Synology Drive Setup Guide: How to Set Up File Sync and Access Across Devices (Australia)

Synology Drive is a file sync and collaboration platform included with DSM that replicates files between your NAS and connected devices. Windows PCs, Macs, Linux machines, iPhones, and Android phones. Direct connections keep traffic between the device and NAS, but QuickConnect may route traffic through Synology's relay service when a direct connection cannot be established. It functions similarly to Dropbox or OneDrive but uses your NAS as the server, keeping data under your control with no per-user subscription cost. For Australian users this means no US-jurisdiction data storage, and sync speeds that aren't capped by cloud provider throttling. Performance also depends on the NAS hardware, disks, client, file workload, other NAS activity, connection method, and available network bandwidth.

Synology Drive vs Synology Cloud Sync. What's the Difference?

Synology has two different sync products and they're often confused:

• Synology Drive. Syncs files between your NAS and end-user devices (PCs, phones). The NAS is the central server. Users access the Drive through a desktop client, browser, or mobile app. Designed for personal file access and team collaboration.
• Cloud Sync. Syncs files between your NAS and cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, etc.). The NAS is a local mirror of the cloud. Used for cloud backup or hybrid workflows where you want files in both places.

This guide covers Synology Drive for device sync. If you want to mirror a cloud service to your NAS, that's Cloud Sync. A different package entirely.

Step 1. Install Synology Drive Server on the NAS

On DSM, open Package Center and search for Synology Drive Server. Install it. When prompted, select a volume to store Drive data. This setting controls the location of the Drive database and Synology Office package data. Ordinary Drive files remain in users' home folders or enabled Team Folders. Choose your main data volume.

After installation, open Synology Drive Admin Console from the App menu. Here you configure which shared folders are accessible via Drive, set version history depth, and manage team folders. You don't need to configure anything to get started. The defaults work. But spend a minute reviewing the settings before deploying to users.

Version history: Drive keeps previous versions of synced files. The default is 32 versions per file, which is practical for most use cases. You can change this in Drive Admin Console > Team Folder by selecting the folder and opening Versioning. For frequently changing files, choose an appropriate retention policy within Synology Drive's supported maximum of 32 historical versions. Versioning stores differences between versions, but overhead varies by file system and folder configuration; ext4 and encrypted Team Folders can also require an initial copy of the original file.

Step 2. Install the Desktop Client on Windows or Mac

Download Synology Drive Client from the Synology Download Centre (search 'Synology Drive Client' and select your OS). Install it on each PC or Mac that should sync files.

On first launch, the client asks for your NAS address and DSM login. For local network connections, enter the NAS IP (e.g. 192.168.1.x). For remote access from outside the home, use your QuickConnect ID (yourname.quickconnect.to) or a DDNS hostname. Sign in with your DSM user account credentials.

The client runs in the system tray and provides two modes:

• Sync Task: Creates a two-way sync between a NAS folder and a local folder on your PC. Changes on either side propagate to the other. This is the Dropbox-equivalent mode.
• Backup Task: One-way. Backs up a local folder to the NAS. The NAS gets copies; the local folder is unaffected by NAS changes. Use this for photos, documents, or project folders you want backed up but not modified from another device.

Step 3. Configure a Sync Task

In the Drive Client, click Create > Sync Task. Choose the NAS folder to sync (typically your personal home Drive folder, or a shared Team Folder. More on those below). Choose the local folder on your PC that will mirror it. Click Next and configure:

• Sync direction: Bidirectional (both NAS and PC can make changes. Standard Dropbox behaviour), Download only (NAS changes sync to PC, PC changes don't go up), or Upload only.
• Selective sync: If the Drive folder is large, tick only the sub-folders you need on this device. A work laptop doesn't need the full 2TB media archive. Just the Documents sub-folder.
• Sync on Wi-Fi only: Available on mobile clients. On the desktop client, you can pause sync manually or throttle bandwidth in Settings > Transfer Settings if you don't want Drive consuming your full upload speed.

Without On-demand Sync, the initial task transfers all files in scope; with On-demand Sync, file contents can remain online-only until accessed or pinned. Initial-sync time varies with file count and size, disk and NAS performance, client performance, network overhead, and whether On-demand Sync is enabled. For a remote laptop syncing over NBN, the first sync is limited by the NAS's upload speed (~20Mbps on NBN 100, roughly 2.5MB/s).

Step 4. Set Up Team Folders for Shared Access

Team Folders let multiple DSM users access the same synced folder. Equivalent to a shared Dropbox folder or SharePoint document library. This is how Synology Drive handles team or family file sharing.

Create the shared folder in DSM Control Panel first. Then go to Drive Admin Console > Team Folder, select the shared folder, and click Enable. Set which users or groups can access it and whether they have read-write or read-only access.

Once created, the Team Folder appears in the Drive Client's available sync targets for all permitted users. Users sync it like any other Drive folder. It shows up in their local file system as a normal folder.

Conflict handling: If two users edit the same file simultaneously, Drive creates a conflict copy (named [file name]_[computer name]_[modified date]_Conflict.[file extension]) alongside the original. Users can then manually merge or choose a version. This is the same behaviour as Dropbox. For document collaboration, Office files trigger conflict copies; Synology Office (available as a separate DSM package) handles concurrent editing with change tracking if you use it instead of desktop Office apps.

Step 5. Mobile Access

Install Synology Drive on iOS or Android. Sign in with your NAS address and DSM credentials. The app gives you file browsing, upload/download, and a Favorites feature for offline access (pin files or folders to download and cache locally on the device).

The mobile app is primarily for accessing and uploading files on the go. The current mobile app supports one-way and two-way sync tasks, with synchronized content available locally through the app's sync folder. Synology Photos is one option for automatic photo backup, but the current Synology Drive mobile app also includes photo and video backup to a configurable destination.

For mobile access outside the home network, ensure your NAS is reachable remotely. See the remote access guide for CGNAT, QuickConnect, and DDNS options specific to Australian NBN connections.

Practical Sizing and Performance Notes

Synology Drive's server component runs on any current Synology NAS. For 1-3 users syncing primarily documents and small files, a DS225+ (~$638 at Mwave) is more than adequate. For 5+ users syncing large files (design assets, video) or with frequent concurrent access, a DS925+ ($1,029 at Mwave) or DS1525+ ($1,600) provides the CPU and RAM headroom for smooth indexing and multi-user performance.

Drive's version history database grows over time. On a high-change folder (software projects with many small files), the version database can become large. Monitor database usage in Admin Console > Settings > General > Package Usage. Setting a reasonable retention limit (up to 32 versions) prevents unchecked growth.

Australian Consumer Law consumer guarantees may apply when the purchaser meets the statutory definition of a consumer. Coverage and the available remedy depend on the purchase circumstances, applicable exceptions, and whether any failure is major or minor.

Related reading: our NAS buyer's guide, our Synology brand guide, and our NAS explainer.

Use our free NAS Sizing Wizard to get a personalised NAS recommendation.

See also: our complete Synology NAS Australia guide.

Synology Drive vs Dropbox vs OneDrive: 5-Year Cost Comparison

Managing Bandwidth: Sync Schedules and Delta Sync

Synology Drive syncs changes immediately by default, which can saturate a slow NBN upload connection if many large files change during business hours. Synology Drive sync tasks run in real time. Scheduling is available for Drive Client backup tasks and is configured in the desktop client, not under Team Folder.

Synology Drive uses delta sync: only the changed portions of a file are transmitted, not the whole file. This is especially valuable for large working files like Photoshop PSDs or Excel spreadsheets where only a small section changes per save. Delta Sync can substantially reduce the data transferred for large-file updates, although the actual transfer size depends on how the application rewrites the file and on synchronization overhead. This can reduce NBN traffic for large-file updates, although Dropbox also uses delta sync rather than always uploading the whole file.

What Happens When Two Devices Edit the Same File

Synology Drive handles sync conflicts by keeping both versions. If two devices both modify the same file while offline and then reconnect, Drive creates a conflict copy in the same folder with the device name and timestamp appended to the filename. You then resolve the conflict manually by comparing the two copies. This is the same behaviour as Dropbox and OneDrive.

Configure file locking under Drive Admin Console > Settings > File Locking. Manual locking works for supported two-way Drive tasks; automatic locking is limited to Windows On-demand Sync and supported Microsoft Office and AutoCAD files. Locking applies only to access through Synology Drive, not SMB or File Station.

If you are still deciding whether Synology Drive is the right sync tool at all, Nextcloud vs Seafile vs Synology Drive compares the three on reliability rather than feature lists.