Synology Drive ShareSync
Synology Drive provides an all-round solution for file synchronization across platforms, including computers and Synology NAS clients. Synology Drive ShareSync is the Synology NAS syncing application automatically installed on DSM when you install Synology Drive Server. Before you begin to use Synology Drive ShareSync, be sure to install Synology Drive Server package on both host Synology NAS as well as client Synology NAS.
Glossary:
- Client Synology NAS or client NAS: The current server which is used to sync files or folders.
- Host Synology NAS or host NAS: The remote server with which the client NAS is syncing files or folders.
- Local folders: The shared folders on the client NAS.
- Remote folders: The shared folders on the host NAS.
Setting up Synology Drive ShareSync
To sync files between the host and client Synology NAS, you need to establish the connection first.
To create a new connection:
- The first time you open Synology Drive ShareSync, the setup wizard will appear. Click Start Now to begin.
- Enter the IP address (or QuickConnect ID), username and password of your host Synology NAS. For domain users, sign in with your domain name/username. For LDAP users, use "username@Base_DN" to sign in. You can also sign in with IPv6 or proxy service.
- Select the remote shared folders on the host NAS you wish to sync to the client NAS. If you wish to modify the folder path on the client NAS, click the folder icon to select a local sync folder. Then click Apply.
Note:
- You must sign in to the client NAS using an account belonging to the administrators group to create Drive ShareSync connections.
- Your QuickConnect ID can be located by signing in to the host NAS using an account belonging to the administrators group, and then go to Control Panel > QuickConnect.
- If you are unable to connect to the host NAS or authorize the connection with your user credentials, please check your network settings, or go to Control Panel on the host NAS, click on Privileges > Synology Drive and make sure your access to Drive has been enabled by the DSM administrator.
- User home folders, mounted shared folders, and folders without write permission cannot be used as sync folders on the client NAS when you try to create connections.
- Each client NAS can connect with multiple host NAS, but a host NAS and a client NAS can only be paired once. Also, a local shared folder cannot be set as the sync folder for multiple host NAS simultaneously. For example, folder abc on client NAS A is used as the sync folder for synchronization between client NAS A and host NAS X. Thus, it cannot be used as the sync folder for the connection between client NAS A and any other host NAS.
- The synchronization will be download-only if the account used to sign in to the host NAS does not have write permission to the remote shared folder. Likewise, it will be upload-only syncing if you don’t have write permission to the local folder on the client NAS.
Overview
To manage connections:
Once a connection has been successfully created, you can view the connection information and modify your syncing tasks.
- Select the connection you want to edit from the connection list on the left panel.
- Under the Overview tab, click Manage to do any of the following:
- Pause syncing: Pause the synchronization between your host and client Synology NAS.
- Resume syncing: Resume the synchronization between your host and client Synology NAS.
- Unlink: Disconnect the connection with the host NAS, and remove it from the list on the left panel.
- Edit connection: Enter user credentials and enable SSL if desired.
Note:
- After you unlink a connection, data in the local shared folder on the client NAS will remain while the connection configuration will be deleted.
Sync Folders
To sync a shared folder:
You can specify and manage the remote shared folder on the host NAS you would like to sync and the local folder path on the client NAS.
- Select the connection you want to edit from the connection list on the left panel.
- Under the Synced folders tab, you can find all shared folders on the host sever that can be synced.
- Tick the checkbox next to the shared folder you want to sync under the Enable column, and then click on the folder icon to select a local sync folder. Then click OK.
- Click Save to apply the change.
Note:
- A local shared folder cannot be set as the sync folder for multiple host NAS simultaneously. For example, folder abc on server A is used as the sync folder for synchronization between client NAS A and host NAS X. Thus, it cannot be used as the sync folder for the connection between client NAS A and any other host NAS.
- If you have set up a mount point on the client NAS, files and folders under the mount point will not be synchronized.
To sync specific folders or files:
After selecting a local shared folder, you may select specific sub-folders to sync, as well as specify the maximum file size and file types that are to be synced.
- Click on the Synced folders tab, then click on the wrench icon next to the shared folder you want to apply the settings to.
- In the Folder tab, tick the checkboxes next to the folders and sub folders you would like to sync.
- In the File filter tab, you may adjust the following settings:
- Filter By File Size: In the blank field next to Don't sync files over, enter a number between 1~10240000 (MB). 0 means unlimited.
- Filter By File Type: Untick the file types to be excluded in the synchronization. You may also enter file names or file extension in the box below and click Add. Files with the specified file names or types will not be synced.
- Click OK and Save to apply the settings.
Note:
- Files scattered in the root layer of a shared folder will always be synced except for the files with types and names specified to be excluded.
- It is not recommended to synchronize and collaborate on Synology Office files among multiple Synology NAS servers. Modifications made to the same files via different Synology NAS servers might cause unexpected synchronization results.
- Files will not be synced by Drive ShareSync under the following circumstances:
- The folder or file path contains any of the following characters:
\, /
- The file type is any of the following:
.tmp, .temp, .swp, .lnk
- The file name starts with a tilde (~)
- The file or folder name is or contains any of the following:
- @tmp
- @eadir
- .SynologyWorkingDirectory
- #recycle
- desktop.ini
- .DS_STORE
- Icon\r
- thumbs.db
- $Recycle.Bin
- @sharebin
- System Volume Information
- Program Files
- Program Files (x86)
- ProgramData
- #snapshot
- The file path is longer than 2048 characters.
- The file name is longer than 255 characters.
To sync shared folder privileges:
Drive ShareSync allows you to sync files between two Synology NAS with flexible sync mode settings.
- Go to the Synced folders tab and click the wrench icon next to the shared folder you wish to apply shared folder privilege settings to.
- Go to the Permission Settings tab and from the File sync mode drop-down menu, select the items you would like to sync for the local shared folder.
- Click OK and Save to save your settings.
Note:
- The account used for signing in to the host NAS must belong to the administrators group to be able to sync shared folder privileges.
- If the privilege settings on the host NAS and client NAS are not compatible, such as the syncing shared folder on one NAS is in Windows ACL mode whereas the syncing shared folder on the other NAS is not in Windows ACL mode, the privilege settings cannot be synced. Please go to Control Panel > Shared Folder on both host and client NAS, select the shared folder, click on the Action drop-down menu, and click Convert to Windows ACL to adjust the privilege settings for the remote and local shared folders to Windows ACL.
- If your client and host Synology NAS are in different domain groups, shared folder privileges cannot be synced, even if this option is enabled.
To set sync direction:
- Go to the Synced folders tab and click the wrench icon next to the shared folder you wish to apply shared folder privilege settings to.
- Go to the Permission Settings tab and from the Sync direction drop-down menu, select a sync direction for your local shared folder.
- Click OK and Save to save your settings.
Note:
- The synchronization will be download-only if the account used to sign in to the host NAS only has read-only permission to the remote shared folder. Changes you make to the shared folder or files on the client NAS will not be synced to the host NAS. If you have set up a mount point on the client NAS, files and folders under the mount point will not be synced either.
To perform advanced consistency check:
Drive ShareSync compares additional criteria such as hash, execute bit, and file permissions in different scenarios where merging is required to ensure ultimate accuracy of synchronization. This may take additional time and resources to complete synchronization tasks.
- Click on the Synced folders tab and click the wrench icon next to the shared folder you wish to enable advanced consistency check. In the Permission Settings tab, tick Enable advanced consistency check to enable this option.
To delete database:
You may delete the sync task database on a shared folder on the current server.
- Click on the Synced folders tab and then Delete the synced database on this client NAS to delete the connection history and settings of the previously set sync task of a shared folder.
Note:
- Delete the synced database on this client NAS option is only available when you create a task and then disable it.
- After you delete the sync database, data in the local shared folder will remain.
Add a New Connection
You may connect a client NAS to multiple host NAS for syncing folders.
To add a new connection:
- Click on the + icon on the lower-left corner. The setup wizard will appear. Follow the instructions to add a new host NAS for syncing.
Sync Log
Drive ShareSync keeps a sync log, allowing you to keep track of the files you synced and the events which took place.
To view the Sync log:
- Click the Sync log icon on the lower-left corner to view the log. You may filter the events by local shared folder from the drop-down menu on the upper-left corner.
Settings
To modify database location:
- Click the Settings icon on the lower-left corner.
- Choose a volume from the Database Location Settings drop-down menu.
- Click OK to change your syncing repository.
To set up default action for resumed sync tasks:
- Click the Settings icon on the lower-left corner.
- Select your desired default action when the application restarts or the sync tasks are resumed.
- Click OK to save your settings.
To edit file conflict resolution settings:
- Click the Settings icon on the lower-left corner.
- Select your desired file conflict resolution method.
- Click OK to save your settings.
Note:
- As a host Synology NAS may also be connected to multiple client devices, conflicts may occur when the same file is being modified simultaneously. To solve this problem, you may set a conflict resolution rule.
- To ensure that your local files will not be overwritten when a conflict occurs, select Rename to keep the discarded version. When this option is selected, if a conflict occurs, Drive ShareSync will rename the file in the following way: [file name]_[NAS client name]_[time stamp]_Conflict.[file extension]. For example, "document1.txt" will be renamed to "document1_NAS client name_20181001_Conflict.txt".