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  • Managing your files on a Synology NAS
  • What you lot get and lose with Synology Drive
  • How to move files from Google Bulldoze to Synology Drive

Having your own deject storage is the ultimate dream, and it's rather like shooting fish in a barrel to become started with pre-built solutions similar Synology DiskStations. While Synology is ameliorate known for its hardware, it's lately been stepping up its game on the software side as well. Synology Drive, for example, takes on Google Bulldoze with a clean interface and several modernistic features, convincing many to switch away from Google'south service. If you lot're in that group and looking for ways to prepare up Synology Drive every bit a Google Bulldoze alternative, you're in the right place.

Should you even consider using Synology instead of Google Drive?

Information technology must be said correct off the bat that Google Drive (or any cloud storage service y'all prefer) would exist a much more feasible option for almost users than jumping to a Synology NAS, specially for a unmarried purpose, like but to back upwards your data. Certain, y'all don't need to pay a monthly fee when yous have a NAS of your own, but at that place's still an upfront cost attached — a pretty hefty 1 at that. Even if you pay Google a monthly fee, information technology will take years to friction match upwardly to what you'll exist cough upwards for your own network storage.

Unless nosotros're talking more than a terabyte of data, Google Drive should exist your all-time bet, with all the smarts and integrations it comes with. It all boils downwardly to how much value you place on your personal or business information and how important it is to continue your files in your own storage infinite instead of someone else's deject servers. Then in that location are a few employ cases where you lot admittedly need spacious local storage, for maybe a team to share, making information technology necessary to make the switch to a Synology NAS. Google One, the subscription service that includes Google Bulldoze storage besides every bit Google VPN and other niceties, starts at $2/mo or $20/yr for 100GB of storage, going upwards to $300/calendar month for 30TB of storage. The sweet spot is $10/mo or $100/year for 2TB of data, which is cheaper than most 2TB HDDs, so just go along that in mind before you make this move.

Just if you're here, I'm guessing you lot've already made upward your mind on jumping ship. So let's dive in.

Managing your files on a Synology NAS

Synology has a couple of file management systems in place with a bit of overlap, and it honestly tin go confusing if you're new to this. Bear with me equally I try to break downwardly what works best based on how you program to use your network drive.

Map your Synology NAS to Finder or File Explorer

File managers on both Mac and Windows can connect to your network drive, allowing y'all to admission your files on Synology simply like you would from the internal storage. This mode is best for single users who are fine working directly inside Synology folders that don't occupy any space on your estimator'south storage. This is how yous can set it up:

  1. Get to your Synology DSM in a web browser, select Control Panel, and enter File Services. Under the SMB tab, enable the SMB and WS-Discovery services and click Apply. You lot tin play with some advanced settings on this page, but you should be fine with the defaults.
  2. Next, in Mac's Finder, click on Go in the top carte du jour bar and select Connect to Server or utilize the Cmd+Chiliad shortcut to enter your NAS'due south local address. This address could be a custom name you've given, like smb://xyz.local, or a local IP accost that your router has assigned to the NAS, unremarkably in the 192.168.10.Thirty format. For Windows, right-click on This PC on the side panel of File Explorer and select Map network drive. Select the drive label and selection your Synology NAS nether Browse. Your NAS would appear in this list if yous enabled WS-Discovery in the previous stride.
  3. Enter your login credentials, and your Synology NAS should at present be visible in Finder or File Explorer.

If you lot've mounted the entire folder directory attainable to your Synology user account, a proficient tip would be to pin the folders you frequently use to the sidebar for quick admission. Though practice note that since you've mounted a local network bulldoze, the files will only exist attainable when y'all're on your home network.

Permit Synology to automatically sync/backup your computer'due south folders

Google Drive has seemingly been a large influence for Synology's ain alternative — conveniently named Bulldoze. Besides borrowing the name and a few smart features, Synology also has a syncing and backup tool for your figurer, similar to what Google Drive has been offer for a while. This will come in handy particularly when you want to sync some of your folders with multiple devices and/or people on your network. It takes but a handful of steps to go Synology Drive upwards and running:

  1. Go to your Synology's DSM in a web browser, open up Package Center, and search for Synology Bulldoze Server. Hit the install button under information technology and let information technology run until the process is done. Doing this volition install the Drive app itself forth with the admin console. At this stage, you tin start using Bulldoze's web app and move files in other directories to it. Simply we'll go further to ready sync and backup for the files on your computer.
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  2. Download the Bulldoze Customer for your computer from Synology's website afterwards providing the required details about your NAS model and its OS version. Go with the usual installation menstruum and enter Synology'south accost and your login details, equally shown in the previous section.
  3. On the next screen, you'll be asked to set upwardly sync or backup tasks, both of which are pretty self-explanatory. Hit Backup Chore and select the folders y'all want Synology to keep a re-create of. In the following step, you lot can set a backup schedule or permit it to run all the fourth dimension.
  4. For syncing, create a new Sync Task from the Bulldoze app on your estimator, select the folder both on your NAS and computer that you want to continue in sync, and you're done. You tin set multiple rules, like filters by size or file type, to further fine-tune the sync behavior.

A major difference between the offset and 2d methods is that you'll exist accessing your files directly from the NAS by simply mapping them to your reckoner's file managing director. But with syncing, a re-create of the files and folders takes upwards the internal storage on all your synced computers. Given the meaning overlap in their capabilities and features, you can choose to either get with one of the ways or use both simultaneously, say Drive for oft accessed files and File Station for everything else — whatsoever fits your nib.

However, Synology Drive comes off every bit a more versatile tool with all its smart features — think of it as a spruced-up version of the regular file director — giving it some clear advantages that we'll discuss beneath.

What yous get and lose with Synology Drive

Connecting to your Synology NAS over the internet

Cloud storage apps like Google Drive have gotten so popular is in function because y'all tin can admission your files just nearly anywhere — all y'all need is an internet connectedness. It's possible to do that with your NAS as well, and the simplest mode is to use Synology's own solution: QuickConnect.

You can turn it on from Command Panel > External Access > QuickConnect > Enable QuickConnect. Make sure you have a Synology account (not your NAS user account) linked to your NAS for the feature to work. This way, yous'll get a custom web address where you lot can sign into your NAS from most anywhere in the world. And it saves you from having to tinker with your router'southward port forwarding settings, which may non be everybody'south cup of tea.

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Team sharing

A big perk of using Synology Bulldoze is setting upwards sync across multiple devices and users and then that everybody on the network has an updated copy of the shared files and folders. You can enable team sharing from Synology Bulldoze Admin Console > Team Folder. When in there, select i of the shared folders, and click Enable.

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Later on doing this, repeat steps 2 and iv on the second (or more) calculator you want the synced folders and files to appear on. Comport in mind that only existing Shared Folders on your Synology can be added to the Team Binder, and so make sure that the indented users accept read/write permissions to that particular folder for the sync to piece of work properly. You can modify that from Control Panel > Shared Folder > select the binder > Edit > Permissions.

Sharing links to files with your teammates on the network is also an easy task through the context menu. You tin fifty-fifty share public links (expirable and password protected) for those exterior your network to admission your files if you have fix QuickConnect.

Synology Drive for Android

Compared to the one-time DS File app on Android, Synology Bulldoze looks and feels much more modern (though not equally good as Google Drive). Even though most of its features have been taken from Google Drive, they work exactly as intended. There are numerous means to sort your files, similar labeling or starring them, while the search feature is decently powerful and quick. Offline access is also an option inside the Drive app, and you can create both private and public share links from the mobile app itself. Though the web app even so gets you some more avant-garde features to manage your files in Drive.

Synology Office

In example Drive wasn't enough, Synology has as well cloned Google'due south productivity apps. Just install the Synology Role package on your DSM, and it will directly integrate into the Drive app on the web. This will give Bulldoze the ability to natively open MS Office files, though you lot'll need to catechumen them to Synology's proprietary formats to be able to edit them. While bones text-only files convert without any formatting issues, information technology could be rough with more complex documents.

The editor screen is unsurprisingly also like to Google Docs. The good thing is that you lot have your bones formatting tools right where they belong, so you'll feel at domicile. And you have the choice to export your files in .docx and .pdf formats. In short, Synology Office is good for bones work, almost as much every bit Google Docs is, but it isn't trying to replace more sophisticated tools like MS Office.

What you'll miss when switching from Google Drive

Synology has done a decent chore of bringing over most of the essential features of Google Drive. Thanks to that, you certainly won't be missing whatsoever individual characteristic in Synology Drive, but it's the whole tightly-knit character of Google services that you'll wish for. Synology Drive can't fifty-fifty come shut to Google's ubiquity and general credence beyond diverse third-party tools and services — and not to forget its own services used by billions of users.

Convenience is Google Bulldoze'south strongest arrange. All you need is a Gmail account (which pretty much anyone using the cyberspace has) and can go started in seconds. That'south something you cannot await from Synology, particularly at the initial setup stage. You should exist fine after that, though.

How to movement files from Google Bulldoze to Synology Drive

Now that you've fix everything on the Synology Bulldoze side, it's fourth dimension to motion your existing files in Google Drive to your NAS. Thank you to the new Google Drive for Desktop tool, the procedure isn't at all complicated, though the time information technology takes could exist high if you're syncing several hundred GBs of data.

Using the Google Drive widget on your computer (download the desktop app, if y'all don't already have it), become to app preferences and under Google Drive, select Mirror files, and ostend the save location. This will download all the files stored in the deject to your computer, and so make sure y'all have plenty disk infinite or utilize an external hard disk drive. Once the synced folder populates, you merely need to but upload those files to your Synology NAS using i of the two methods discussed earlier.

That's information technology! The procedure may take a few hours to consummate, and again, it's non going to be for everyone, but the reward of having a mirror of your difficult drive, or but syncing a few important folders, to a backup source that's securely located in your home and accessible anywhere is potentially a major reward. Plus, once your transfer is consummate, you lot tin can potentially abolish your Google 1 subscription, particularly if you decide to move your Google Photos content over to a Synology NAS, too.

If you're looking for a keen starter Synology NAS to move your Google Drive over to Synology Drive, the DiskStation DS220+ is a great option.

Buy Synology DiskStation DS220+

$300 at Amazon

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