Cloud Sync
With Cloud Sync, you can seamlessly sync and share files among your DiskStation and multiple public cloud services, such as Dropbox, Baidu Cloud and Google Drive.
Create New Connections
To sync files among your DiskStation and public cloud services, you need to create connections on Cloud Sync to link to the service provider by using your user credentials.
To create a new connection:
- On the Cloud Sync user interface, click on the Create icon at the bottom-left corner to start the wizard.
- Follow the instructions to choose the public cloud service you want to sync files with, and log in with your user credentials.
- Select a local folder as your sync destination to store the files.
Note:
- Current supported public clouds include Dropbox, Baidu Cloud and Google Drive.
- When creating connections, you can only select empty folders as your sync folders.
- Each user credential can only be used for creating one connection. You can create multiple connections all with different user credentials, but not duplicate connections with the same user credential.
- Due to Baidu's limitations, you are only allowed to sync files to the "My Application's Data > Cloud Sync" folder in your Baidu Cloud storage.
- For files on Google Drive, only those that were uploaded from your local PC to your Google Drive will be synced.
- File or folder names that end with a period (.) or a space will be renamed as "file name._DiskStation_modified date_TailCharacterConflict".
- Files will not be synced by Cloud Sync under the following circumstances:
- The file size is larger than 10 GB.
- The folder or file path contains the following characters:
* : ? \ / " < > |
- The file name starts with any of the following:
. _ ~ .SYNOPPSDB
- The file/folder name is or contains any of the following:
.ds_store desktop.ini @eadir thumbs.db .SynologyWorkingDirectory #recycle Icon\r $Recycle.Bin @sharebin
- The folder or file path is longer than 2048 characters.
- The file name is longer than 255 characters.
- Files will not be synced by Cloud Sync to Baidu Cloud and Dropbox under the following circumstances:
- For Baidu Cloud:
- The file name starts with a period (.).
- The file/folder name is or contains any of the following:
.baohe .cache
- For Dropbox:
- The file name starts with any of the following:
.dropbox .cache
- The file/folder name is or contains .dropbox.
- Cloud Sync follows the OAuth authentication standard, and your DiskStation will not remember or keep your account password. Your user credentials will only be used for the purposes of file transfer and syncing. Cloud Sync will not access or disclose any other personal information of your account such as contacts.
Manage Connections
Once a connection has been successfully created, you can view the connection information and modify your syncing tasks.
To manage connections:
- Select the connection you want to edit from the connection list on the left panel.
- Under the Overview tab, click Manage to do any of the following:
- Pause syncing: Pause the syncing operation.
- Resume syncing: Resume the syncing operation.
- Unlink: Remove the connection of your DiskStation and the public cloud service.
Manage Cloud Sync from DSM System Tray
After you have installed and launched Cloud Sync, a package icon will appear at the top-right corner of your DSM system tray. You can easily and efficiently manage Cloud Sync and perform the following actions from the system tray:
- Monitor recently modified files.
- View the transfer speed and progress for concurrent transfers.
- Pause or resume all the connections.
- Open the paired sync folders.
- Launch Cloud Sync.
For Advanced Users
To ensure your files and folders sync correctly, please note the following information.
Metadata that will not be synced to your public cloud services:
- UNIX read/write and execution permissions.
- Windows ACL.
- Mac's extended attributes.
- Last modified time of the folders.
- Last modified time of the files (for Dropbox and Baidu Cloud).
- File changes made during the time your DiskStation is unlinked from Dropbox. If the file size remains the same when you relink DiskStation to Dropbox, the local file will not be synced to Dropbox even if it has been modified.
Default action for conflicted copy:
If a file or directory is modified on both your local DiskStation and remote public cloud account at the same time, Cloud Sync will try to keep the local changes as much as possible, and the remote changes will be saved as one revision if the cloud service supports versioning.
Why is Cloud Sync slower than other cloud services' PC applications?
Due to the below limitations, Cloud Sync might take longer to sync files with public cloud services than the official PC applications such as Dropbox and Baidu.
- Speed limits imposed by cloud service providers: Although no public cloud service provider has disclosed any information related to this topic, it is highly possible that public cloud servers communicate with their official PC applications through a dedicated tunnel/protocol, or impose bandwidth limitations on third-party applications that access their services on a regular basis (such as Cloud Sync).
- No incremental update: Some cloud service providers do not releases a public API for developers to track file changes. This means Cloud Sync must re-download and sync the entire file every time a file has been modified, even when you've only made partial modifications. On the other hand, cloud service providers' official PC applications might be able to re-download and sync the modified bits only, reducing sync time.
- No local network sync: Certain public cloud service providers offer LAN sync, a technique that allows one client to obtain files from existing clients in the same local area network (LAN), thus significantly boosting sync speed. However, LAN sync accesses files in client computers without notifying them, which could possibly become a security backdoor. Therefore, this feature is not included in Cloud Sync.
Given the above limitations, the syncing performance of Cloud Sync shall continue to be enhanced, while also maintaining the safety and security of your Synology NAS.