Synology Drive is the application I lean on most on my own NAS. Files I save on my PC sync up to the NAS in real time, which lets me pull them off local storage and still have them everywhere, and it gives me the local copy that the 3-2-1 backup rule asks for without me thinking about it.
There are two halves to it, and mixing them up is where most setups stall. Synology Drive Server is the package that runs on the NAS. Synology Drive Client is the desktop app that runs on your Windows or macOS machine and does the actual syncing. You need both. If you already have the server side running and you’re only here for the desktop app, skip ahead to downloading the Synology Drive Client.
Install Synology Drive Server on the NAS
1. Open the Package Center and install the Synology Drive Server application.
2. If it tells you dependencies have to be installed, select Yes.
3. After the package installs, select Open. You’ll be prompted to refresh the page. Select Yes.
Synology Drive Server is installed. Nothing syncs yet, because the server side only decides what is available to sync. That’s the next part.
My Drive vs Team Folders: Which One You Want
Synology Drive gives you two ways to expose folders, and they solve different problems.
- My Drive syncs a user’s own folders to a private space on the NAS tied to their account. It needs User Home turned on. This is the personal documents case.
- Team Folder shares one folder across multiple users. Anyone with access can add, edit, or delete, and the change syncs to the NAS and back out to everyone else. This is the collaboration case.
You can run both. Set up whichever one matches what you’re doing, or do both in turn.
Setting up My Drive
1. Open Synology Drive Admin Console on the NAS and select Team Folder. If User Home shows as disabled under Status, turn it on.
2. Highlight My Drive and select Enable.
3. Select Yes to open the Control Panel.
4. Scroll to the bottom and Enable user home service. Since this is holding documents, I’d turn on the recycle bin too (Control Panel > Shared Folder > homes > Edit > Enable Recycle Bin > Save).
That creates two shared folders on the NAS, home and homes. Inside homes there’s a folder for every user account on the NAS.
5. Back in the Synology Drive Admin Console, set up versions. These are personal preference, but I’d leave versioning on. It lets you pull back an earlier copy of a file up to the version count you set.
6. After saving, you’ll get a notice that users with read-only permission on Team Folders sync files from the NAS only, never back to it. That distinction matters once you start handing out access, so note it now.
My Drive is set up. Every user gets a private folder inside homes that only they can reach.
Setting up a Team Folder
Team Folders are easier than My Drive, because the folder and its permissions already exist. You’re just switching it on for Drive.
1. Open Synology Drive Admin Console on the NAS and select Team Folder.
2. Pick a folder, then select Enable.
3. Set versioning how you want it. On a folder several people are editing, I’d strongly recommend leaving it on. Someone will overwrite something eventually.
Download the Synology Drive Client
The Synology Drive Client is the desktop application that does the syncing, and it’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus iOS and Android through the App Store and Google Play. You can pick your build manually from Synology’s download page, but there’s a faster route that hands you the right one automatically.
1. Open the Synology Drive application on the NAS.
2. Click Get Synology Drive apps now in the bottom right.
3. Select For Desktop. It detects your operating system and downloads the matching Synology Drive Client build. For Mobile does the same for phones and tablets.
Set Up a Sync Task in the Synology Drive Client
I’m on a Windows 11 PC for this section. macOS and Linux look nearly identical, with one real difference in on-demand sync that I’ll get to below.
1. Run the installer you just downloaded, then launch the Synology Drive Client.
2. Select Start Now.
3. Enter the IP address of your NAS along with your username and password. Leaving Enable SSL data transmission encryption checked makes Drive use your HTTPS port instead of the HTTP one. Select Next.
4. Without a certificate configured you’ll get a warning that the SSL certificate isn’t trusted. Select Proceed Anyway.
5. Select Sync Task. You can add a backup task later, and I cover that at the end.
6. On the Folder Sync page, Folder to Sync from your NAS is the NAS-side folder, either a Team Folder or your own My Drive. Local Folder at the bottom is where that data lands on this machine.
I sync mine to the Documents folder on my PC, though the choice is yours. This is the folder you’ll actually be working out of day to day, so pick deliberately. Select the edit icon next to Local Folder to change it.
Leaving Create an empty “SynologyDrive” folder checked puts a folder named SynologyDrive inside the local folder you picked. Uncheck it to sync straight to the root of that folder instead. The initial setup only lets you configure one folder sync, and I show how to add more further down.
7. Select Advanced to change options. The one that matters is Sync mode. Two-way sync moves files in both directions. If you only want changes coming down from the NAS, pick Download data from Synology Drive server only. Select Next.
8. Select Done. The Synology Drive Client is configured. You’ll get a short tour of the tool, and your task shows up under Sync Tasks.
On-Demand Sync on Windows and macOS
On-demand sync keeps files on the NAS and pulls them down only when you open one. It’s how you get a 4TB library visible on a laptop with a 256GB SSD. On Windows you get it by leaving the checkbox enabled at the setup screen and using two-way sync.
macOS works differently. When you create the sync task you have to tick Enable On-demand Sync to save disk space on your computer, and the option to choose a folder on your Mac greys out. You enter a Task Name instead and carry on.
Once the task finishes, it appears under Locations in Finder.
Everything that works on Windows works the same way from there. Only the status icons look different.
Sync More Than One Folder
The first-run setup only lets you sync a single folder, so you’re choosing between My Drive and one Team Folder. That’s a limit of the wizard, not of the client. Add as many as you want afterward.
1. Open the Synology Drive Client settings and select Create under Sync Tasks.
2. Use your connected NAS, or point it at a different one. Select Next.
3. The Synology Drive Server section is the folder syncing from the NAS, so pick My Drive or a Team Folder. Local Folder is where it syncs to on this machine. Adjust anything under Advanced, then select Done. Repeat for as many folders as you need.
Back Up Local Files with the Drive Client
The Synology Drive Client can also back up local files to the NAS. Be clear about what this is: files only, not a bare-metal backup. You cannot restore a whole machine from it. For that, use Active Backup for Business instead.
Because of that, back up your documents and leave operating system files out of it. Back up whatever you want, but the point here is the files you’d actually miss.
1. From the Synology Drive application, select Settings.
2. Select Backup Task, then Create Backup Task.
3. Select your connected NAS, or a different one.
4. Pick the files to back up and the destination they get written to. Backup Rules can be adjusted here as well.
5. Pick one of the three backup modes. None of them is clearly better than the others, so go with what fits how you work and select Next. Choosing Schedule Backup means you’ll also set the schedule here.
6. Select Done. The backup is configured.
With both halves running, a file I save on my PC is on the NAS seconds later, and the NAS pushes that to the cloud on its own schedule. That’s the 3-2-1 rule satisfied without me doing anything, which is the entire reason I keep Synology Drive on every machine I own. If you want two NAS devices staying in step with each other as well, Synology Drive ShareSync handles that, and setting up a VPN on the NAS gets you at these files from anywhere.
