Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software & Hardware Comparison
When buying a NAS drive, it’s important to consider the software included with the purchase. Brands like Synology and QNAP offer different software designs, user priorities, and learning curves. Even if you plan to mostly use third-party software, you will still need to interact with the NAS software and GUI. The software for these brands is constantly evolving, so it’s difficult to compare them in a definitive way. However, we can examine their strengths and weaknesses to determine which one is best for you.
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Brand Priorities
Before delving into a comparison of Synology DSM and QNAP QTS, it’s important to understand the company’s priorities and how they impact the software, hardware, and usability for different users. Synology generally has three key brand characteristics.
Synology NAS Brand and DSM Focus
First-Party Priority in Hardware and Software – Synology prioritizes its own software and hardware tools over third-party alternatives. In some instances, such as VMs and cloud services, they may also support third-party options, but their focus on their own products is evident. In other cases, they do not support third-party options as they design their systems around their own products, such as newer rackmount releases, Synology HDDs, memory upgrade modules, and Synology C2 in HybridShare.
Software Over Hardware – NAS systems is often viewed with scepticism by PC builders due to their relatively modest specifications and price tags. While it can be argued that NAS are 24×7 systems that prioritize storage, Synology NAS systems typically have more modest specs than other brands, with 1Gbe as the standard and limited upgrade options, especially for third-party options. This is primarily because Synology NAS solutions are a much more software-and-hardware combined package than other brands. Synology invests heavily in its software, and then ensures that its hardware can make the most of it. I will later discuss some standout apps from Synology, but it’s clear that their primary focus is on software.
Hiding/Removing Some Configuration/Customization options for Performance & Stability – The DSM platform of Synology NAS servers is highly regarded for its smoothness and responsiveness when accessed remotely. The system utilizes intelligent memory caching and flushing techniques to ensure fast performance, but this is achieved in certain ways that may not be preferred by all users. For example, certain applications may only work with data stored in specific directories, and some customization options may not be available to maintain the high performance of the system software. While some users may be bothered by these limitations, most users are unlikely to be affected.
QNAP on the other hand, although similar in a number of ways has a broader and more open platform. This typically means that a user who wants to create an especially bespoke setup, has lesser-known file formats to content with, wants to use their own software (with the NAS as a storage target) or just like to ‘have it their own way’ might prefer the QNAP QTS NAS ecosystem. Their brand priorities can be summarized as:
QNAP NAS Brand and QTS Focus
Balanced 1st Party and 3rd Party Software – When using QNAP NAS QTS software, it quickly becomes apparent that they aim to support a wide range of users and utilities, which can be seen as either very versatile or overwhelming. QNAP and QTS include a variety of first-party applications with the NAS hardware, such as file management, multimedia management, backups, and business-class services like VMs, Surveillance, and Cloud Hybrid/Gateway tools. One of the reasons some users choose QNAP over Synology is their support for third-party storage systems and software, and the ability to adapt to them. Unlike Synology, which prioritizes stability over flexibility, QNAP offers a more open platform for the end-user to customize the system to their existing hardware and software. However, it should be noted that this may not be as straightforward as with Synology.
First To Release NAS Hardware – The last five years have seen QNAP at the forefront of many significant innovations in network-attached storage. They were the first to introduce the TS-2490FU All NVMe U.2 and ZFS rackmount (as well as new PCIe Gen 4 flash systems in 2022), combined 10Gbe and NVMe SSD Combo cards in their QM2 series, and changed the editing experience for many professionals in video post-production with Thunderbolt-enabled NAS. QNAP is widely considered the most innovative brand in the market, but some of their groundbreaking hardware could benefit from more development time before being released. This can be seen in the comparison between the QNAP QM2 card and the Synology E10M20-T1, which were released almost 18 months apart, but with significant differences in design and functionality.
Software Development On the Fly – The QNAP NAS QTS software is designed to support a wide range of users and utilities, which can be seen as both versatile and overwhelming. QNAP and QTS include many first-party applications with the NAS hardware, such as file management, multimedia management, and business-class services. They also have the ability to adapt to 3rd party storage systems and software, which is a major reason why some users prefer QNAP over Synology. However, the open structure of QNAP’s software can make it less cohesive compared to Synology’s more controlled approach. Additionally, QNAP’s software innovations, though early to market, may not always be fully polished and may require beta testing. This allows for early access to new features, but can also introduce beta software into the system, which some business users may not be comfortable with.
When comparing QNAP’s QTS and Synology’s DSM, a recurring theme is that QNAP offers more control and information, while Synology prioritizes ease of use. In the past, this has been compared to the difference between PC gaming and console gaming. Synology, like console gaming, offers a more stable and consistent platform with limited customization options but at a higher cost. On the other hand, QNAP, like PC gaming, may require a steeper learning curve but offers better value for money, greater adaptability and flexibility, and the potential for better performance. Ultimately, the choice between the two will depend on the user’s needs and willingness to invest in the setup.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Smooth, Accessible, Easy to Learn
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – Adaptable, Capable and Wider Support Options
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Web-Based GUI
For most users, the initial interaction with their new NAS system will be through the mobile app, with some users even using their mobile phone to set up the NAS. However, the web-based graphical user interface (GUI) still offers the most configuration and control options for both Synology and QNAP NAS systems. The GUI, which can be accessed over the network or remotely through 1st party internet access portals, has evolved over time to resemble a full operating system control panel. The interface of both Synology DSM and QNAP QTS have become distinct from one another, much like Mac OS and Windows.
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The web-based interface for both Synology DSM and QNAP QTS have similarities in their layout and functionality, such as the options button at the top left, desktop shortcuts, and notifications at the top right. However, a comparison of the latest versions of DSM 7.1 and QTS shows that the two systems have distinct differences in how they allow users to control and manage their NAS systems through a web browser.
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The design of Synology’s DSM is similar to that of Mac systems, whereas QNAP’s QTS design is more similar to Android in terms of how applications and options are presented. Synology’s DSM feels more responsive and reactive to user input, while QNAP’s QTS is smooth for a network GUI, but may have a slight delay when switching between apps and windows. However, QNAP’s QTS provides more detailed information and analysis on each screen, which can save time when searching for specific information. The resource monitor on Synology’s DSM software is clear and simple, displaying CPU, memory, disk, and bandwidth usage, and allowing users to delve deeper into each category if needed.
The design of the Synology DSM interface is similar to Mac systems, while the QNAP QTS design is more like Android in its presentation of apps and options. Synology DSM is more responsive and reactive to user input, while QNAP QTS may have a slight delay when switching between apps and windows, but it offers more information on each screen. The resource monitor on QNAP QTS provides more detailed information about background processes, compared to the Synology DSM resource monitor. For users who want a more in-depth understanding of their system’s performance, the QNAP resource monitor will be useful, but for those who find it overwhelming, it may be considered too much information.
The logic that both Synology and QNAP provide to the end-user even in something as arguable pedestrian as a task manager will give you a decent idea of how they will be for you in practically every interaction moving forward. Below is a video on how each system compares in its graphical user interface, configuration and initial setup (users, folders, shares, etc):
In short, it comes back to that idea of control and customization. The Synology DSM Control is going to appeal more to new NAS users and those who want the system to just-shut-up-and-do-its-job! Whereas the QNAP QTS platform will throw more information (sometimes too much!) at you in the hopes that you can create a more bespoke and controllable environment.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Easy to Use and Intuitive
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – Better Analytics and Control
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Mobile-Based GUI and Apps
It’s not surprising that Synology and QNAP both offer a variety of mobile apps for iOS and Android. These apps include not just backup tools to protect your photos, but also sync tools, file management tools, and others that make accessing your NAS from your mobile phone easy and intuitive. Additionally, both companies offer apps that allow you to customize your access to the NAS system based on your specific needs. Popular apps include those for photos, music, video, and surveillance.
| NAS Access Type | |
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| System Management | DS FInder | QManager |
| NAS File Management | DS File & Synology Drive | QFile, QSirch |
| General Phone Backup | DS Cloud | QSync Pro |
| Photography | Synology Photos | QPhotos & QuMagie |
| Video Streaming | DS Video | QVideo |
| Music Streaming | DS Audio | QMusic |
| Surveillance | DS CAM & Synology LiveCam | QVR Pro Client, |
| Downloading | DS Get | QGet |
| Synology MailPlus | QMail Client | |
| Notes & To-Do Lists | DS Note | QNotes3 |
| NAS-VPN Manager | Synology VPN Plus | QVPN |
| NAS Router Manager App | DS Router | QuRouter |
| Other/Misc | Synology Secure Sign in – Login 2-Step Authentication
Synology Chat – Synology Chat Service App |
OceanTV Client – Karaoke Mobile Client
QContacts – Contacts and Connections Database QRemote – HDMI-enabled NAS Remote Control DJ2 Client – Livestream NAS Manager QMiix – Alternative to IFTTT client KoiCast & Koi Talk – Video and Internet Call Client |
Throughout my time, I have evaluated a majority of the key apps for system management, file management, backups, photos, music and video. Here, I will present my findings and provide videos that will give you a better understanding of how Synology DSM and QNAP QTS enable you to access your NAS drive on-the-go through your mobile device in a more data-specific manner. (You can click on the video title to open it in a new window on Youtube or watch them within the article)
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| NAS Control and Accessibility | NAS Control and Accessibility |
| NAS File Management | NAS File Management |
| Photography | Photography |
| Video Media | Video Media |
| Music Media | Music Media |
| Surveillance and Camera Access | Surveillance and Camera Access |
At first glance, it’s apparent that Synology’s applications have more consistency and similarity to third-party applications (e.g. Synology Drive and Google Drive, Synology DS Video and Plex, Synology Chat and Skype), while QNAP’s applications, even the newer ones, tend to have more distinct differences in GUI and layout, which can take more time to learn. However, QNAP’s mobile applications are generally more customizable and offer greater control and customization, both within the individual apps and in how they allow the user to control the NAS. Both NAS brands have their own strengths and weaknesses in how they have developed and implemented their mobile applications. Ultimately, the biggest deciding factor for the end-user will likely be the platform they primarily use to access the NAS. Desktop users may find QNAP’s platform more suitable for desktop access, while Synology’s platform has focused more on bringing mobile and desktop application experiences to the same level. Users who primarily access the NAS via mobile or have a balance of mobile and desktop access will likely find Synology’s platform more intuitive and smooth.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Intuitive and Streamlined UI
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – More Apps and Greater Control
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Storage Options and GUI
While Synology and QNAP are both focused on storage, they have distinct approaches to displaying and managing data. They also have varying storage trends they support within their ecosystems. However, both offer highly evolved and reliable network storage options for safeguarding your data. Similar to the apps, user interfaces, and access discussed earlier, Synology and QNAP have each evolved their storage options and configurations differently in recent years, providing unique and specific features that can make the choice between them much simpler.
Both QNAP QTS and Synology DSM NAS Drives Provide the following Storage Features:
- Both NAS Systems Support Snapshots
- Both NAS Systems Support Rsync, RTRR and Multi-Platform Backup Setups (Cloud, USB, NAS, etc)
- Both NAS Systems Support Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) on all hardware (Brand Differences though, eg Synology has a fluid Hybird RAID, SHR. Whereas QNAP QuTS has RAID Z and Triple Parity options)
- Both NAS Systems Can Connect to the Cloud
- Both NAS Systems Support USB Drives
- Both NAS Systems have Varied Expansion Options (Brand Differences though)
- Both NAS Systems support SSD Caching (Brand Differences though)
- Both NAS Systems Support SATA Hard Drives up to 18TB and 20TB
- Both NAS Systems SATA SSDD Storage Pools
- Both NAS Systems Support EXT4 amoung others (Brand Differences though)
- Both NAS Systems support RAID Hot Spare Automation, which is when a spare HDD/SSD is initialized by the system but is unavailable for storage. Then, in the event of a drive failure, the system will automatically integrate the spare drive into the RAID for rebuilding
So, regardless of whether you buy Synology or QNAP NAS, you have a great deal of storage support available. However, there are a large number of brand SPECIFIC storage services and options that ONLY one brand of the two have. Let’s start with the Synology NAS DSM exclusive options.
Synology NAS, its Services and Features Provide the Following:
- Synology Hybrid RAID – SHR is the fluid RAID system that allows you to mix the drive sizes and types in order to get the best possible capacity and storage as you upgrade the drives in the system lifespan
- Synology systems for the most part (CPU and Memory dependant) arrive with BTRFS that is a file system that supports lower resource-consuming background snapshots, file self-healing and faster-shared folder cloning (other benefits too)
- Synology C2 – Synology has its own first-party cloud service that can be synced with your Synology NAS with HybridShare (DSM 7.0) and allows a disaster recovery backup (subscription-based)
- Synology Active Insight (Subscription Based) allows intelligent storage health and Synology monitoring send to admins and appropriate users with recommendations on resolution, repair or replacement
- Synology has its own range of HDDs and SSDs in the HAT5300 (SATA 3.5″ hard drives), SAT5200 (2.5″ SATA SSDs) and SNV3400/SNV3500 (M.2 NVMe SSDs) that feature east firmware updates, high endurance. Some recent 2023 systems have compatibility largely reduced to just the Synology HDD range
So, as you can see, a large range of first-party prioritize storage that is still quite a capable list of support services, formats and hardware in terms of storage in a Synology NAS. None fo the above is currently supported/available from QNAP NAS, however, they have their own range of very unique and QNAP-ONLY available storage options. They are as follows.
QNAP NAS, its Services and Features Provide the Following:
- QNAP NAS QTS and QuTS allow users to use NVMe SSDs for storage pools and volumes
- QNAP NAS QuTS here allows ZFS as a file system choice which includes triple parity RAID, RAID 5/6 builds that take minutes, RAID ReSilvering, inline data compression (space saver) and inline data deduplication (saves 1 copy of files that are located in multiple locations in realtime)
- QNAP Hybrid Mount and vJBOD allows you to connect many, many cloud storage providers (Synology HybridShare only allows Synology C2 cloud at the time of writing)
- QNAP allows installation of HDDs/SSDs from Seagate, WD, Toshiba, etc on ALL of their NAS systems
- QNAP has DA Drive Analyzer for real-time storage hardware health reports and automated background RAID repair with connected media drives
- QNAP NAS QTS allows QTier, which allows the user to create a single storage pool that is comprised of HDD+SSD media and then the NAS system learns which files are accessed most and moves them to the fast storage media internally (not the same as caching with copies the files and more suitable to smaller files)
- Much, MUCH larger degree of storage expansion chassis on QNAP, both in terms of the number of NAS hardware systems that CAN be expanded AND the range of expansions that arrive with USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB Gen 2 and a range of external SAS based connections that can go up to 5,000MBs+ externally
The QNAP Storage options unsurprisingly are a great deal more open (wider HDD/SSD support on all their hardware, wider cloud support on their cloud gateway software, expansion chassis and connections), however, Synology and its focus on the 1st party R&D results in stronger and more evolved ‘in house’ results (such as Synology Hybrid RAID, their own range of media that has unique options, btrfs integration on all apps, etc).
Why Choose Synology NAS? – BTRFS, Synology Hybrid RAID and Ease of Use
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – ZFS, Better Encryption Options, HybridMount/vJBOD and Better Expansion Options
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Multimedia
Many home users and prosumer customers consider purchasing a NAS for their multimedia collection. With digital media becoming increasingly popular and the decline of physical media in recent years, the appeal of having your own personal “Netflix” with a NAS is attractive. As expected, both Synology and QNAP have made significant advancements in multimedia streaming and sharing in recent years. Although the core function of streaming media to devices such as DLNA Smart TVs, Amazon Firesticks, phones, and home theaters is similar on both brands, they have each developed their own unique features in terms of presentation, third-party hardware support, and how photos, music, and videos are handled internally. Additionally, both Synology and QNAP support Plex Media Server, Emby, Jellyfin, iTunes, and traditional file/folder level DLNA media streaming to a similar degree, with some differences depending on the hardware of each NAS release. The following guides compare Synology and QNAP in terms of photography, music playback in the GUI, and video streaming. First, here is how Synology DSM and QNAP QTS compare with Photography:
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Synology Advantages Support of Live Photos/Gifs in the Browser/Apps Excellent Cross-App Support with Drive Synology Photos in DSM 7 merges Photo Station & Moments Very Attractive and Easy to Control GUI Better Geo Location Recognition/Map View Better Multi Face Tag Searching |
QNAP Advantages
Album+File/Folder Browsing in QuMagie Better AI Recognition in QuMagie (inc ‘Things’) AI Photo Recognition can be improved with a $25-30 Goolg eTPU M.2 Card Allows Custom Photo Directories Multimedia Console Allows Better Indexing/Thumbnail Generation Better Cross-Software Tag Support |
Next, this is how Synology DSM and QNAP QTS compare with Music and the browser GUI:
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Synology Advantages Support of DS Audio Skill on Amazon Alexa Voice Recognition GUI Very Appealing Better Config Options Better Album Thumbnail Utilization (especially Mobile) |
QNAP Advantages
Album/File+Folder Browsing Better DLNA Streaming Support of Local Speaker Connections More 3rd Party Audio Applications Support of more Formats, codecs and Compressions |
Finally, we have how both Synology DSM and QNAP QTS compare with Video Media in the GUI:
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Synology Advantages Video Station/DS Video have VERY easy-to-use GUI DS Video App available on FireTV / Amazon Firestick Comparable to Plex and Emby Intuitive Setup for Libraries and Metadata resource connections |
QNAP Advantages
Supports HDMI Out More Media Server Players are available Better offline Transcoding Options Cayin player option for H.265/HEVC 10bit Support |
It’s undeniable that QNAP generally has a more open/customizable multimedia user interface when it comes to music and video media, while Synology has invested heavily in developing their Video Station and Audio Station to rival Freemium services like Plex Media Server and WhatsApp, with advanced metadata scraping and 1st party apps on Amazon FireTV and Alexa voice support in DS Video and DS Audio. In terms of photography, QNAP’s QuMagie platform offers more control, recognition, file/folder access and keeps it as two separate apps. Similarly, the multimedia console application on QNAP QTS is a standout feature, allowing complete control over all multimedia indexing, sharing, and transcoding from a single portal. Ultimately, it depends on the type of media you plan to watch, the device you want to watch it on, and how much customization you plan to make.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Video Station, DS Audio Alexa Voice Support – Choose for Amazon FireTV, Alexa and ‘Netflix-level’ video streaming
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – Multimedia Console control is Unparalleled, QuMagie provides better AI recognition and Custom Directories as standard. Also, H.265/HEVC 10bitplayback better with the CAYIN player option
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Backup Tools
It’s worth taking a closer look at the similarities and differences between the Synology DSM and QNAP QTS NAS software and services. While both brands offer similar functionality, there are some subtle distinctions that could cause frustration if you’re not aware of them. For example, Synology’s NAS platform comes with Hyper Backup and Active Backup Suite, while QNAP has Hybrid Backup Sync and Hyper Data Protector. BOTH Synology and QNAP across their respective two apps each provide support of:
- Multi-site backups that can be scheduled, have filters applied, utilize deduplication and support NAS-to-Cloud/NAS/USB/Folder operations
- Can Backup VMs from VMware and Hyper V and (in the right format) restore the VM image on the brand-specific VM app on either brand NAS
- Support Version retention on regular bare metal backups and VM backups
- Guide you through a 3-2-1 Backup System using 1st party resources and applications only
- Supports numerous backup protocols/methods that include RSync, RTRR, Differential backups and TCP BBR
The Synology and QNAP NAS software and services both provide similar functionality, but there are a few small differences that may affect your experience. Both brands offer backup solutions, but the Synology’s Hyper Backup and Active Backup Suite have a more user-friendly interface and support for multiple cloud platforms. On the other hand, QNAP’s Hybrid Backup Sync and Hyper Data Protector have additional features such as inline deduplication and compression provided by the ZFS-based QuTS Hero platform, which also handles encrypted backups better. Additionally, while both brands support cloud connections, QNAP requires additional license fees while Synology’s Active Backup Suite offers it for free with Google Workspace and Office 365 add-ons.
There is more to discuss regarding Synology Drive and its client applications, QSync Pro and its enhanced mobile client-to-NAS services, etc, but these topics pertain more to synchronization, file streaming, and remote access rather than backups. While QNAP software is still exceptional for various backup methods, and ZFS and its file transmission advantages stand out, it offers more options for external storage and cloud support. On the other hand, Synology Backup tools and services are more tailored to specific needs, with different services included in Hyper Backup and Active Backup Suite for home and business use respectively.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Active Backup Suite, Hyper Backup, Licence Free Office 365/Google Workspace Sync and Synology C2
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – Hybrid Backup Sync, Many More Cloud Services Supported and Hyper Data Protector has Better Retention Policies
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Surveillance
When considering buying a new NAS drive, many users take into account not just the backup software and multimedia streaming capabilities, but also the potential use as a surveillance system. Both Synology and QNAP offer business-class surveillance software packages that allow the use of multiple IP cameras, speakers, and network door locks, all accessible through a single interface. However, in recent years, the two brands have taken different approaches to their surveillance software. QNAP’s Surveillance software is more spread out across a web browser and local client apps, with adding cameras and customizing the setup primarily done through the web browser GUI, and camera access and control mainly on the client apps. On the other hand, Synology’s Surveillance Station allows for all camera setup and customization through the browser and most functions through the desktop client app. While the mobile client for QVR Pro and Surveillance Station is somewhat limited, Synology’s platform generally offers more even access to the software’s full capabilities. Here is a breakdown of the main benefits/PROs of each surveillance NAS software:
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PROS of Synology Surveillance |
PROS of QNAP Surveillance |
| Considerably Better Browser Access & Controls
Beter 3rd Party Software integration with the Surveillance station API Better Camera Feed Accessibility in the Browser & Clients Fast Search Runs remarkably Smoothly LiveCam converts a Mobile to Live NVR IP Camera Feed Share Live Feeds to YouTube for Fast/Easy Sharing Synology have 1st Party IP Cameras, TC500 and BC500 (More coming later in 2023) |
More Camera Licences (8x in QVR Pro)
Technically 3 Surveillance Platforms to Choose that vary in complexity Better Client App Control and Analytics Local KVM (Keyboard/Video/Mouse) Support AI Surveillance services can be added on Integrated CPU NAS, Google TPU card or a GPU Card USB Web Camera Support AI Services can be improved with the support of an m.2 Google TPU Coral NU Upgrade ($25-30) |
| CONS of Synology Surveillance
Only 2 Camera Licenses included in most NAS’ systems AI Surveillance Services are ONLY available on the DVA3221 and DVA1622 NAS (at the time of writing) Practically no KVM setup on Diskstaiton NAS systems |
CONS of QNAP Surveillance
QVR Elite for QuTS Hero Only has 2x Licenses and is subscription licence based Camera Feeds Cannot Natively be used and controlled by QVR Pro in the Browser The bulk of AI Supported Services are Annual Subscription Fee-Based |
Upon initial examination, the QNAP QTS QVR Pro software has an advantage over Synology’s Surveillance Station with the inclusion of 8 camera licenses, compared to the 2 offered by Synology. Additionally, the support for keyboard, video, and mouse on QNAP NAS systems with an HDMI port allows for direct interface with the system in case of network failure. A significant advantage of QNAP is the availability of AI-supported surveillance services on systems with a sufficient embedded graphics CPU, a TPU M.2 Coral upgrade, or a graphics card installed. Synology, on the other hand, has restricted AI surveillance to only two of their NAS systems with a GPU card pre-installed and at a higher cost. While these AI-supported services may be niche, they are certainly appealing to some users. Here is my video breakdown comparing the two popular surveillance services for QNAP and Synology:
It is worth highlighting however that the AI-supported services on the QNAP QVR Platform are not technically ‘completely free’ and before you think that the Synology DVA3221 near £2K box is an overspend, it is worth highlighting that in order to use all the same AI-powered services on the QNAP NAS platform, you will need a NAS that either has a decent embedded CPU (starting at just over £1K for the QNAP TVS-472XT to start with) and/or a GPU card installed. Then you have to factor in the licences. Not just the camera licences (although both the DVA3221 and any QTS NAS have 8 camera licences for adding camera) but the license to use the AI services on the QVR Surveillance software. Somewhat annoyingly, QNAP has put each of the AI services (tracking faces, people recognition, AI recording analysis, Smart AI Door unlocking, etc) behind individual licenses that (for the most part) are all ‘annual’, so you will need to renew them (see below for current pricing and terms). This is quite a bitter pill to swallow in the long term and although the saving versus the Synology DVA system seems good at first, if you want to run a 4 Bay AI-Powered Surveillance system on the QNAP NAS system with 4-8 cameras, it ends up costing just as much (maybe even more once you factor in the annual fees) and only partially mitigated by the flexibility of the system you want to use.
Overall, it is pretty clear that QNAP gives the end-user ALOT in terms of surveillance for their money (although that licensing model structure gets a thumbs down from me), as well as allowing access to many modern AI CCTV services that Synology either choose to not pursue or only allow on a select few systems. Maybe you are reading this in the future and Synology have opened up this logic to allow ‘Synology supported GPU Cards’ to be installed, which would certainly give this comparison a different outcome, but there is no denying that the QVR Pro surveillance platform allows more flexibility in its setup. Alongside this, the QVR to software right now has a lot more camera licences included (though this drops to x2 on QVR Elite on the QuTS Hero platform – which though admittedly has higher performance on the local client integrated, is a bit of a shame) and many will end up seeing the potential savings being enough to overlook that Synology Surveillance station is the better Surveillance tool in terms of the GUI, supported service add ons and in how user-friendly it can be.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Better Surveillance Software Overall, Especially in the Web Brower GUI
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – More Camera Licenses, QVR Pro has KVM Support, Wider AI Surveillance Support and Upgrade Options
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Virtual Machines
It wasn’t such a long time ago that the use of virtual machines (VMs) was exclusively in the business sector. The ability and utility to create a virtual and remotely accessible version of a computer (giving you need a terminal in order to utilize them in most cases) was simply not of use to the average home or even small business user. However fast forward to 2023/2024 and you find that they have accelerated in popularity, thanks to businesses requiring centralized data storage for both the convenience of duplicating computers AND to simplifying the backup/restore process. Then you have the simple appeal for prosumer or small business users to be able to create an emulated version of their own computer in order to access it anywhere in the work, run test with software/updates that they are hesitant to run on their core system OR simply to allow them to create an accessible VM of an operating system that can be run parallel to that of the core hardware (i.e. a Linux/Unbuntu VM that runs in a window, on a Windows/Mac matching). Most high-end business users in recent years have used one of two popular 3rd party client TOOLS for this, VMware vSphere and Hyper V (with other smaller tools like VirtualBox popping up). Where a NAS can be integrated into this is actually pretty cool, such as:
- A NAS can be used as a backup target (with versioning, snapshots, etc) for the virtual machine, so you have a local restorable copy
- A NAS can be used to run the core VM files as a remote target, whilst still using the 3rd Party Software
- A NAS can have the 3rd Party VM data sent over to it and then the NAS can host the Virtual Machine in its very own premium VM Software
- A NAS Can combine all three of the above to create a backup access point to a VM (in supported formats and correctly imported) that allows remote accessing VM users, in the event of disconnection or forced restoration, to switch over to the NAS based VM and continue working
Now it is worth highlighting that BOTH Synology and QNAP have excellent VM hosting applications, in Virtual Machine Manager and Virtualization Station respectively, which perform all of the above services, however, they do it in slightly different ways (involving other applications in the system that are integrated) but for VMware/HyperV, the restoration is arguably handled smoother with the Synology Virtual Machine tool and Active Backup Suite tool working together to allowing exclusive integration with Synology Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) as the temporary disaster recovery solution allows you to instantly restore services to the Synology storage server even when the production environment is down. QNAP have very similar services to this, but not the same fast, easy and integrated pass-over system. For a better understanding of the GUI of Synology Virtual Machine Manager vs QNAP Virtualization Station, take a look at the video below:
There are several very unique and arguable superior elements to the QNAP VM software that are worth highlighting. First off there is access to a VM marketplace from within the app that allows you to install Virtual Machines directly on the QNAP NAS without having to obtain the VM Image/ISO independently. These include firewall and network management virtual images such as Pfsense, RouterOS and Zabbix, but there is also a 3-click Windows VM installation option too. This allows users who just want to try out a Windows 7/8/10/Server VM before committing fully to a NAS based VM environment for business/home use and includes a 90-day trial (you can use your existing windows registered key/login if you want. Alongside this, there is also the improved VM-to-Hardware integration available on Synology Virtual Machine Manager and QNAP Virtualization station that allows you to connect USB ports to a VM and allow that virtual desktop environment to access physical local USB devices, however, QNAP takes this a noticeable degree further with the support of PCIe-to-VM connectivity that allows you to connect a Graphics card (or other suitable PCIe to that VM architecture) and allow the virtual environment to scale up considerably (perhaps for video editing or gaming, if the CPU is appropriate). Then there is the flexibility of setup on the QNAP, with Virtualization Station supporting a KVM environment and QVM (QNAP Virtual Machine) to allow a NAS with connected Keyboard, HDMI Video monitor and Mouse to have a local VM that can ALSO be accessed remotely too. Finally, QNAP has a dedicated Ubuntu application that allows you to create VMs of multiple versions of Ubuntu (the free Linux alternative to Windows and MacOS) in around 3-4 clicks of the mouse! This is a very rare occasion in this Synology vs QNAP comparison where I can genuinely 100% say that QNAP spent much, much more time working on 1st party support and Synology keeping it a little more openly supported with 3rd parties – though, given the maturity of the likes of VMware, this is understandable. This is also demonstrated on the subject of container image and deployment (if a VM is an entire OS, then a Container is an application or program that is running without an OS to live on to off) where the QNAP platform has its own Container Station application and download center/marketplace and Synology use the industry popular Docker tool.
Synology’s Virtual Machine Manager is a fantastic tool and definitely one that has enterprise users in its sights! With that improved integration with existing enterprise VM software providers in the market, they have made a very clear decision that their free VM software still has a business feel, whereas QNAP has shaped their VM tool to something more accessible for all tiers (though lacking the snap cloud-to-local VM deployment – which is a real shame). Much like AI surveillance on the QNAP platform, a few of the biggest features of Synology Virtual Machine Manager are license/subscription fee-based (which is a shame, but understandable given the target demographic and its scope when FULLY deployed, these include:
| Synology VMM
(Free) |
Synology VMM Pro
(License Required) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Supported Operating System | Windows, Linux, and Virtual DSM | |
| Cluster Management | Included | Included |
| QoS Settings | Included | Included |
| CPU Overcommit | Physical CPU threads x2 | Physical CPU threads x4 |
| Max Virtual Switches | 4 | 4096 |
| Max Snapshots per VM | 32 | 255 |
| VM Share Links per Host | 1 | 16 |
| Remote Replication Plan | Not Included | Included |
| Remote Storage Migration | Not Included | Included |
| Run VM on Remote Host | Not Included | Included |
| High Availability | Not Included | Included |
| Live Migration | Not Included | Included |
Overall, it is going to be a case of whether you are coming into the subject of virtual machines as a completely fresh start, coming from a moderately experienced background or are looking for a system to integrate into your already well established VMware or Microsoft VM environment. QNAP and Virtualization station provides a huge array of self-hosted VM deployment options, connecting with numerous 3rd party download centers to easily pull a VM image onto their system, restore an existing VM image, convert VMs into QNAP supported images and then allows you to integrate a greater deal of hardware resources towards them (GPU card, KVM, etc). They are certainly supporting those bigger VM platforms out there and allow backups, snapshots, faster restoration and making big moves into that SaaS and reducing downtime practices that businesses want, but this is where the Synology Virtual Machine Manager tools shine. With a grander focus on those Hyper-V/VMware VSphere established systems and presenting themselves as a failure and support system, they make their integration a great deal easier for companies to choose. They still take a big advantage by allowing a VM live backup to be stitched over to Synology Virtual Machine Manager as a viable recovery and restoration option, which is likely going to be the clincher for many.
Why Choose Synology NAS? – Synology Virtual Machine Manager is VERY intuative, Cloud VM-to-Local VM Migration & Restoration
Why Choose QNAP NAS? – QNAP Virtualization Station supports more OS/Formats, 3 Click VM download & Install, Dedicated VM tools for different VM Images and has Better Hardware Configuration Options Overall
Synology DSM vs QNAP QTS NAS Software – Conclusion
It’s been a very, VERY long road but we can finally look at just how Synology DSM and QNAP QTS for NAS (as well as all the hardware and services in between) compare. There has been a long-running theme all the way through that where Synology has focused on FIRST-PARTY (i.e. Synology-brand) software and hardware priority, then supporting THIRD-PARTY services/hardware when they haven’t got a viable alternative in-house – to mixed degrees of popularity. Whereas QNAP has been a much more level playing field where they have released their own innovative hardware/software (occasionally a little too quickly) and sung its praises, but also tried to keep customization and flexibility for 3rd parties as open as possible and shouting loud-and-proud about that too – which can be a tad overwhelming for the less tech-savvy. Both brands have done an incredible job evolving their platforms as much as they have in 2023/2024, especially when Microsoft, Google and Amazon are pouring BILLIONS into the SaaS (and PaaS and IaaS – Platform and Infrastructure as a Service) in order to create entirely streamable ecosystems for businesses, with NAS brands like Synology and QNAP not only integrating with them but also thriving alongside them as a local/bare-metal failsafe.
These are all very lofty ideas and ones that most home or small business users will likely have little time for right now (aside from where NAS fits in with their Google/Office 365 office tools like documents, email and spreadsheets at a pinch) and for those users, who the NAS stands on its own two feet is what is going to matter most. Synology is earning its position in the market as the complete 1st party software and hardware package in 2023/2024, with a genuinely groundbreaking range of available services, but still managing to make NAS accessible for all in DSM. That said, the trends we are seeing in those sub-enterprise services that are slowly receding in support of popular 3rd party hardware, software and services, making using a Synology NAS alongside your own existing setup in a frictionless way cannot be ignored and leading some to think Synology is shifting their industry position towards something higher.
QNAP NAS on the other hand, although maybe trying to cover too many bases at once, is still trying to cover as much as it can to appear to its audience. Their support of considerably more 3rd party platforms/software/services, even when they have their own software available, is certainly admirable and aside from rather aggressive pricing on their QVR Pro surveillance platform, are still the better choice for those who want a much more adaptable and customizable platform. Its a pretty understandable fact that most people who buy a NAS will be arriving with an existing collection of software in their daily workflow (Office 365 for docs, Gmail for their email, Plex for their media, Chromebook for their commute, Skype/Whatsapp for their communication, TB3 for their editing, etc) and it has to be said that QNAP keeps a more open platform to adapt a NAS into this mix than Synology – occasionally less intuitively and not without a little setup-friction, but certainly to more customizable results.
Unsurprisingly, I am going to tell you that both Synology and QNAP NAS are good NAS brands and have earned their place at the top of the industry (whilst both making their own respective moves to integrate into the next tier – ie SaaS providers, Hyperscale environments and Boundless cloud storage), but there is no denying that no one brand has managed to do EVERYTHING to perfection. So, if in double, below is how I would recommend QNAP and Synology NAS to you, for each user case scenario and I hope this guide and my recommendations help you with your next big data storage purchase.
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Why Choose Synology NAS? Better Surveillance Software in ‘Surveillance Station’ Whole NAS System Backup (apps, paths, accounts, everything) Synology Drive supports file pinning/Streaming on both Mac and Windows More Intuitive and User-Friendly Design Better Security History (PSIRT, PWN2OWN participation, Bountry Program for years) EXCELLENT 1st Party Alternative Apps to Existing 3rd Party Tools (including Synology Chat, Mail, Office, Drive, Calendar and more) Greater Support/Migration with VMware & Hyper-V Better Redundant System Options (SHA) Greater Support on Amazon Home Hardware Synology Hybrid RAID for flexibility in Media Upgrades BTRFS on Most systems Longer Warranty Available on More Systems First-Party SSD and HDDs Available Typically Quieter Operation If you are thinking of buying a Synology NAS, please use the links below. It costs you nothing extra and results in a small return fee to Eddie and me here at NASComapres, which goes 100% into making more content – Thank you!
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Why Choose QNAP NAS? Better 1st Party/Hosting Virtual Machines Significantly more flexible in encryption of folders, volumes, targets, etc Better Plex Media Server NAS More Adaptable and Customizable Wider Support of Surveillance using AI Recognition EXCELLENT KVM Support More Camera Licenses ZFS or EXT4 File System Choice on many systems now 2.5Gbe Network Interfaces at 1Gbe Cost Allows NVMe SSD Storage Pools and Volumes in all supported QNAP NAS Support of QTier for intelligent Data storage for Access AI Module Upgrade option with Google Coral / TPU / NPU Upgrade PCIe Gen 4 Systems (both M.2 NVMe and PCIe Upgrades in the QM2 Series) Greater 1st and 3rd Party Hardware Upgrade Compatibility (including Graphics Cards, WiFi 6 and Thunderbolt) If you are thinking of buying a QNAP NAS, please use the links below. It costs you nothing extra and results in a small return fee to Eddie and me here at NASComapres, which goes 100% into making more content – Thank you!
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Need More Help Choosing Between Synology or QNAP NAS?
Choosing the right data storage solution for your needs can be very intimidating and it’s never too late to ask for help. With options ranging from NAS to DAS, Thunderbolt to SAS and connecting everything up so you can access all your lovely data at the touch of a button can be a lot simpler than you think. If you want some tips, guidance or help with everything from compatibility to suitability of a solution for you, why not drop me a message below and I will get back to you as soon as possible with what you should go for, its suitability and the best place to get it. This service is designed without profit in mind and in order to help you with your data storage needs, so I will try to answer your questions as soon as possible.
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A question from a newby in the NAS world.
I actually have all my photos backuped up into Moments. If I choose to move into Photos, will the app duplicate all my photos?
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If I upload a picture on ios but then edit the picture from my camera roll does it back that up separately, ignore it or does it overwrite the one on the nas with the changes made?
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does the app come with a video player nativelly ? my phone asks me if i want to play via Google Photos or Samsung gallery app, and i find it weird that a video app wouldnt come with a player 😐
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do that in 2024
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QuMagie of QNAP, Photos by Places, pls go on 6:24
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I definitly can‘t see why everybody says synology is ahead of qnap in their software. Yeah you only had to make 3 mouse clicks but what die you get? If you add up all the steps it takes to have the same volume with snapshots their is absolutely no advantage in synology?! You could even argue synology isn‘t even that safe since as a new Nas user you may not even know about snapshots und totaly miss out on it
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Before you buy a Synology, stop and buy another brand. Asustor, Qnap or Terramaster.
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For QuMagie to be able to access photos on NAS from the internet, is it always necessary to use myQNAPCloud?
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1:30 Your right a RAID is not a backup, but due to the functionality of how it’s implemented (ie. a nAS vs two external drives in sync), we call them different names, but the results are the same.
eg.. If you have 2x RAID 1 Hard drives, and one fails, the other still has your data..
If you have two external drives in sync (weather that be via software, or manually kept up to date),, if one of your external drives die, you STILL have your data safe on the other.
So, the way we think of a RAID vs backup depends on the environment itself, but they both keep our data safe if one drive dies.. ie they both serve the same purpose. For eg.. I don’t do raid, because I don’t want to loose storage capacity but I do have external drives synced.. so to me, that is just as good.
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Extremely helpful for first time NAS use.
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Is the app any better now?
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I usually completely disagree with everything you say, but this was a good one, makes sense, and relevant. Thumbs up.
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I bought DS423+ after comparison reviews from your channel, and watched this video while still waiting for it to arrive. Great job! Is someone at the door? it’s my NAS arrived!
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Could you do a new video on this with the current apps. Thank you
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Had this on in the background over a couple of days. This is the comment you requested — I made it to the end! =D
It’s definitely not in the budget for me yet, but I’m dreaming about a NAS in my setup in the future!
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Your walkthrough videos are incredible provide a plethora of valuable info. It would be super helpful if you could timestamp sections. Understably it’s tricky as many of you video are long form.
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very cool video, what do you think of the apps in terms of uploading from mobile to your NAS, are the process running on background and any difficulties when trying to backup photos from mbile to NAS for both Qnap and Synology?
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Cheese ????
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Qnap licensing are going to be their killer. They should at least make it free for home use.
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Can anyone summarise this in one comment haha? synology or qnap?
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Excellent comparison and super thorough! Thank you.
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Hi iam looking for nas that will automatically download pictures from phones and other computers is a DS 418 still good
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What did you do at about 3:00 to display the calendar ?
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A nas taht gives you virtual machines, containers, and all of that stuff is not a NAS, it’s a server.
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i did watch the whole video
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When would you use DS File app vs Drive app?
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Is it better to use HBS 3 for time machine versus the build in qnap method by adding a user and a shared folder with smb 3? I think the second method is more flexible since I can add a user per mac and specify quota and stuff like that
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I can’t find your updated version of QNAP NAS Setup Guide 2021/2022 #1 promised in the current version of #1 (https://youtu.be/_kCS6e1ZoiQ?t=2223). Could you provide that URL? Would be nice to have that link in this video’s description area as well us the #1 video.
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which is better Qumagie or Qphoto? thanks….
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very informative . i am movig from a drobo 5D to a qnap i wanted to know the best way to safley move 14TB of data tot he new qnap
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Great content! Thanks for your time and experience!
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Looking at a Qnap TL-D8000S for around 700€ with free shipping. Should i buy one of these units?I’m planning to use it as a “file dumpster” for video clips and game file backups, photos and some other nonsense.
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I’ve seen reports of using the read-write cache option causing the entire raid volume to crash if an ssd fails, so I’m personally going to be sticking with the read cache only.
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Awesome vids. Thank you, mate! When enterprise versiones release?
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The answer to which NAS is better depends on the specific needs and requirements of the user. Both Synology and Qnap are well-established brands in the Network Attached Storage (NAS) market, and offer a range of products with different specifications and features.
For home users, Synology is often considered to have a more user-friendly interface and software ecosystem, while Qnap is favored by power users and businesses for its more advanced features and greater customization options.
Ultimately, it’s recommended to do research and compare the specific models and features offered by both brands to determine which one is the best fit for your needs.
Synology is often considered to be a better NAS solution for some users due to several factors, including:
User-friendly interface: Synology is known for having a user-friendly operating system and web-based interface, making it easy for non-technical users to set up and manage their NAS.
Comprehensive software ecosystem: Synology offers a wide range of free and paid apps, known as “packages”, that can be installed on the NAS to add functionality and extend its capabilities, such as media servers, backup tools, and virtualization solutions.
Robust data protection features: Synology offers several built-in data protection features, such as Snapshot Replication, which allows for point-in-time backups of shared folders, and the option to set up a redundant storage array with its High Availability (HA) solution.
Good performance and scalability: Synology NAS devices are known for their good performance and scalability, making them a popular choice for home users, small businesses, and enterprise-level customers.
Qnap is often considered to be a better NAS solution for some users due to several factors, including:
Advanced features: Qnap NAS devices are known for their advanced features, such as virtualization support, real-time remote replication, and the ability to run multiple operating systems on the same device. These features make Qnap a popular choice for power users and businesses.
Customization options: Qnap NAS devices offer a high degree of customization, with the ability to install a wide range of third-party apps and plugins, as well as support for multiple RAID configurations and the option to add additional hardware, such as expansion units and network cards.
Good performance and reliability: Qnap NAS devices are known for their good performance and reliability, and are often used in mission-critical applications, such as data backup, disaster recovery, and virtualization.
Strong security features: Qnap NAS devices offer strong security features, such as AES-256 encryption for data at rest, and the option to set up a secure VPN for remote access.
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By chance maybe someone can help
I use QVR client app on iOS
Have qnap 253be
QVR client take long time to login to qnap for some reason and many times is failed need tap again
I had before basic eufy Wi-Fi cctv and work perfect, straight when motion detected after tap on push notification can viewed
QVR client make huge delay.
Anyone can know what kind issue ?
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Be good to have a similar comparison with truenas core and truenas scale too
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This is EXACTLY the series of videos that we have been wanting. It isn’t difficult to select the correct home/small business NAS solution if the only criterium is hardware spec to fit identified needs. Once past that, it is software, software, software! In this first of-series offering, NASCompares has been precisely on point by showing on screen and Robbie’s description of like-for-like software. I’d like to see future videos detailing the similarities and differences between Synology’s media treatments (Photos/Audio Station/Video Station), Synology Drive (from both client & host sides), Hyper Backup, Surveillance Station, and Download Station against the analogous QNap software. Is Plex on Synology the same as Plex on QNap?? What about device/data security??? Perhaps one of the final videos of the series could offer a whirlwind software briefing on the less-used platforms, Asustor, Buffalo, Western Digital, etc. This series is a GREAT idea!
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Synology’s hardware is such crap now. Couple that with them basically being the Apple of NAS Vendors (i.e., if it fits into Synology’s nice little box it’s more user friendly, but if Synology’s neat little box can’t do it, it’s more of a pain to do it than it would be if you weren’t stuck inside their neat little box), I wouldn’t consider a Synology at all, and I say this as someone who only has a DS918+ as my only NAS.
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Sir, this is the best video you have made imo. Please go through up the end of all the features and I will watch it again and again. Well done and thank you.
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YES YES YES! This is exactly first time buyers need.
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Great video, enjoyed watching it and learned a few things. Thanks! It covered everything even and fairly and not to long.
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There has to be a way to keep these videos under 30 mins lol They’re helpful but long-winded.
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You’ve barely touched on security topic. I know you have in other videos which is why I find this topic missing in this video you make out as if everyone knows about the chaos that QLocker has caused. More importantly the massive lack of any response from QNAP should be an immediate reason for people to forget about QNAP storage devices. I’m assuming video 2 will highlight the massive lack of quality apps on the QNAP side and also there insecurity and lack of cohesion (i.e. you can’t just enable DLNA like you can on the Synology, you have to have multiple apps for it i.e. Media Station, etc,). There indexing also kills any speed on copying (and I’m talking at 1Gb speeds – drops from 100MB to 60MB when it’s being indexed). Yet with Plex the indexing and copying at the same time is fine. Same with the download station on the QNAP if you want to download off an FTP site you need another app, if you do download then the download speed is significantly slower than other NAS’s. It’s just like it’s been thrown together by someone who has no idea what they’re doing. Third party apps, when you can get them, are mostly fine (i.e. Plex). I know I’m bashing the QNAP and I’m a QNAP owner but I wouldn’t trust a QNAP connected to the internet for some time. I think you also need to highlight the fact that there are two operating systems out there for the QNAP (QTS / QTS Hero) and the differences they bring. Also that they can’t run on all of the range (so if you have an ARM processor, which are awful and yet still pushed by QNAP, then you can’t run QTS Hero).
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Thank you for this video. Just have one quick question. I want to get a nice NAS but they are expensive. Is it worth getting the WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra on sale and then get a Synology when can afford setup want? It comes with drives and could maybe take them out when upgrade to Synology but main concern is that the WD My Cloud will be too slow. It only has 1GB of RAM and ARM processor.
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Exactly the video I needed to see literally today! Amazing, thank you. Looking at ds923+ as a photographer, considering other options as well so I’m def going to watch this now
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I need subject recognition!
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How this doesn’t have more likes is unjust. He covers so much and shows great examples. He also has time marks for reference. Great resource! Keep up the good work, would give you more likes if I could.
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One thing I wish sonology would do especially further backup program is allow you to back up to a networked windows pool drive aka the NAS sync with networked multipooled Windows drive giving you to a form of backup even if you cannot see the data on the Windows pool that be fine if it was just an encrypted image or better yet allow the damn system to read Windows pool drives…. You’re plugging a USB hub with all your USB drives the nas makes its own virtual pool out of those drives and then it backs up just in case there’s nobody has a single 60 terabyte drive …. The fact that most people are coming from multiple hard drives externally to Nas and can’t use those multiple drives as a single pool backup is annoying especially when there’s hard drive crashes or or anything like that at least you’d have a personal backup I didn’t even pay 10-15 dollars per drive one time fee to make a pool for image backup
I literally had to Jerry rig using always-sync to back up the entire NAS drive on a 9 hard drive pool on the Windows side
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Insert the biggest thing I hate about Synology outside of their “hard drive requirements” (if the damn hard drive says Nas supported then it should just work you shouldn’t need a specific hard drive) is them telling you where to put your media or files for specific programs they own you should be able to tell the programs just like in Plex where the files are where you wanting to put the files and have one way think as an option with no deletion
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I personally find it difficult still for a novice user especially for making user accounts … Aka having public and private folders for individuals in a group setting (you can’t have both) we’re in the group setting everyone has the rules AKA right and no delete for public folder and the ability for only individual users in that group to only see their private folder and not everyone else’s
Aka private “Jon” public “all” private “Sarah”
John can still see Sarah’s folder
Because I haven’t nested in an outside folder public and an outside folder private where all their names are in the private folder so it’s nice and organized
But everyone can still see everyone’s folder I’d love to have it so that you can easily isolate nested folders
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One application they should make is a network photo slideshow screen saver picture frame app with dslp and outside network
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The one and only thing I don’t like about Synology multimedia apps or drive apps…. Is they TELL you where to put your media AND GENERALLY HAVE TWO-WAY SINK AS DEFAULT
Most users are going to have a plexa library that they’ve probably customized and should customize in one bulk “media folder” and then break it down within…. If you do stuff like that for all your multimedia they’re native apps don’t work you have to have it where they want it…. Same with sync you have to have it where they want it and it’s only sync … Me personally I want one-way sink data goes on the NAS … You can delete it off the phone or computer and that won’t transfer over…. They have improved the drive application but I still have to improve video photo and the other ones to be one way and for us to control the locations multiple or single nested location I don’t want to be told or you got to have it in the ” home /user /names/ photo/ to have the photo application work
NO I want to have it in plex media / photos/ cell phone 01/
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why do I need raid 1 on the ssd cache? It doesn’t matter if the data is gone on the cache if one ssd fails. The data is stored on the HDD after a Data is altered in the read/write cache. or is written again from the HDD when a new SSD is added. So that makes no sense. Raid 0 would be better in this case.
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What you say (2:30) about QNAP bringing to market features that aren’t fully supported is an understatement. I have 3 stories to demonstrate my point. The most recent is qts5’s purported support of TCG Emterprise drives. I purchased such a drive. qnap refuses to enable SED on it even though it recognizes it as an SED. Turns out, they tested their new feature with exactly one drive brand. Did they intentionally cripple their software? Did they decide not to try drives by Seagate or Toshiba? Who knows.
Another example is Qtiering. It’s a wonderful concept, dynamically storing files or blocks on faster or slower hardware depending on usage. The problem begins with requiring all such drives being in the same chassis. Have an expansion bay? No tiering across it! what good is it when USB outperforms SATA but they block expansions from using tiering.
I have a few more examples.
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is it possible to connect Non-Qnap NAS systems to Qumagie? I have a lot of media on other NASes and i would like to benefit from the QuMagie, is it possible?
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Thank you for this Video!
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Hello, I followed you previous video and now I looking at this one. I see that now you have THREE more
folders that where not there before. I see “home” “homes” and “Multimedia” can you explain where they came from? After a Drive failure and a NAS refusing to rebuild, I reset my NAS to default, formatting initializing everything, now I want my system working as it did before…..I am not seeing “default folders”
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Funny how that Security Advisor isn’t barking at you for having the standard 5000 and 5001 ports in use. Mine’s been yelling at me 24/7 about it.
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That really is an in-depth and thorough review. I’ve had the DS1621+ for about a year and you’ve helped explain what some of the apps actually do. Thank you.
As a photographer using Lightroom to manage my my photos, I still cannot understand why I need Synology Photos or S Video to manage them?
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you can do all the sw of Synology if the $1000 hardware doesn’t FAIL. So many have had issues, its just not worth it.
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Thank you for the detailed review. I am interestedin buying a new Synology Nas (920+) and i own an old XP 32 bit PC do you think there will be any issues about compatibility from Win XP 32 bit to the DSM 7.1 Synology NAs, in that case does any workaround exist?
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I’m the one who watched the whole thing! And some bits twice. Very helpful in trying to decide between a Synology DS923+ and Qnap TS464. Synology seems to have the upper hand software-wise which I suspect carries more weight for a home user than the superior hardware of the Qnap? Thank you for providing this extensive review!
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At this moment all of my photos are placed in the Photo share, and i’m talking about tons of photo’s. All these photo’s are placed in a catalog in Adobe Lightroom. In DSM7 the photo’s are placed in the Home share, so if I want to use the new Synology Photo I must move all of my photo’s to the Home share which means that my catalog wil become useless in Lightroom.
Is the a workaround for my problem or am I missing something?
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Awsome information. Now please a similar video on Qnap. I cant make up my mind as I need both photo management and video surveillance. It seems like Qnap and Synology takes 1 point each.
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Jellyfin?!!! Most channels that review media server software, either only deep-dive their preferred offering, or only give an overview compression of the field. If someone like you, who can give the same enthusiasm creating two videos deep-diving two NASs that only differ by a drive bay, puts that into a spin-off series on a topic that is close to a large chunk of your demographic, that would be a real treat.
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Thks & I just watched it again & most excellent;
I’m a retired physicist & have no real problem understanding the infinite details.
However my problem is how to keep it simple & stupid (ex: high tier levels of simplicity, brevity, encapsulation, etc).
Oh with my goal is to sociably knit-together all my family, relatives, friends, etc on my synology NAS.
Unfortunately I’m going to be Mr Tech support for them. Sooooo I gots-tos keep-it-simple is an understatement & I will be abused (I says anything for family/friends though ;).
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I’m also only seeing 360. Can’t make out any screen. text
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You’re a DSM PhD;
I never hear so dense of a presentation of great DSM info & my head is still spinning, thks.
Next-time, you think about having something good to drink every-once in a-while.
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47:05 Where, When
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Still only 360p for me
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Still just in 360p
Hope it will fix soon.
Thx for all the effort!
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Watched you video from begin to end! Loved the deep dive into DSM, since I am looking into buying a new Synology. Keep up your amazing videos!
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Nice video. Does anyone know why my USB printer doesn’t work anymore on my Nas Synology ?
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may laptop doesn’t have ethernet port or an adaptor so I install the ds finder to activate my new bought NAS synology ds220+ using android 12 phone pocophone F3.. but when I was creating an administrator account.. it said “you don’t have enough privilege”.. how do I get passed this please..
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Thanks for a great video. Really explains what everything is. Recently got my NAS and been already updating hard drives in it. It will mainly be used as a PLEX Server but already considering what i will do when i start upgrading the smaller drives in it. May consider another NAS and use it as strict data back up and maybe a synology Drive / synology Calendar and Email setup. Move my calendar off Google’s stuff. We will see If i do that at some point. Great job again
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Thank you for all the work you put into this. Very helpful.
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My English man!!! What a video! Greetings from Greece! I really appreciate your hard work and that content. I have a DS 1520 + and I am not regretting getting it although the new 1522 is out. You have my admiration. Keep up the professional and good work.
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Why only 360p is showing ????
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Would it be too much to expect something similar for QTS?
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Why 360p? Can’t see it clearly.
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Wow ! What an episode – a full tutorial for everything ! A one stop shop – Thanx Robbie ‘ol mate !
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Yes was wondering why its. 360p till saw the comments
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*Note* – Regarding picture quality, this is a BIG video (so many features to cover in a single video) and YouTue can sometimes be a little slow to process HD and 4K uploads, so if this video is in low-quality for you, maybe come back in an hour or so, as YouTube should have finished processing it and have the 4K, 1080p and 720p versions done. Thanks for watching and hope you enjoy the review of Synology DSM 7.1, featuring the DS923+ NAS.
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how to change the default source folder for synology photos?
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Hi I have a nas and ds file on my phone and everything works fine when I’m at home on house Internet can view all files from computer or phone but when I’m away from the house I can’t log into any files when using WiFi. Can you help me please
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Could you give an Update now one year later? Any improvements?
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You know what is really telling…the fact that this video is more than a year old and…Synology…NOTHING! I consider Synology Photo’s USELESS at this point! Kind of disappointing that NASCompares are such Synology Fan Boys and continue to push this company and not calling them out more where they lack!!!
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Thanks for review !
1. Does QNAP improved their mobile app until today?
2. Is it posible to pretag people in mobile app now?
3. Which NAS have longer support? I see that synology stop upgrading NAS from 2014/2015 year (so about 7 year of software upgrade), how long does QNAP upgrading their NAS?
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Thanks a lot!
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Thanks!
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Buy it now:
https://amzn.to/3K1jEHE
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8:41 Personally I think that is the strength of a NAS. The N is for Network. Note that I use the word ‘data’, which can be any file: audio, video, photo’s…
– Good for when multiple people work on the same data
– Good for if you want to acces – and work with your data from any location in the world
Not for ‘backing up’. There are plenty of 16+ Tb external drives to back your files up locally. Some with Mirror Raid if you want redundancy.
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The first guide was fantastic. This guide is extremely confusing.
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I am aware that the time that it takes to log in to the app depends on the NAS as well as the client device such as an iPhone. How Long roughly does your app take?
I have the DS115J and using an iPhone 8+ and it takes 20secs!! Looking to upgrade to the DS220+
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Great stuff, I appreciate you sir!
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My question is I am setting up my nas for the first time and have two many photos on my Mac in iPhoto. I mend to off load photos as my internal hard on my computer is almost full. So do I move them from iPhoto to synology photos or just build file folders and store them there?
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FASTASTIC video as always!
If you allow me one question please
In the min 10:54 when you talked about backup the main NAS to a second NAS
using Hyperbackup, you talked about doing it in the morning when the NAS is less use
If i run the backup let say at 3am, my pc will be “sleeping”. Will Hyperbackup work even though the pc is “sleeping”?
Thanks in advance
Have a Productive and Healthy Day!
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Hi man! I have a little situation in my de file. In my tablet I can download anything but in the movil phone all time give an error. I activated all the permissions but still not working. Any idea or suggestions?? Thanks
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These methods are great. Was wondering if there is a way to backup files from your PC (documents downloads desktop folders) periodically to the NAS?
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I can’t sign in from the app on my phone…
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The only issue is Synology forces you to use the pre designater folder… Most of us have share folders with different names. In my case I have a folder for videos and other for photos. I cant add them on the Synology Photos.
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Yet another one not working is the photo assistant. In the past when I uploaded without using the assistant, the photos were not shown in phot station even with re-indexing. I will have to try again, I guess.
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Just started looking into purchasing something like this for my massive music collection. I have several terabytes of music that I’ve been wanting to have all of it in 1 central location instead of multiple hard drives. Which one would you suggest ????
I have well over 15 tb spread throughout multiple external HDs. And just wanting to be able to have access to everything at once, so I can minimize some of the duplicates & clutter that I have, digitally.
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I just sold my old netgear 214 and upgraded to a synology 920+. Worst mistake, I hate it. Nothing works on the bloody thing.
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Let’s see if I have this right: QSync is going to “merge” changes made to a single file by multiple users? So it is a content management app? Just asking…
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While I liie the QNAP NAS and it has been dead reliable, I also like the BROBO from two aspects
1, the ability to plug in a drive without the need of a cassette, 2. the use os mSATA as a memory buffer. I feel QNAP could easily add these features and if done correctly could actually save in their cost to produce. The addition of the fifth drive adds to the drive pool, and the mSATA with is easily accessible adds to the ability to add additional memory where it can be utilized in buffering. The Down Side to me of the DROBO is the lack of updates to keep the NAS up to date.
This has been a hallmark of the QNAP as it is kept up to date. How ever I am disappointed in that QNAP has removed the USENET features and applications from their applications..
Construction wise the QNAP is a much cheaper system, as it appears to use an off the shelf board and adapted the board to use as a NAS rather than a purpose built board (TS451+) access to the second Memory board is a total disassemble, however once you have access running 16GB of RAM is a no brainer. QNAP seems to be more approachable but no more responsive than other NAS producers like DROBO and SYNEROLOGY As the local resident IDIOT I appreciate your Guides and wish I had found your articles prior to my purchase.
I still have some difficulty setting up the email notification as it drops the SMTP server.
However we have managed to share our PLEX library with one friend which is good as he has the identical QNAP NAS
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Have you done a video on services tab ? There are many options which is confusing on which to turn on or not like aftp, ftp etc around 10 diff names
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I know a fair few photographers, some of them use Synology NASs, some use Drobos or other brands of NASs.
None of them however relies on the apps on the NAS to organize their photos, that’s just not how professional photographers work.
And I guess here you have a reason why Synology dropped the NAS.
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What’s the difference between QSync and regular ‘map network drive’?
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Too bad that you cannot show photos without Auth
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I bought three TS1635’s on the company dime. Bought for special projects of bringing a whole bunch of data, where the amount was ” about ..” x tens of terabytes each. For the purpose, the units worked well. None failed. We utilized them to move that data across thousands of miles overnight. The machines were officially retired, but still running. Those were purchased in early 2018. The devices were selected because it was 10 gigabit capable, had sufficient capacity for the intended quantity of data to be moved, could be encrypted, and shipped in a relatively small box, and it was raid 6, in case a drive failed in the course of shipping. The alternative was to buy another EMC SAN, put it in location A, copy the data over, and then ship the entire SAN to the final destination. Uh, we’ll try the QNAP.. 😉
Being in IT, the only quibble I had- wasn’t with the NAS, but our company’s inability to provide an effective way to back them up; that’s the real reason the machines weren’t used elsewhere.
In any corporate environment, if it can’t be backed up, it does not belong in the environment. That’s VERY IMPORTANT.
Sadly, I still think that the devices were often faster than the 135 disk SAN we had; and definitely faster than the 48 disk Compellent and these devices, albeit only 36 raw TB, well, the machines did fairly well. But then, I didn’t have 150 virtual machines running on the QNAPs either. Each, with 16 disks, were about $3500; In the datacenter, we also had a $50,000+ Dell Compellent and a $600,000 EMC SAN.
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I have one hair follicle left after trying EVERYTHING to get a Qnap TS-212 to backup to a new TS-231P3. The ‘problem’ is that HBS is different on the old NAS and no matter what I do, I cannot get it to allow a backup. So, I worked around the problem by accessing the newer TS-231P3 using HBS 3 and telling that to ‘restore’ the folder of all my work, rather than backup. I’m at 5% and counting. Fingers are crossed.
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Is there something specific to do to make Qsync works ? I can’t connect to my NAS from windows with it. With the correct IP, login and password
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It’s the best app on the market for on the go and use it externally. I use it a lot, on my own local network I use Kodi for 2 reasons. 1 ds video can’t play DTS and it can’t play AEC3. Strange that you forgot to mention that, because I think these are the only drawbacks it has… If a movie is in those formats you will have to use something like handbreake to change them into a supported formate. ( I think it;s a license thing, and Synology does not want to pay for that). Otherwise… It’s brilliant.
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Have you absolutely no hair on your chest?
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Did the AI improve in SynologyMoments since you posted the video? Is subject recognition now available?
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If you add a 00:00 time to the chapter list it will add the chapters to the scrubber (video progress bar), you can for example call it: 00:00 Intro
Great videos, love the in depth explanation. It is easy to set up the NAS, but to really use it is hard, so thanks a lot!
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Thanks for the video. I tried using the BackupPhoto but it only saves photos, it skips videos (do not have the ‘only copy videos’ option ticked). Do you have any idea why? thanks!
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What about stability between the two?
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Thank you very much for these helpful videos. I’ve got a TS-128A and a TS-230 to setup and I’ve only had experience with Synology and WD NASes previously. Seems like QNAP is more complex but more flexible at the same time with generally better hardware for the price.
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Loving the videos! Thank you 🙂
My QNAP arrives next week. I’m at about 36 mins in this video so far so if my question get’s answered then don’t worry… I’m currently using Dropbox to sync a folder we’re both working in on my computer and a colleague’s computer over the internet. How would I do this with QNAP?
AND I send files to clients by right clicking and hitting “make transfer” with Dropbox. Can I do that with QNAP or do I have to use the web interface?
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I am wanting to switch to qnap for the things tab inside the photos app my ds220+ doesn’t show this tab, am I doing something wrong?
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When logging in DS File, can is this ONLY your master Synology account the administrator account OR some other Account? Thanks
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please do your research and DONT BUY QNAP, they have ransomware attacking their system continuously, and their security is useless, but not as useless as their customer support!!!
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So… does one of this nas provide anything (needed or fancy) thing, which second one can not provide us?
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Your NAS is incredibly fast ! Which one did you use. for this tuto ? Did you upgrade its hardware ?
I have the standard DS920+ (without any hardware upgrades) running last DSM6 update
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All the videos I’ve seen from you are really helpfull. Thank you very much.
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I sent my synology back because of the Internet Access part.
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excellent, well-presented, concise & clear review. I’ve had a lot of problems with other brands, think Synology is my next buy.
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“previous video i did guide You through how to set up a snapshot”…
You mean in video: QNAP NAS Setup Guide 2022 #1 ??
there i didnt found that.. 🙁
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Your Synology NAS Setup Guide videos are still NOT AVAILABLE (only #1 – #3)
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This was great. Keep it up with QNAP. Can we explore some of their media Apps? Believe me sir – you do everything right! Happy New Year!
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Thanks for all your great videos – I am looking to upgrade my NAS and have settled on a Qnap TS-673A it will be my “home” NAS should I use QTS Hero ZFS or QTS 5 as my OP? Which is best? One of the main things I want to use is MyCloudLink (which I presume I can use on both OP)
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I moved from Drobo to synology. I am not an IT guy. But we had a rogue IT guy that turned out to be awful. He replaced our storage with Drobo. Then it went horribly wrong. He got fired before doing a lot of harm and I moved to synology. I am so glad I did. I did at one point have a problem with one of the synology NAS. They were so great. Drobo, not interested unless you pay more to fix their shit hardware. Bearing in mind, I sent one back to be repaired, they sent it back, with no changes at all. They are the utter lowlife of the NAS world. Synology were awesome. They dialed in, were talking to me, from the US, and helped me, big time. Drobo? Couldn’t give a damn. Just wanted more money.
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the problem I have now with the new DSM 7 version is that I can not have the folder Photos backedup with the desktop drive app. I mean, the moments folder use to be located inside the Driva folder and so I could choose if sync that folder also y my local disk with the Drive app.
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As a new user you really make what was looking like a dive into the matrix, into something that I can actually folow. Thank you
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Dose qnap have some sort of hybrid raid ? That back up and save space.
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HEHEEH, Yes, We absolutely Like chess.
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When I open Snapshot Replication app on DS7, it warns me that my volume is recording ‘last file access time’, and this may affect snapshot performance. It tells me I can disable this by going into Storage Manager, but that setting is nowhere to be seen. Any ideas?
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Synology wants HOW MUCH for additional cameras? NZD$100 EACH, PLUS SHIPPING?!?! WHY DOES A LICENSE REQUIRE POSTAGE IN 2021!?!?! I can forgive the “you must use our RAM and on premium systems, our drives” thing but selling codes to plug cameras in that cost MORE THAN THE CAMERAS and AREN’T EVEN SUPPLIED ONLINE is fully insane
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Can you, or someone, please explain why we are being totally ripped off by these NAS companies? These are small plastic, mostly empty, boxes with tiny boards inside, mostly using free OS’s, so WHY are they so SO expensive?? These things shoud be, at least, 25% of what they actually are. A 2-bay NAS enclosure should be under £100. I can so absolutely no reason whatsoever for the expense of these tiny boxes with very little inside them! This is the biggest rip off in the whole PC indusrtry IMO. One can buy a whole, complete running PC for LESS than these tiny empty boxes!
C’mon Synology/QNAP et al – give us the reasons for ripping us off so convincingly – just because you can, is not good enough. Why aren’t more people on board with this? Has no-one else noticed this legalised stealing?
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I have a question. I accidentally put my hard drive in the wrong order. Instead of 123 of my nas bay , it’s 312, my setup is SHR. If I powered down my nas and place it back in the correct order will this crash my nas?
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Latest QTS 5 firmware update lost every user’s “home” folder when connecting via AFP in a finder window, only shared folders are shown. Even disabling and enabling home folders in users don’t take any effect. Only In browser UI the home folder is working properly.
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I have TS253be and update to QTS 5.0 but NAS force me to initialize NAS (Reset NAS set up)
My raid was gone (Raid 1) while I Initialized NAS to start 5.0 and I try to back up my data to external hdd
but my 2nd disk was gone while back up I can recovery data 70% (Lost forever 30%) T.T
Do you have problem to upgrade like me?
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I’m glad you made this video
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Does the app not provide alerts when motion is detected? You didn’t cover that so I assume not
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Do you have an ETA for full release QuTS Hero 5.0?
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Is DS file usable only when connected via LAN? I can’t seem to use it remotely. Is it possible to use DS file remotely?
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I had to roll back.
5.0.0. gave me two weird issues.
1. The fans went to 100% and stuck there, regardless of any setting or actual system temp.
2. (And this one is really weird) IR remote button pushes would be registered twice, but only around 25-33% of the time.
I rolled back AND forward three times to check and double check these issues. I’m staying with 4.5.x until I know 5.x.x has the bugs ironed out.
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i have found the file permission are better but….. in my case the everyone group has no rights assigned to it when checking on qnap.not denied not ro or rw. when you create a user via qnap and assign rights via windows. somewhere along the line everyone has now changed to denied access…..simply just remove anyone from the resource…but not the right way?
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FULL Written Review of QNAP QTS 5 – https://nascompares.com/2021/10/08/qnap-qts-5-0-nas-software-review-worth-your-data/
01:50 – Disclaimers & Review Considerations
05:25 – Start – QTS Change of Focus
07:00 – QTS 5 vs QTS 4.5 GUI, Design, The Good, the Bad & the Awkward
10:13 – Responsiveness
10:44 – Things That Have Not Changed
11:30 – Security, Notifications & Control
14:25 – Control Panel
15:39 – Storage Manager
17:25 – Remote Mounting & Cloud Gateways
18:40 – File Management
20:30 – Multimedia Control & Sharing
27:00 – Storage Continued – Health & Checks
29:00 – Synchronization & Backup Tools
36:35 – Virtual Machines, Containers & Ubuntu VMs
41:05 – VMware, Hyper-V and SaaS Backups
43:14 – HDMI Services & HD Station
45:00 – Surveillance Tools & Services
49:00 – Licenses, Good & Bad
51:00 – QSirch, QFile, Teamviewer, Hybrid Mount and the Conclusion
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Add chapters to this video
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I have a TVS 873e when i seach for the upgrade to QTS 5 on the QNAP site it is not showing it for me. the highest firmware is 4,5,4 1800 am i not able to run V5?
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Why the full release of QTS 5.0 is not arrived yet on TS-X53D series ?
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awesome, perfect video as always; you’re the best source for nas – especially on qnap, i would say. Possessor of the – NOWADAYS pretty old – ts231+P and i still use it as my daily driver; with the new qts 5 now, seems even more faster
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That robot reminds me of the old MS office “clippy”… Luckily he doesn’t ask “it appears you are trying to…” ????
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That robot in the corner…. Reminds me of clippy… kill it with fire!
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How did you get this installed on a TVS-872X? I am trying to get it on my TVS-872XT and this model is not officially supported on this initial 5.0 release.
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First! Always love the content!
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Synology Photo is absolutely rubbish. Look at geotagging: it does not matter if your photos have coordinates and location names in the metadata, Synology pulls some some names from god knows where. Whatever it finds. Well, it is fine, if you never leave your town, but I can hardly filter on Chinese, Cambodian, Thai, Hindi, Tibetan, etc. locations. Meanwhile I have all the photos tagged with Latin caracters… Awesome. And it is not even consistent. If it found a location name in my native transcript, it will use that. Brilliant. And yes, the map view is gone. Also it is sloooooow. But that is my fault, should not have taken that many photos.
Face recongnition? I don’t know, I tagged them since 2009 in Picasa. Obviously all that is useless. Synology found zero people. I did not even expect it would recognize the tags, but well, there is nothing.
Anyway the issues are theorethical, since the photos load in long minutes per page, so absolutely useless, like searching high res photos on the internet in 1996.
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I feel kind of an idiot to have just bought Plex Pass after learning that this app is basically the same and included with all Synology NASes.
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PLEASE ASK QNAP TEAM TO ADD “Select All” IN ALL RELATED OPERATIONS.
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The big issue for me is it was touted to be like Google photos… if I take pictures on my phone…. I do absolutely nothing and my photos are automatically there… not so with DSM7…. It seems to back up photos while you have app running…. This is poor!
If Google can do this, so can Synology, people saying it’s a limitation of phones, if any company at all can do it and get it working then it’s possible. Also in my case we are talking about an iPhone.
Synology sort it out… you held back for ages about moments saying you had to tweak it and make sure it’s was right… between the missing features and this basic usability error… what are you doing.
No one is going to open an app to ensure photos are backing up…. Too much effort!
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Thank you for the tutorial – One thing I would like to know that I did not find on the app; how to “Select All”, you understand that when you first use the app. there are 100’s of photos that I would like to upload and doing it one by one will not work. Or when one shooting many photos and doesn’t want to slow down the phone performance and would like to upload at a later time, Select All is a must that I did not see on any of the options… Please HELP.
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Same with the bloody ds drive.
The new smartphone apps dont support syncing.
App literally got reviewbombed and they plan to add it back.
Astonishing to me how they couldnt bring back the hits…
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First they dropped Logitech Media Server support, now Photo Station for this POS, really starting to hate Synology.
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I dont understand qnap required license for cameras or synology ?
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I dont understand this Brit accent
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1.Log center cant be modified or set to exclude users or certain things you dont want logged.
2.It is not compatible with DScloud anymore so you cant sync to mobile like you can do on DSM6 with the DSCloud app from Synology but you can use the Synology Package Center to download Resilio Sync or Good Sync but you have to pay a monthly/yearly fee for every user.
Unlike Qnap when you buy your hardware, you arent forced to pay for syncing from and to your own hardware.
With that said there is still a solution using Webdav to-way Nas-pc with Raidrive but you have to pay for software for Pro features.
Mobile sync: Use Foldersync to-way Mobile-Nas, but you have to pay for software for Pro features.
So far as i am aware of limitations using Synology DSM7 when it comes to syncing —> If you want Pro features or you want to use your Nas without reaching out to third-part software without paying extra fees it is recommended to switch to other Nas brands for me i feel Qnap has been working using 30 users for Laptop/Pc/Mac/Android/Iphone all Apps/Software working perfect Pro features without paying extra fee´s or forced to use third-part tools total control for Log center, File-Folder, Photo, Video, Virtualization, Web-sites and so much more.
Other annoying difference i had with Synology i had was this—> i had to make a ticket to find out i cant use Synology Mobile App DS Cloud or that one cant choose what Synology Package-Log Center loggs, it wont let you choose to include, exclude or to delete certain logg if you press Clear button on the loggs that are in “Files downloaded” it deletes all, if you clear “user logins” it deletes all that and you cant revert the deletion.
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Upgraded my DS718+ from DSM6 to DSM7 and Rack servers on the company, now we cant have a good Two-way sync option, Mobile<-->Laptop/pc<-->Synology nas, support has been dropped for the DS Cloud Mobile app wich our IT engineer realized after upgrade.
I can not downgrade DSM version back to DSM6, for private and company usage looked into the solutions
available at DSM7—> Resilio Sync also Good Sync and my conclusion besides for paying for your synology hardware + network and changing your hdd 2-4 years you also have to pay a monthly/yearly cost per user for using Resilio, Good sync for syncing to or from Mobile devices.
Ive contacted Synology support.
Synology Support says: i recommend other brands for your Mobile syncing part of nas usage we have dropped DSCloud app support for DSM7, cant help with a downgrade.
So now its Qnap Quts Hero we use for home and at company for everything…
The synology hardware at home and at company is used as a playground/testing, will be given away at a company contest next year.
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I want back moments. How can I get back the DMS 6? In moments the shared and personal places had an folder on your drive. In SynPhotos I cant find a folder, where my shared files are physically downloaded.
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It should be pointed out that the ability to edit metadata is limited in the mobile versions. I was unable to change the date / time of photos on the iOS app, but it works in the web browser version.
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You probably can connect the hdmi cord to both the laptop to the tv, that way which you need a lot of ports to do so. That probably would of work.
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In Photo Station I have several accounts with the certain permissions to my photo archive. Besides, I have several phones which backup their photos to my NAS directly(without any third-party clouds) with DS Photo application. So now if I upgrade my NAS to DSM 7.0, I will lose the permissions and the ability to backup photos from my phones, correct?
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Brilliant.
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No star rating system in new Photos, bit of a deal breaker for me.
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Thank you for your videos, they are really informative. I am curious about the options that these systems offer in terms of adding metadata to the photos manually. Of course ideally I would like perfect AI recognition, but knowing we’re not there yet, is it possible to manually tag photos with names of people/pets/things, places, times… and would these metadata be stored in a standard way so that the photos could be migrated to other systems in the future if necessary? Thank you very much
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Unlike DSM 6.2 where there was a DS Photo app available for Android TV, this new Synology photo on DSM 7 does not provide any Photo app for Android TV.
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Please do a video on Separate QueMagie Profiles for each family member. Luv your videos, keep’em coming !! @NasCompares
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missing peoples option in photos, DSM 7
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The biggest thing for me and my planned workflow for a big archiving project is… comments… They are nowhere to be seen. My whole plan is to put the archived images in something like Synology Photos and let users comment.
After some jiggling about I have been able to get the test-folder to a shared space and let people manage that… which is great for tagging and such by my end users… but that means they can delete photos… I simply do not want that… Is there any way to let them tag and edit… but not remove and move around photos?
I want this to be as end-user proof as possible.
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When I delete photos from the photo app they don’t go into the bin folder which is enabled on the home shared folder…. Any way to get this working or just a missing feature when using the photo app? Thanks
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Awesome. I can finally stop paying apple for extra iCloud storage. Have just moved all my photos on my iPhone to synology photos. Awesome app.
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Soooo let me see if I got this right. Synology Photos does not yet have all the features of Moments and Photostation but if I get a new NAS with DSM 7 only Photos will be available?
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I just upgraded and I’m NOT a huge fan at all on the photo management side of things!
I have a separate photos partition with a very strict folder structure (eg. 2021 / 2021_Holiday_Christmas). I was able to granularly set permissions on which of my Synology users could see what folder. Simply going into Photo Station photos, settings, permissions, and setting permissions with checkboxes in bulk for no/read/write access. The only way I see this working and I’ll have to test is going to each folder and setting those permissions individually via several clicks and account additions. Or setting up a conditional album pointing to each folder and sharing the album. Either way, not ideal at all, and with 10’s thousands of photos and hundreds of event folders, very timely change.
I do like the file extension exclusion since I do often have my RAW files as backups within my event folders. It’d be nice if it was folder name excluded too so I could just say anything in my “_RAW” folder should be excluded. And one format they don’t have in the dropdown exclusion list that I’d like to see is PSD. Not sure .xmp shows, shouldn’t but I haven’t checked yet.
The facial recognition on the Photo Station was absolute CRAP. It did not match up names with faces very well at all and it’s a PAIN to untag a photo! Not sure if this version is any better and not sure I’m willing to try!
I’m still trying to find out and I can’t find it ANYWHERE is do admins of the box have access to personal photo spaces? So, if I enabled Synology device backup on my kids’ iPads, rather than iCloud, can I see and copy them over to a shared space so they aren’t isolated. And, if administrators don’t see this space, which I’d be surprised if they can’t and not surprised as well if it’s locked, is there a way to shut off the personal space and force everything to shared?
On the plus side, it seems peppier, look is more 2021 with better CSS, smaller fonts, better logo. I have a lot of researching and testing to do this weekend to make this work.
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Gouda explanation, very clear and easy to follow, was a bit Cheesy but I’ll take it because there’s stiltonnes of things I have to learn, but with this info my backups will be as robust as a Roquefort ???????? thanks as always
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No object recognition. Basic “AI”. DSM7 – such a disappointment photo management.
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To anyone I’am thinking of buying a nas system to make things easier I stream movies and tv shows I have need something powerfull enough to run 2 4k movies at the sametime I have pc with planty of power with debian but its a pain to setup what should I do? can someone give their thoughts. Thanks
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Recently decided to implement a NAS on my home network so have been researching vendors, key features and trends. No surprise, Synology emerges as offering some of the best solutions. Hardware is good and software seems the best. I doubt that I will buy one. WHAT???
It is Synology’s business mentality which I feel is not user friendly, on full display with the recent “J” Series / BTRFS debacle and the strategy of moving towards a closed proprietary platform. All because Synology wants to control it user base so that it can extract and extort, no matter how trivial the issue.
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One other thing to add to the “not working” list: I have some family videos in HEVC format. They play fine in Photo Station (DSM 6) and when upgraded to DSM 7, they also play in Synology Photos. However, if I add these same videos directly into Synology Photos in DSM 7, they won’t play and generate a message of “Synology Photos does not support the playback of videos in HEVC format”. What?? You just played them over in that other folder…
Logging a ticket with Synology gives the same response – not supported. But isn’t that exactly what the Advanced Media Extensions package is supposed to provide – support for HEVC files?
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The new “Synology Photo” is a total waste. On google, simply seach “synology photo metadata lost” and you will find lot of people complain about they all lost their ability to search. If you were using Photo Station, and spend days/month tag everything, after upgrade to DSM 7.. you won’t be able to find your thing. Approx 10% will be there.. all other will be a simple picture. Probably the worse update they made now for the picture management. You will need to install external software to your computer, and re-scan the database. As in PhotoStation, metadata are located in the picture, if you copy your database to another Synology NAS (DSM6.x) and activate Photo Station, everything will work agait, as Photostation can work with that data, like most other Windows sofware that do picture management… not the case with DSM7
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Ratings and manual people tagging are also gone as is the possibility of using them in smart… conditional albums.
Exif and xmp people tag read/write capability is also gone down the trap.
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Thank you for all your great videos. All very instructive. Coming back to Synology photos … yes map is really a shame, I can’t believe it is missing. Also I wanted to completely migrate from apple photos to synology photos. But based on my experience the AI on synology does not come close to the Apple one. On apple i can put in … cat … dog … bird … cathedral … etc Apple almost gets 100%. Synology …. Almost nothing. My feeling is synology is ok but certainly not great. And like with most of their stuff it gets you by but does not excel and may be that should be expected for a piece of software that is free. Any comments? Do synology competitors offer better software in general?
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I’m a long time viewer of your videos. Running a small business, your tips and instructions have helped me for years! Thank you for all your efforts.
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Can you backup your photo from PC to NAS directly to “homes” folder by using Synology Drive?
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Are Synology plan to implement MapView in Synology Photos?
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Yeah, not thrilled with DSM7, therefore, I’m not going to DOWGRADE at this point.
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how does it handle folder rights? its not working in moments. i want to share whole photo directory with other family members, but would keep some folders private. this wasnt doable on moments.
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I’ve been using synology for 13 years now and had not yet discovered the map view. Thanks for enlightening me. The entire DSM7 journey has been a bit disappointing. First many years of delay and now the most important app for me seems to be a minor upgrade from Moments and losing a lot of great stuff in Photo Station. I may be in the market for a larger NAS in a year or two but this makes me want to consider QNAP which I previously would not have done.
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Another question. Are there any tricks to getting the SEARCH function working?
All of my folders are named (eg 2010/ Dec/ Holiday xxx) however typing “holiday” into the search field returns zero results. In a browser the search box just disappears, in the mobile app it returns zero results. Search worked in Photo Station previously.
Edit: it might be related, however I noticed that my filters are not populated either
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DATME: https://ok.me/ehOj
—p—o—r—n——s—e—x————۞
CHOOSE YOUR DREAM GIRL
!????????❤️#今後は気をライブ配信の再編ありがとうです！#この日のライブ配信は、#かならりやばかったですね！#１万人を超える人が見ていたも
ん（#笑）#やっぱり人参最高！#まさかのカメラ切り忘れでやら1かしたのもドキドキでした
#今後は気をライブ配信の再編ありがとうです！
#この日のライブ配信は、
#かならりやばかったですね！
#１万人を超える人が見ていたもん（ #笑）
#やっぱり人参最高！
#まさかのカメラ切り忘れでやら1かしたのもドキドキでした #垃圾
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How to downgrade back to 6.2?
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Is there a way of displaying Nikon row images in Synology Photos?
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Synology Photos is so disappointing.
1 . In some models the “people” album is gone
2. map is gone
3. Subjects is gone … omg why ?? why did you remove subjects ?
4. H.265 is not supported!
5. Picture editing is so basic in SP …. you can’t even rotate the pics properly.
NO … i am not going to love Synology Photos …
why noone is talking about all these issues ?
SP is a downgrade in comparison to moments !
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For me, the biggest problem is the mobile app. This has zero configuration and settings, which makes it useless for me. The main desktop page is not bad but with a few features missing.
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Great video, thank you????
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Photos, 3 years in the making and a total disappointment for me. What I specially don’t like, I can’t rotate images in thumbnail view, means I can’t rotate multiple images in one go. Must be one by one, and can only rotate anti-clockwise, means need to rotate often three times. Tag filtering is also very basic, I can’t search untagged images, or have a NOT function.
Would be also great to have an automatic “source” tag, accidentally I uploaded the phones whatsapp images folder with a few 1000 images that need to be removed manually now.
How about a video on alternatives from the Docker world? DigiKam maybe?
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Just ordered a DS1621+ to replace an old QNAP459 Pro II which is no longer supported for Malware Remover – not good when QNAP seems to be the company under attack.
Lack of map view for Photos will stop me updating my new unit to DSM7.
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The app looks pretty nice, but somehow really slow, even on LAN, on WebGUI, both PC and phone loads photos and videos in full quality no problem. On the all, even on LAN it always defaults videos to speed instrad of quality setting, and if set manually to quality setting it can barely stream any videos, though on webgui it streams them no problem, so there must be some issue with the android app. I would expect to default to speed setting on outside network and quality setting on LAN, but somehow on this app theres barely any difference in speed between lan and wan, hopefully it gets improved. Tried on two phones and it’s same the issue. And sometimes on outside network the photos and videos stop loading im the middle of viewing and thumbnails stay blank so gotta clear the cache from the app settings, also pretty annoying. A lot to improve on. Using it with ds220+
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Thanks for for your great videos on NAS
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Massive downgrade with Photos. Synology should be embarrassed and ashamed.
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Unfortunately iOS live Photos are still not really supported; it saves a photo and a mov file. When downloading photos from your NAS you wont be able to select another frame of the live photo.
Synology Photos only supports assigning access rights on the top level and first level of you album map tree in the shared space
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As always a great video, thank you
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Would love to see a video phone setting up the sharing photo features…so my phone and my wife’s dump to our NAS and all photos are accessible to both via moments
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Thanks a lot for the comparison. I’m still hesitating to migrate as I’m loving especially the map module in Synology Photo station. Will likely wait for this feature to come to DSM7 as well before migrating.
May I ask you were your dialect is from? (no complaining – for me as non native English speaker from Germany it’s really just a question for curiosity only)
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One great feature of photo station is the automatic uploading of your iOS photos from multiple phone users to one place, that seems to work well and the big reason why I use photo station. Apples photo app is not multiuser, I don’t wanna use Google photos I don’t want to store them all in the cloud, I’m not putting them on some hard drive hanging off a computer as how then can the other family members upload the photos,so something has to run on my NAS ! Synology is a massive almost monopoly now you think they could do better when it comes to photos!
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Do you know if they finally support the Apple / iOS raw format that is used on the high-end iPhones. Blows my mind that this has not been supported as the phone has been out for almost a year now! Also I’m an able to play some videos in the photo station, is this fixed and 7.
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I’ve got a DS916+ and just migrated to DSM 7. Where is the facial recognition in Photos, I don’t have a People Album?
I’ve seen some conflicting information that it was removed, but in this video, it’s obviously there.
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I wish there was a way to adjust the AI face recognition in Photos for DSM 7, as it only picks up faces in 20% of my pictures. No idea why its ignored 80% of them as the faces are clear as day.
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Qnap Photo Station needs to have upgraded Social Media send options. Half of it is not operating anymore and some are Chinese that nobody uses then them. So put a feature option in for it. Thanks.
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Can you use Photo station & moments with DSM7?
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My NAS is very messy because I had no time to sort out my folders before backing up. How can I search through my whole NAS for pictures and add them in Synology Photos? Than I can delete what I want through the mobile app when i’m chilling somewhere.
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Does its handle raw photos from the latest iPhones? Very frustrating that they didn’t have this working as the phones almost been out for a year! I am using Photo Station.
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I don’t have thumbnail images for any of the pictures when I browse folders! Any way to make sure thumbnails are created and working properly? It pretty useless for finding photos if I can’t see the pictures. Help!
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Do you realize that when you talk fast we can’t understand you …..please captions !
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Nice vid – Does the mobile app support faster than 1x playback speed of footage? And if yes, what’s the max speed?
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Been watching a ton of your videos since I subbed about a week or so ago. Settled on getting a DS1520+. Saw some talk about the DSM 7.0 software. But I’d really like to see some in depth coverage of what’s actually in the software and the different things it can do for the user or home user. If the great software is a focal point of Synology NAS then it be great to know some the big things it can do.
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I finally order a Synology NAS after suffering through the WD mediocrity for the past 2 years.
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