Synology Drive Client will reside in the Windows or Mac libraries.  You can customize the Synology Drive client application to sync specific folders once you complete the Drive setup.  See pictures and learn about the home folder and libraries here.

By default, Synology Drive creates it’s own folder on your computer to sync to the Synology NAS.  However, the typical folders users like to sync are as follows:

• Documents
• Desktop

Warning:  There’s a reason why Synology by default creates a new folder in the Windows libraries to sync with.  This empty folder syncs nothing to the Synology while enabling the syncing of documents and the desktop could create a nightmare outcome depending how much unnecessary data you are syncing.  We will return to this conversation momentarily but DO NOT BLINDLY SYNC DOCUMENTS AND DESKTOP. Please put some thought or a plan of action of what data do you actually need to sync before proceeding.

Cool but why Synology Drive instead of Synology Cloudstation?

Synology Drive streams files and caches the files that are selected for use.  This create a very small foot print on the desktop syncing the file.  Cloudstation by contracts, syncs the entire file.  Please consider upgrading to a + series Synology before utilizing.

Synology Drive Client Setup

Two task options:

• Sync Task
  • By default, it is setup to sync your documents to your Synology Home folder that resides on your Synology server.
• Backup Task
  • Don’t use this option. It conflicts with the sync task and Active Backup is way better.

Stop!

We broke the Synology Drive Setup instructions below in to three possible options.

Option 1) Syncing Empty Synology Drive folder to computer

Option 2) Sync Documents and Desktop to Synology

Option 3) Sync Synology shares to desktop

Follow the option(s) that best suit your needs.

What do I enter for  Synology NAS – Domain Name or Quickconnect ID?

I got into depth about this on another post.  Personally, I am not a fan of Quickconnect because it is not as secure as a Domain Name.  A lot of people also use Dynamic DNS instead of Domain Name or Quickconnect ID.  VPN is the best but then it becomes annoying and difficult to configure for the average Joe to use.

Option 1) Syncing Your Synology Home Folder with your Synology Drive Folder (Least popular option)

Note:  This step does not sync your documents folder.  Scroll further down the blog post for those instructions.  A new empty library folder on the computer is synced to home folder by default. This is Illustrated below.

Synology Drive “Local Folder”

Remember Windows Libraries and home folders?  By default,

Synology Drive creates an empty folder for you to dump data into and it syncs back and forth between the Synology NAS and that folder in the Windows library.  It can also be synced to your Synology Drive app on your phone.

Option 2) I want to sync Documents and Desktop

This option allows you to sync Synology Drive Client to your Documents folder

A) The “Local Folder” edit button

The next step before clicking “next” is to edit and select documents.   Remove the check box so Drive does not create another Synology Drive folders.

B) The “advanced” button

You want documents and desktop synced?  Be very careful on proceeding.  You need filter all the un-necessary items.  You can filter files in the task creation process under the advanced option on the page where you select source and destination.  There are default items already present but please add the following file extensions to filter:

• *.iso
• *.exe
• *.ost

There’s some message about “share with me” when you click next.  Go ahead and allow it.

Sync Status – On-Demand Sync

The confusing thing now is the sync status will be enabled on file explore but the same sync status is for OneDrive and Sharepoint.

Note:  Sometimes OneDrive and Synology Drive sync technologies doesn’t scream at you that it is not syncing to the cloud any more. Therefore, in my case Dropsuite or other cloud solutions like Backupify won’t have all files backed up.  My solution was to have a third party backup on the desktop. However, there’s the expense of having a third party solution but there’s also the issue of “on-demand” sync only syncing files that you currently use on the desktop. The third party backup won’t have a full backup files unless you disable “on-demand”. This brings up an issue of local drive capacity if you are sync all files by disabling “on-demand” The latest solution is having a conditional access rule that forces OneDrive to logout and the user needs to login once a week.  You can’t do this with Synology Drive but then again Synology Drive has a more reliable sync than OneDrive.

Option 3) I want to sync my Synology Shares to my computer

Proceed if you understand the risk of changing from Home to another Synology Share.   One of the risk is simply sinking way to large of a share but maybe with file streaming technology this may not be an issue.    Anyway, don’t edit unless you want to point to another share created in the Synology NAS and not your home folder.

Note:  Don’t understand shares?  Click here.

Sync Synology Drive Client to your Documents folder Summary

Yes, while the sync Synology Drive Client to your documents folder works well, the separate feature providing backup does not.  In facts, the backup task conflicts with the sync task.  Remember syncing data is not the same as backing up data and the backup feature on the Synology stinks.  Use the Synology Active Backup package instead.