Synology's BEST Applications! (Top 5)

[@KeyBored101]

Great info, I'm barely using my synology Nas, mostly photo backups and running home assistant

[@jumpinwired1]

Very helpful. I will be referencing this video to setup some of these on my Nas. I'm very grateful you are taking the time to explain the benefits because I didn't think active backup for business was for me until now.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@kanes5105]

Thanks for putting these videos out, I've been trying to sort out a simple easy way of getting as much of my data off other cloud sources, low and behold, it's right under my nose! I've slowly been migrating to Open source, or companies like Synology that will provide an alternative to the data scrappers! THANKS!

[@javierechevarria1548]

I loved your video. You explained in a very simple way a) the most important apps to maximize Synology value work and more importantly, HOW and WHEN to use them. I give 5 stars to this video. You impressed me. Congratulations

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much for the kind words! I'm glad to hear that it helped!

[@CyclonX]

Thanks for the great video! Currently transitioning my music production workstation to be supported by my new NAS, and while I had a good idea of the main use, I was thrilled to get a better look at some of these apps. Synology Drive particularly will be great for collaborating and sharing files with clients!

[@ApicalTrades]

Thank you so much. I really loved it and learned from it. Even more than that, I was speechless to see all your tutorials on Synology Nas. Thanks again. Highly appreciated.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Glad to hear that it helped!

[@harpersneil]

This is absolutely the number one Synology resource online, thanks for another great video. A little surprised not to see Surveillance Station no listed, but that's my subjective opinion of course. Mostly, it's testament to how impressive DSM is and the power innate to it.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

I really appreciate the kind words, thank you! Surveillance Station is great (I need to do a video on it at some point), but I felt like there was more equipment needed than just the NAS, so I kept it off this list. With that said, it's a great application and one that everyone should check out!

[@harpersneil]

@@WunderTechTutorials I couldn't produce a video to save my life, but I've been using Surveillance Station now for 2 years - if I'm able to return the favour and offer any advice on it, I'd be very happy to answer questions you might have. Surveillance Station 9 is right around the corner however, so if probably wait till after that comes out.

[@javierechevarria1548]

I loved your video. You explained in a very simple and clear video a) how the apps work and b) how and when to use them. I give this video 5 stars !! Well done !!

[@ms7165]

Currently using all five of these apps (maybe because I've watched all your vids) and they are great. Love your tutorials!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@stlsaint1]

Very thankful for this vid. Been needing different things that you covered. Glad i subbed!!

[@newsfromnet]

Very clear, easy to understand, Thank you

[@ErickEngel]

Well I learned something new from this video. I had no clue that my PC's in my network could synchronize to the NAS with Synology Drive. I have been using a third party sync tool all of this time. It works well but I do have to manually launch it, etc. The Drive syncing feature seems like the way to go. Thanks!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Definitely my favorite Synology application. Hope that you like it!

[@Minotaurus007]

A PC in your network has direct access to the NAS. Why Synology Drive?

[@nixxblikka]

Love your videos man! MAybe I should explain why: 1. Videos are not too long 2. thus you focus on important stuff (not rephrasing what everyne knows already) 3. still giving that little extra information (in another video, that you can only use quick connect with synology apps). Keep going!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thank you! Glad you like them!

[@Bakin]

Thanks for this video; it was very helpful. If you have some older files and folders that you want to back up to an external drive, be it another Synology NAS unit or the Synology cloud service, what date is given to the folder being backed up on the new storage device? Does the backup simply make a copy of the Folders and Files with the dates each had on the original creation or are the files and folders simply given new dates reflecting the dates they were copied to the new Synology backup device? For record purposes and future traceability of the files it would be best that the Folders and Files retain their original creation dates but many backup solutions do not follow this and simply give the folders the dates that they are copied to the new backup storage device. I'm trying to identify a tool that Synology may have that allows mirroring of older Folder and Files for historical purposes with no changes to Folder of File dates.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

I don't think there are any Synology tools that will do that out of the box. I would recommend rsync if you'd like to preserve the timestamp.

[@Bakin]

Thanks I’ll look into that.

[@biodigitaljazz1]

I started out using my Synology having written custom robocopy batch files that will back up my file server kind of manually and then email me the Robocopy logs. I then used task scheduler to automate them... Good to know that Active Business Backup is basically the way to do the copies natively in Synology... although now that I've done the work I don't want to redo everything now :)

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Nothing wrong with using what works! Thanks so much for watching!

[@notafanboy250]

Your content is always really useful. Thanks for taking the time to make it!

[@TechMeOut5]

Excellent video Frank! Informative, clear and super helpful. I would say these are ll my favorite applications as well. great job.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much, Avi!

[@kevinhughes9801]

Excellent video so useful thanks

[@QuikTechSolutions]

Well done 👍

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thank you for watching, Tony!

[@nijian99]

Thanks for your videos and web contents! They have much better and more detailed explanations than Synology Knowledge Base on many applications from a real user point view! On your top 5 apps, I use the top 3 regularily but gave up Active Backup for Business after some trial. I wonder whether you migh be able to product one video or article about the general plan or 'strategy' to use Synology NAS and applications systematically together for a home/SOHO environment? I tried to search and study in the past years, including contacting Synology technical support, but failed to find a good practical guidance. The basic assumptions are: - Multiple NAS devices, minimal 2 NAS devices, low end of the plus-series (e.g. 220+, 440+, 720+, 920+, with btrfs file system) - NAS devices can be located on different sites but none has a static public IP address (typical for home/SOHO), - Other small hardware can be added if necessary, such as UPS, external USB HDD etc, - Maximal user or connected devices about 10; - PC/Mac/mobile backup, small workgroups, ransomware protection, disastrous recovery. - Not to use any public or commercial cloud for large amount of data or final backup. - Not too difficult to set up and maintain by a non-professional IT with reasonable knowledge - like most of your audiance, I guess. I did find Synology Backup Solution Guide (download.synology.com/download/www-res/brochure/backup_solution_guide_en-global.pdf) but it lacks implementation detaisl and how to use different applications (ShareSync, HyperBackup, Snapshot & Replications, Drive etc) together to build a reasonable solution. One big challenge for off-site backup is the lack of STATIC PUBLIC IP at home/Soho! Basically I am looking for a Synology NAS implementation guide for Home/Soho environment for small workgroup and 2-layer backup. Advices would be appreciated!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much!! I personally use Hyper Backup and Synology Drive to accomplish what you're looking to do. It's not a perfect example, but this is the exact workflow that I've been using and I am extremely happy with it. The only difference is the final step (Hyper Backup), you can potentially back it up to two offsite locations if you'd prefer. I will also add this to my list of potential tutorials as this can definitely use its own! kzbin.info/www/bejne/raqucp6HmK2EhJY

[@Franky_1974]

Thanks for sharing your useful tipps. I still have these programs on my NAS. They are awsome and for free. ;-)

[@iGenX2]

Hi , for active backup, can you show how to restore a PC you backed up on your NAS ? Thanks 😊

[@WunderTechTutorials]

I will add this to my list! I have an article on it if you're interested in that: www.wundertech.net/backup-a-windows-pc-to-a-synology-nas-with-active-backup-for-business/#4_Bare_Metal_Restore

[@iGenX2]

@@WunderTechTutorials awesome 👏 thanks

[@rayderrich]

I am looking for a NAS for backing up my PC's and Macs but perhaps I should invest in two of them, one for file serving and the other for backups? Unsure how to proceed, especially since I have many TB of data to backup. Good video though!

[@MrNoBSgiven]

Totally agree! I use all 5 apps and love them. After my DS412+ lost upgrade support I got Ds1019+ and added weekly snapshot replication. An automatic job wakes the backup unit 1 hour before the scheduled replications and another one shuts it down 12 hours later. My 2 windows computers get daily backups of entire systems (I really don't see any rrason to split Cmfrom the D disk backups) and never missed my old Microsoft WHS running on HP EX470 since. Adding Zerotier client gets virtual networking access without opening external ports. Total coolness. There is only ONE big gripe about my DS1019+ unit: slow 1GBe Ethernet ports. Synology should add support to add ethernet over USB,mwhich would allow for painless upgrade to 2.5 or 5 GBe networking.

[@sentinem]

You can add a 2.5g or 5g usb ethernet adapter to the Nas. I did it myself half a year ago and it works flawlessly since then.

[@MrNoBSgiven]

@@sentinem can you share the model of the USB dongle and the process of adding it?

[@sentinem]

@@MrNoBSgiven kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYLXdIyujctnaMk I followed this german tutorial. It is pretty strait forward and maybe you get the gist of it from just looking at the pictures. I also used the LAN Adapter from the tutorial (Club3D CAC-1420 2.5GbE USB-LAN) but it was 30€ back than, maybe there is a cheaper alternative? I think the USB-LAN Adapter just needs the same chipset (there aren't many different out there). It's still working great without any change since initial setup. I am using the 2.5gbit connection only for one computer, everything else runs over the 1gbit connection.

[@marcg1043]

great video. are you aware if and how we could take Snapshots of the actual Synology OS? it seems that only sharedfolders are offered for snapshots.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

The only way that I know of to back up the entire OS is to use Active Backup for Business, but then you need a second Synology NAS. You can also check out Hyper Backup to just back up individual program settings, but that won't be everything.

[@jean-philippehenry6266]

Cool video ! I am using synology drive it works perfectly. You can also setup a file versionning. But it doesn’t really work like a backup.

[@kanuku]

Thank you for sharing! Why would you need hyper backup if you have Raid1 replication?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Generally, RAID isn't a backup. If something was to happen to the location where the NAS is, both hard drives would be lost. However, with an off-site backup, you're ensuring that the data exists.

[@ronm6585]

Great info, thank you.

[@driftwoood]

Found the video very helpful however as of 19th January 2023 the 'Backup for business link' listed fails. It links to a "Page not Found" page on your website..

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thank you very much for letting me know! Just updated it.

[@jasonfair5160]

Thanks for a great video, as always! I installed synology drive on my parents laptops but for whatever reason, it only did an initial backup and doesnt auto backup. I will check your article for more in depth info. Thanks!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Are the devices on the same network? Let me know if I can help at all!

[@jd5787]

Hi! Any app can download a KZbin playlist at a preset quality and update when a new video is added to the feed? Thank you

[@WunderTechTutorials]

None that I am aware of unfortunately 😞

[@joeglennaz]

Hello, thank you for the video. I just started my research into getting an ass. I don’t own one now. But the first app you showed to me I would think that would be built into the Synology software. Honestly now I’m a bit confused because I thought the purpose of an ass was the back up everything on your net work, so I assumed it would be some kind of interface that would allow you to choose the days and times and what you backed up and all that built into the Synology NAS. Maybe this is just a better version? Anyway, I’ll keep watching a video. Thank you.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

A NAS is as powerful or basic as you'd like it to be. You can use it as a backup destination only, but you can use it as much more as well!

[@LTX-Shep]

Great video. Do you have any suggestions for how to de-duplication of files? It sounds like Active Business Backup will do the the job but I wanted to check to see if it is the best and easiest. Thanks.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks! Unfortunately, only a few applications support it and I don't think you can "manually" configure it. So in that case, ABB is really your best bet.

[@LTX-Shep]

@@WunderTechTutorials Excellent. Thanks for your reply.

[@w00dee13]

I have a synology DS720+. The status light blinks green. I can't find NAS using web assist. I can't load the DSM. Can anyone help

[@andyc7777]

Could you explain the reasons for having both Hyper Backup and Active Backup for Business? Thanks!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Sure! Hyper Backup is used to back up your NAS to a separate location. Active Backup is used to back up devices TO your NAS. With that said, DSM 7.1 introduced a feature for ABB that allows you to back up one Synology NAS to another. However, you need two NAS's then, so Hyper Backup will still be used by most.

[@andyc7777]

@@WunderTechTutorials Understood! Thank you for explaining.

[@newestappleman]

Do you have a video that explains how to backup a Synology NAS from your school network to a Synology NAS at home? Or can you make one?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

I have a video on how to back up a Synology NAS to another Synology NAS, but the process should be the same! www.wundertech.net/how-to-backup-a-synology-nas-to-a-remote-synology-nas/

[@JoeTaxpayer]

Backup for business - hoping they’ll offer a version for the Mac.

[@eladbari]

"Active Backup for Business" vs. "Synology Drive" - what's the difference between these two apps?

[@robertcanavan6600]

Thanks for the vid! I love Synology Drive, but I can't stand the constant drive activity of it's indexing. What do you do to stop this?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

When you say the drive activity, do you mean on the NAS or the notifications saying that something was synced?

[@DavidM2002]

One big flaw with Hyper Backup is that it does not offer OneDrive as a backup destination. I love these videos; they push us in directions that we may not have gone on our own. Thank you.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much! I agree - it would be nice to use OneDrive as a HB destination. Especially because they give you the option for Google Drive.

[@---GOD---]

Use Cloud Sync for this. You can backup to or from OneDrive or simply create a live sync. Good enough.

[@michaelcreamer4368]

Awesome, thank you

[@mdawas1986]

I have DS1511+ and cant find the Active Backup for Business ! any changes ?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Not supported on that model ☹️

[@dom_leary]

The thing that annoys me about Active Backup for Business is I can't specify any exclusions to the backups. I really want to exclude applications from the backup because I'm forever installing and uninstalling things (often games from Gamepass) and with the rotating backups they now take up the majority of my backup storage.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

The only way that I've gotten around this is by installing a second hard drive and installing games on there. I then wouldn't back up that hard drive to ensure that those files don't get backed up.

[@nchia]

I bought a Synology NAS to primarily run Synology Drive. What I couldn't work out was how to protect files on the NAS itself. It seems any admin could access the NAS to see private documents.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

You are correct, which is why protecting admin users is priority number one. Ultimately, if you're the owner of the NAS, you are probably the only one that should have admin permissions. With that said, if there's a reason why you'll need multiple, they will see all private documents.

[@nchia]

@@WunderTechTutorials Until there’s some security option on Drive, it’s not going to be a good replacement for the commercial offerings, even for family use.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@nchia Unfortunately, there will always be some type of an administrator somewhere that can see the data. The cloud hosting providers promise not to "look" at your data, but if served with a court order, they'd most likely comply - which means that it's unlikely that anyone will ever see your files, but somehow and someway, they can look if they want/need to. There's not many services outside of individually self-hosted solutions that provide absolute privacy.

[@freddymiguelponce]

This is my first time in your channel. GREAT VIDEO! If you allow me one question please. Does all these apps works with Mac computers too? Thanks in advance Have a Productive and Healthy day!

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks so much! Yes, everything will work similarly on a Mac. There are minor differences here or there with apps like Synology Drive, but generally, the same functionality exists!

[@freddymiguelponce]

@@WunderTechTutorials Thank you so much for answer my question! Have a great day!

[@spearheadconsulting5144]

So we should use both backups, Active Backup for Business and Hyperbackup?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

One will back up your devices (ABB) and one will back up the NAS itself (Hyper Backup).

[@spearheadconsulting5144]

Thank you

[@electrobob]

Haven't checked in a while, do they still have no full device encryption? Would like to get one, but I have been holding off because I don't want someone to grab all my data by just stealing a small box. Great video though.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Thanks! No full-NAS encryption, but you can technically encrypt all of your Shared Folders if you'd like. Not a full 1:1, but at least the data would be encrypted.

[@diverm2371]

Now how can you use Synology photos without somebody copying them figure that one out?

[@Minotaurus007]

Snapshot: not working for usual file systems like ext4.

[@octavian_2]

Can you restore to dissimilar hardware with Active Backup?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

You'll be able to move the data but doing a bare-metal restore might not work.

[@51Fathermo]

Can't find Active backup for business on my NAS and idea where I find it?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

If it's not in the package center, you might have a NAS that doesn't support it unfortunately.

[@51Fathermo]

@@WunderTechTutorials Ty for your quick response. And thank you for the informative videos. I started with a DS223J and set it up for remote access. I have a raspberry pi vpn so I was familiar with using open vpn. But having your specific videos were very helpful.

[@kaidige]

Can the BTRFS be used with encryption of the hard drives on your Synology NAS?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

When you say the encryption of hard drives, do you mean the encryption of shared folders?

[@kaidige]

@@WunderTechTutorials The encryption off hard drives/disks.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@kaidige I don't believe that Synology offers that functionality unfortunately.

[@tombouie]

Well Done

[@fabian4321]

Synology drive was my favorite until it stopped syncing (constantly "Preparing"). The first time I fixed it by re-entring the credentials. Since the second time this happened I couldn't make it work - re-entring credentials didn't work. The only way is to upload the file in the NAS and then it shows in my computer wich is useless.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

That's strange - I haven't had that happen. When you updated to DSM 7, did you update the client to the latest version?

[@fabian4321]

@@WunderTechTutorials yes. I googled the issue and it seems that is not new but I couldn't find a solution. The issue last started after the update. I uninstalled everything- even the app in Synology- and started from scratch following one of your videos that I followed the first time. The same on three different PCs and two different users.

[@fabian4321]

@@WunderTechTutorials I fixed it!!!. I had to re-start the NAS. I tried to upload a file through the web interface and I got a message saying that it could not be uploaded because the system was busy (or something loke that), so I restarted the NAS and everything is back to normal with Synology Drive.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@fabian4321 Do you know if anything changed, meaning you started using a firewall or something?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@fabian4321 Glad you got it working!!

[@johnnycaps1]

Synology Drive is very compelling.

[@lukastemberger]

It's so weird to hear that RAID isn't backup... Why would I lose storage space with RAID if I was also making another backup?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

RAID is designed for data protection (in the event of hard drive failure). There are many examples (corruption being a main one) where you'll lose all of your data if you don't have a proper backup. Hard drive failures are common, so the protection that RAID offers is important, but it's not a substitute for proper backups of important data.

[@lukastemberger]

@@WunderTechTutorials Thanks for the response. So more than one drive can be corrupt at once? What are the chances of that if NAS is on a UPS?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

The RAID array itself can corrupt and in cases like that, there's nothing you can do to restore it without a backup. How often it happens is harder to answer, but it being able to happen (along with other reasons) is why RAID is not a backup.

[@thewhizard]

What the difference between drive and file?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Drive is a standalone application similar to Google Drive.

[@Obi4000]

thank you for the Video. can I download an 3d slicer on it. It would be nice if you Auswer me 😊

[@WunderTechTutorials]

I'm not exactly sure what a 3D slicer is unfortunately, but if you can get it to run on Docker, you should be able to.

[@Obi4000]

@@WunderTechTutorials thank you sir for answering. With a 3d slicer I mean a slicer software that transfer the cad stl data to a g-code to printing it out as a 3d module. Like cura or simplify...

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@Obi4000 It looks like you might be able to run Cura in Docker! With that said, I don't have any experience with this, so I can't confirm if it does or doesn't work 😞 github.com/8layer8/docker-cura

[@zolo5425]

I rely heavily on the Synology Drive, but its performance on the mobile terminal is too bad. Videos have no thumbnails, music has no thumbnails, When these files become more and more, it is a disaster to find them. And Synology Office cannot be edited on mobile phones. For too many years, they have given up listening to users.

[@Earl_007]

Plex is not on top 5? You're missing out then.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

Plex is part of the Docker portion. I love (and use) Plex - using it through Docker just lets you use Hardware Transcoding (if needed) which doesn't work with the Plex package.

[@mikeleone1347]

The Plex server native app on the Intel series Synologys (the "+" models) will do hardware transcoding, but you need a Plex Pass, I believe. You don't need Docker for Plex.

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@mikeleone1347 Absolutely! As far as I know though, you need to use Docker if you want to do the hardware transcoding. I spoke with ChuckPa (Plex team member) a few months ago (so things certainly could have changed) and he didn't think transcoding would ever work through the package due to the DSM 7 permission structure. Hopefully that changes!

[@RichardBuckerCodes]

my operations staff is telling me that DSM is phoning home to China. Synology denies this.

[@vitusyu9583]

I bought and started to use Synology a few months ago. But I am quite disappointed with its applications. It is so a mess with the functions scattered around in different apps and those apps are so non-intuitive and having traffic UI！

[@WunderTechTutorials]

It takes some time to get used to, but I promise that the applications will become second nature and you'll learn to love them! Overall, while they are scattered to a degree, they are all generally functional in one way or another and work well. With that said, there are definitely some applications that can be improved!

[@hermeswong2579]

lm

[@waaawone936]

Does Synology have an easy and covenient way to show eho are currently accessing our files, what files are being accessed and send messages to all users?

[@WunderTechTutorials]

There are file change logs in DSM. You can find a lot of info in the log center in general which should give you the info you're looking for. I'm not sure about the messaging though.

[@waaawone936]

@@WunderTechTutorials Thx for the reply. What I'm looking for is something like Shared Folder - Session & Open Files in Windows' Computer Management. I'm a noob, so reading log is not convenient for me. And I still dont have a NAS yet..

[@WunderTechTutorials]

@@waaawone936 Yeah, I don't think you're going to get that level of granularity but there are a few tools that could help in the OS.