SpaceRex is low key one of the best resources for anything Synology on youtube. Been watching him for a while and he's good at what he does. Not an endorsement. Just a dude sitting at his computer wondering about the next homelab project.
Can someone explain to me why Synology kills its (when still) good applications?! Such as DS Note, DS File, DS Audio, DS Video, practically all of these applications were last updated a few years ago and nothing new appears. What, do they have a problem with money or don't want it? Or maybe why make your own when others are better than others? What was once Synology's strong point is now a source of shame.
They can see how many people are using them. There's not a lot. There's no sense in maintaining apps that people don't use,. I can say this for 90% of the apps included in Synology OS/Asustor/TRUENAS etc. There's tons of dead weight packages and apps that no one uses. It requires dev time to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. It's easier just to abandon the apps if no one, or very few, are using them. I think the main apps people use are Drive and Photos for home use (and even then people don't know about them). Most people just want a place to store the data and they access it via a PC. There's other options like Google Apps/Microsoft Office and such that have online storage that is also free that offers a way better experience. This is just my opinion, but working in the IT Industry, I know my work place does the same.
So often, people who achieve some success forget the good habits that got them where they are. Good software and hardware agnosticism are the things that distinguished us from the competition? Let's halt software development and start forcing our own branded hard drives down our users' throats. 🧠
@@davidlakes5087 Excellent sum up, but such a shame. It's like Logitech's thoughts around a subscription mouse or BMW's heated seat service. I just with these companies made good stuff and kept doing so.
Suggest an alternative to Note Station please. I have been using Synology Notes for over 10 years! It works ok for me and I have grown to accept it's quirky UI, but if there was a better alternative, I would like to know.
I am a big fan of DS Audio. This app also has been ignored for a long time and i fear it might get axed at some point. I guess managing a big database of audio files is no longer very popular but i still have the urge to own my music. The streaming services don’t have my needs as a priority so they will screw me at some point. I hope DS Audio will get the “Photos” treatment and get a big update to pull it into this century!
Same here. I still prefer to buy CD’s and rip them to FLAC. I prefer to own my music and have much better sound quality than streaming it. So I hope they revamp ds audio or at least keep it current. I use it all the time.
In a way I'm glad Synology is not updating the Notes. It's been working almost flawlessly for me for years. Synology also has its share of bad updates. So "if it works - don't touch it" approach is fine by me.
I don't use IDrive to restore my NAS. Just to backup my NAS. It does it very well. And this Snapshots boogeyman is hardly a big deal SpaceRex. Just exclude the Snapshots folder in IDrive like any other folder you don't want to back up. Agreed slow to restore but Synology is slow itself which doesn't help. Maybe if Synology updated their hardware which is now sorely outdated we could have nice speedier things. We have massive bandwidth and high speed internet and Synology is still in the dial-up modem era.
It's sad to hear the Synology Notes maybe on the way out. I migrated to Notes after Evernote started to price itself out of existence. i know they have a free version but I need it to work on my phone and my PC. A bit more R&D on Notes would be good, a dark-mode would be good.
Месяц назад
And they just killed the Video Station, congrats Synology!
So often, people who achieve some success forget the good habits that got them where they are. Good software and hardware agnosticism are the things that distinguished us from the competition? Let's halt software development and start forcing our own branded hard drives down our users' throats! 🤔
for the last part, indeed Synology should probably just overhaul Drive with additional modularity (in a similar way like NextCloud) so users could easily integrate optional modules like Chat, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Office etc... within one coherent UI and mobile app
Of all the apps that you mentioned, the only one that we use is Synology Calendar. We have a commercial dairy farm and creamery and use the calendar all the time, and have absolutely never seen any problems or felt that it had any deficiencies. Could you please elaborate on what you feel is wrong with it?
It's not only the Notes, chat, etc, apps. Synology is terrible when it comes to update their apps, even the less "techy" ones like DS Audio (which leaves a LOT to desire!), DS Video, DS File, Active Insight...
I use Ds note for 13 years. If You have nas notes are for free. Others notes app are limited. I agree it should be changed or maybe part of Drive. I can't understand why there is no phone and contact app to use on mobile? I choose Synology for apps years ago but others are now very close to Synology.
Regarding Calendar and Contacts you don't need a separate synology app on your mobile. Just connect it via CalDAV/CardDAV so that it gets integrated into your standard phone calendar/contacts apps. On Android you need the app DAVx5 to do so. I believe on iPhone it works without an additional app.
I used to love the consumer oriented apps Synology offered. video-station, audio-station are/were probably the ones I used most. Those packages, or at least the associated phone apps, could really use an overhaul. The DS video app, for example still, doesnt show the name of the file it's currently streaming, but Vtestreaming (???) and there is no way to assign a whole folder as unwatched or watched. Then, many times when you automatically play the next epsidode, it doesnt remember you watched that next episode after you logged off. (So it doesnt even correctly keeps track of what you have and have not watched. The file-server and driver-server (backup) and their increadible customer service and hardware quality are why i would probably still stick with Synology.
I liked that synology chat. I use it as a destructive chat because I don’t know how to back up or export the data. I won’t have any thoughts of thinking that I can retrieve those conversations if anything were to happen. Such a shame because I liked it more than slack.
Note Station is super annoying. I wish I could find a viable hosted alternative with a web clipper function. Really, same with the others you listed. Have you already listed viable "Synology" branded apps alternative solutions? I can't recall.
How about a great app that could be sooo much better. If Active Backup For Business can do bare metal restores, then why can't it be used to create virtual machines with those images ?
Oh, what timing! Thanks for the great advice. I'm a big OneNote fan and am trying to figure out how to move my files out of OneDrive, to my DS220, and still be able to read/write them from my Android. It seems like the OneNote app only wants to connect to OD, but bears more troubleshooting on my part.
When I first tried to put DS Notes on my Android tablet (6-8 weeks ago), the message was that my OS was too new and not supported. I reported to Synology and it was fixed and now I have it on all my devices. It's very bare bones but it's the only way I can take notes across devices without a third party subscription. If anyone has alternatives, please share. Thank you.
For me, us, the Synology Mail Server is total awesomeness. While yes there are all of the caveats about running a mail server 24/7 behind a residential internet connection etc etc we do find it massively useful for archival purposes. Having that in-house mail store just makes life so very simple when it comes to keeping the front line mail lean and thin and well clear of creating more on-going costs. It also gives the ability to send extremely large emails to those accounts (ok, typically its only in-house) when its the simplest thing to do. As a front line mail server, probably not, but as a very handy 2nd email account… most certainly!
Hi Will. I was hoping you could do a video on hosting more than one website on a Synology NAS. I've been pulling my hair out trying to get this to work as I have several websites to host. On RU-vid video suggested using cloudflare. I'd prefer to do this all within Synology packages. By the way, I'm using wordpress.
I have to disagree with the mail server, is my favorite package is like having Gmail but on prem. If you just need to use a mailrelay for delivery and have a backup MX server to store your emails during outages, it would be a BOMB! If it didn't have the 5 mailboxes limit for free, it would be even better
I have synology and would love to have synology mail on it. I am in the process of setting it up on my Server. I know you don't recommend this. But i run a small landscaping Business. and would love to have it local, Rather than a Third party. Im not asking how to set it up. I am only asking you to do a Video on the Difference between the 2 servers and which one would be a better choice to run Should one decide to do this. Is the Security about the same or is one better than the other? My internet and Synology is run on a 60KwH Ecoflow Ultra system with a Solar charging system. so power outages will not be an issue.
I hope that Synology will make these changes after watching your video. Thank you for pointing all of these out. I was tempted to install WP on my NAS through their application manager. I'm probably going to do it manually.
I have snapshots enabled on several shared drives, but don't see a #snapshot folder. I am admin. I can explore and restore, but how do I find this @snapshot folder?
OneDrive did the same until I manually reconfigured it. Question, is there best strategy for optimizing and maxing performance of a symbology NAS when connected to an expansion unit? I’m using a DS723+ with two 24TB Raid drives, and two SSD caches. The connected DX517 has two 16TB raid drives. Right now, the DX drives are just hanging out with little usage. I wasn’t sure if there was a way to better utilize them across the NAS infrastructure.
i use Synology web station and so far not had any issues yet. but I don't place a web site on the main web station. I only use Sub folders under Web. The Default WordPress can not be updated either. Thus exposing to hacking. As Fore Notes I need it to edit PHP files on my web server so i can make edits on the server without having to down load and upload all the time. Its handy in that form, other than that i don't really use it for anything else. I never used any of the other APPs. As for mail Plus. I really need it on my Synology for MY LAWNCARE SERVICE. SO I CAN HAVE MORE CONTROL ON IT. Its just way too complicated to setup with cloudflare. especially when cloudflare keeps changing its formats.
First, let me say I enjoy your reviews and suggestions. However, I would like to disagree and correct some points on your IDrive comments. If you are using Snapshots on an encrypted shared folder, IDrive will not cause additional backup data to be created, since they are not visible. I have a client using both and verify they are not. Also, I've personally restored entire customer datastores via IDrive without a hitch, twice, in the last few years. Granted, it took hours, but most of that delay was due to the slow bandwidth speed of the client, not IDrive.
I was going to say "Active Backup for Business" if you are a Linux user because the last time I looked a couple of months ago , it was up to Debian 9 and a 3.xx kernel .
In my experience onsite mail servers are a nightmare as I’m always worried about outside attacks. We however use an internal mail server because our company uses MS365 for company mail but we have printers and an application that sends email and to do that you need your own onsite server and forward all messages to Microsoft. Internal email server has no outside access so I don’t have to lose sleep at night or wind up on a blocklist somewhere
Note station is a very cool app. I use it every day on many devices. I also sync my calendar and contacts between Iphone and Android. You're wrong, it's all done very well.
@SpaceRex I'm finally going to get fiber at the end of this year to the beginning of next year. I was wondering if I'm not going to run a server would it be better or would it matter if I ran pre terminated fiber cables through my walls.
I love chat. We use it for our family. It’s on all our phones and computers, so whether I’m in my office on my computer or out with my cell my kids can message me. It works really really well.
is there option to find out who's deleted the NAS folder? the folder was map into windows and share with users but kept deleting. Is there a way to trace?
You can still install it on the phone, and it works fine, you just have to sideload it from the file you can download on Synology's site. I have it running on my Galaxy S24 Ultra with no issues. I agree that it needs to be updated, and I keep looking at replacements, but for now it still works on newer Android devices.
@@BoraHorzaGobuchul I assume this is their way of quietly ending its life. Just stop submitting it for new builds of Android. I agree it would be better for them to just announce they are killing the product.
I will say its probably synology's fault for the most part ive noticed alot of packages are just not updated. Plex and wordpress fall under this, and there both just old versions that synology never updated... not the creators of the app, but synology not keeping things up to date. One of the reasons the nex time i make a nas i will not go synology. And its just kind of disheartening that i see you jerk them off so often instead of well talk about nas hardware in general.
