happened

The share stopped working for a while (fixed by restarting the SambaNas addon).

During that time:

  • MotionEye kept recording normally
  • Recordings were written to the internal disk
  • HA created /media/CAMDISK locally after the mount disappeared

When the mount came back:

  • The external files became hidden
  • Other addons could not access the external disk correctly
  • MotionEye never showed any error

The problem as I understand it

Because this is mounted as usage: media, /media/CAMDISK is automatically created if the mount disappears, so addons cannot distinguish between:

  • a real mounted disk
  • a normal local folder

This seems dangerous for any addon that writes continuously.

What I’m looking for

What is the recommended and robust way to use an external USB disk with HA OS for recording addons, so that:

addons either write to the external disk or fail, but never silently write to internal storage?

Should this disk be mounted differently (for example as usage: share)?
What is the correct pattern people use for MotionEye / Frigate + external storage?

Thanks!