File Management

Categories and Labels

From the menu panel on the Synology Drive homepage, you will find the following seven categories and the labels you have created. Click on a category to view items within this category, or click on a label to view items with this label.

Note:

Management Options

Files and folders are displayed in the main panel on the homepage of Drive. At the top of the main panel, you can view the path of a file and jump to a specific level by clicking it.

Use the toolbar at the top of the Drive homepage to perform the following actions, or simply right-click on an item from the main panel to perform the same actions:

In addition to the features above, Drive also offers other useful managing tools. Commonly used features will be covered below in detail.

To upload files from your computer:

In addition to clicking the Create button, you can also use the drag and drop feature directly to upload files from your computer.

To download a file or folder:

On the homepage of Drive, right-click on an item and select Download. If what you selected is a folder or multiple files, the selection will be download as a .zip file.

To restore a deleted file or folder:

In your own Recycle Bin, select an item and click the Restore icon in the toolbar.

To manage files with hotkeys:

Drive portal provides below hotkey functions for efficient file management with your keyboard.

Hotkey Function
Ctrl + A Select all items on current page
Esc Cancel selection
Shift + select Select multiple contiguous items
Ctrl/Command + select Select multiple noncontiguous items
Ctrl/Command + C Copy
Ctrl/Command + X Cut
Ctrl/Command + V Paste
Del Delete
F2 Rename
S Add/remove star
/ Search
Shift + '=' Zoom in on Photo Viewer
Shift + '-' Zoom out on Photo Viewer

Organizing Files and Folders with Labels

To create a label:

On the homepage of Drive, click the + button next to Labels in the menu panel.

To create a label and add it to an item:

  1. On the homepage of Drive, select one or multiple items in the main panel.
  2. Click the Labels icon in the toolbar and click Create.
  3. Edit the name and color of the label.
  4. Click OK. The newly created label will be added to your selected items.

To add an existing label to an item quickly:

Do either of the following:

To add multiple labels to an item:

  1. On the homepage of Drive, select one or multiple items in the main panel.
  2. Click the Labels icon in the toolbar.
  3. Select one or multiple labels.
  4. To remove a label from an item, simply unselect the unwanted label.
  5. Click Apply.

Sharing Files and Folders

With Drive, you can share your files and folders, share the items that you have permission to manage, and obtain file links to re-share the files that you have permission to browse. Before a file is shared, you can grant viewing, editing, or managing permission to other DSM users or groups; after a file is shared, notifications will be sent to the invitees.

To create sharing links:

On the homepage of Drive, right-click on an item and click Share, or click the Share icon in the toolbar. Select one of the below options from the Privacy Settings drop-down menu.

When granting users the permission to view file contents in Privacy Settings, you can untick the option Allow options to download or copy to prevent sensitive file contents from being easily copied by or shared to other users.

Note:

When the option Allow options to download or copy is unticked, the file preview feature for the associated file may differ on different browsing clients (e.g., iOS and Android devices). The following file types can be previewed on web browsers:

Category Require additional package installation Require login to view files Available file types
Synology Office Office No odoc, osheet, oslides
Document Document Viewer Yes File types supported by Document Viewer
Video No No mp4
Image No No 3fr, arw, bmp, cr2, crw, dcr, dng, erf, gif, jpe, jpeg, jpg, k25, kdc, mef, mos, mrw, nef, orf, pef, png, ptx, raf, raw, rw2, sr2, srf, tif, tiff, x3f

To invite accounts:

  1. In the User/Group field under Invitee list, enter a DSM username or a group name. Usernames or group names will be automatically suggested as you start typing names.
  2. Click to see the permission granted to each role and then select either Previewer, Reviewer, Viewer, Commenter, Editor, or Manager from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click the + button to share this item with that user or group. You can add multiple users or groups.
  4. Click OK.

To share files with anyone via advanced protection link:

Drive supports password and expiration protections for public sharing links in Advanced Protection Link tab.

  1. On the homepage of Drive, right-click on an item and click Share, or click the Share icon in the toolbar.
  2. In Advanced Protection Link tab, tick the checkbox to create advanced protection link for this item.
  3. Select whether you want to allow people with this link to only view or to edit this item from the  Privacy Settings drop-down menu.
  4. When selecting the viewing permission in Privacy Settings, you can untick Allow options to download or copy to prevent sensitive file contents from being easily copied by or shared to by other users.
  5. Tick the checkbox next to Require password to add password protection for this sharing link, and enter the password in the text field beside. The password can be displayed by clicking .
  6. Tick Add expiration to set expiration date for this sharing link. Enter the date or click to configure the date.
  7. Click OK.

Please note that when people access the folder via advanced protection link, the permission settings of this folder are also applied to all the files inside this folder.

Note:

  1. You can share files and folders only with DSM users and groups that have permission to access Drive. You can grant permission to a certain user or group in Control Panel > User or Group.
  2. In addition to the permission types of View, Edit, and Manage, you can also assign the Comment only permission to Synology Office files.
  3. When permissions of sharing link and direct account sharing are inconsistent, you will always gain the higher permission between them.
  4. Users with the Manager permission shares the same file link and protection link as the owner, and they can adjust file link settings.
  5. When the option Allow options to download or copy is unticked, the file preview feature of Protection link may differ on different browsing clients. Files with protection links allow you to preview Synology Office, MP4, video, and image files on web browsers.

To obtain file links:

On the homepage of Drive, right-click an item and click Get link. You can copy the file link and share it with others.

Note:

  1. Only users with the Manager permission are allowed to modify link settings and obtain protection links of the files.

Searching for Files and Folders

Type a keyword into the search bar in the upper right corner. You can also click on the magnifying class to refine your search with one or more of the following criteria:

Log

The Log allows users to keep track of what actions have been performed within a certain length of time. You can view the log in its entirety with all events or you can view events in relation to different folders, which can be selected from the drop-down menu at the top.

To search through the log with a specific filter:

  1. Click the arrow in the search bar on the top right-hand corner.
  2. In the drop-down menu, you can filter events by:
  3. To reset your filtered log, click the Reset button and then Search again.

Managing File Historical Versions

Synology Drive Server saves historical versions of each modified file. Every time you modify a file, a backup version is created, just in case you make mistakes or wish to revert to an older version.

To restore a file version:

  1. Click the History option in the context menu of a file. You will then see a main window with a list of historical versions sorted by modified time.
  2. Click the icon on a version from the list, then you can choose from the below options:

Note:

The maximum number of historical versions can be configured in Synology Drive Admin Console (32 at most).