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.
- My Drive: View files and folders owned by you.
- Team Folder: View the Team Folder(s) which you have permission to access.
- Computer Backup: View the files and folders backed up from computers.
- Shared with me: View the files and folders that other users have shared with you.
- Shared with others: View the files and folders that you have shared with other users.
- Recent: View up to 200 files that you have recently accessed, including files that others shared with you and files shared publicly.
- Starred: View the files and folders that you have starred.
- Recycle Bin: View the files and folders owned by you that have been deleted.
- Labels: View files and folders that you have added labels to. You can also create a new label from here by clicking the + button. Renaming or modifying a label will update all items with this label.
Note:
- Deleted files will be placed in Recycle Bin only if the folder of deleted files is enabled for versioning.
- When files are deleted from a Team Folder, the deleted files will be placed in Team Folder's Recycle Bin which allows only system administrators to access. (To access Team Folder's Recycle Bin, please go to Recycle Bin and switch to Team Folder at the upper right corner.)
- You cannot add files to the backup destination folders. Changes made in the backed up folders will not be synced to the backup source folders on your computer.
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:
- Create: Click the + button to create a folder or add other files from your computer or your Synology NAS.
- Labels: Select one or multiple items and click this icon to apply an existing label to the selected items. You can also create a new label from here.
- Share: Select an item and click this icon to share the item with other users.
- Make a copy: Select one or multiple items and click this icon to duplicate them on the same path level.
- Move to: Select an item and click this icon to move the item to another location in Drive.
- Copy to: Select an item and click this icon to copy the item to another location in Drive.
- Delete: Select an item and click this icon to delete it and move it to the owner's Recycle Bin.
- More: Select an item and click this icon to perform more actions to the item.
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:
- On the homepage of Drive, select one or multiple items in the main panel.
- Click the Labels icon in the toolbar and click Create.
- Edit the name and color of the label.
- 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:
- Drag and drop a label from the menu panel to an item in the main panel.
- Drag and drop one or multiple items from the main panel to a label in the menu panel.
To add multiple labels to an item:
- On the homepage of Drive, select one or multiple items in the main panel.
- Click the Labels icon in the toolbar.
- Select one or multiple labels.
- To remove a label from an item, simply unselect the unwanted label.
- 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.
- Private - Only specific accounts can access
The list of accounts that you invited below can access the item according their corresponding permission.
- Internal - Anyone with an account can view/edit
All accounts with the permission to access Drive on that Synology NAS can access the item when logged in.
- Public- Anyone can view/edit
Everyone can access the item via the link and without login.
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:
- The permission settings of folders will be inherited by the items inside. And whenever it’s re-adjusted, the permission for the items inside will be overwritten by the new settings.
- You are able to adjust minor/major permission for the items; thus, when others access the folder, they will follow the permission setting of the specific items when accessing the items.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- Click the + button to share this item with that user or group. You can add multiple users or groups.
- 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.
- On the homepage of Drive, right-click on an item and click Share, or click the Share icon in the toolbar.
- In Advanced Protection Link tab, tick the checkbox to create advanced protection link for this item.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
.
- Tick Add expiration to set expiration date for this sharing link. Enter the date or click
to configure the date.
- 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:
- 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.
- In addition to the permission types of View, Edit, and Manage, you can also assign the Comment only permission to Synology Office files.
- When permissions of sharing link and direct account sharing are inconsistent, you will always gain the higher permission between them.
- Users with the Manager permission shares the same file link and protection link as the owner, and they can adjust file link settings.
- 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:
- 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:
- Keyword
- Location: Select one of the existing categories, Current location or click Customize to select a folder in My Drive, Team Folder or Shared with me to search in.
- Type: Select whether you want to search for a folder, a file, a document, a photo, a video, or music. You can also search by extension.
- Labels: Select one or multiple labels. When you select multiple labels, an item will be considered a match as long as it has just one of the selected labels.
- Size (MB): Search by file size (calculated in megabytes).
- Date: Search by modified time or creation time.
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:
- Click the arrow in the search bar on the top right-hand corner.
- In the drop-down menu, you can filter events by:
- Keyword: Enter the name of any user to find events related to the user.
- Date Range: Choose from Today, Yesterday, Last week, Last month or Customize to enter a start and end date to find log records within a specific date range.
- Type: In the drop-down menu you can select the type of event you want to view. You can also select Customize to select several different types of events at once.
- 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:
- 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.
- Click the
icon on a version from the list, then you can choose from the below options:
- Download - download this historical version to your computer.
- Restore - restore the file to the selected version, which will overwrite the current one.
- Make a copy - save the selected version as a separate file.
Note:
The maximum number of historical versions can be configured in Synology Drive Admin Console (32 at most).