Synology Drive On Demand Sync for MacOS - what are your issues

What are the issues you are running into with Synology on demand sync for MacOS?

Trying to build up a list.

It’s been strange, for some of my clients it works completely flawlessly. Then sometimes there are really weird issues that are completely different.

What I have seen:

  • Drive just disappearing from the side bar
  • Duplicate fantom file / folders showing up with the same name just -2 -3 -4
  • Final Cut Pro libraries don’t work [this is by design from MacOS]
  • Files will not open

What else have people seen?

Hi Spacerex, Hi all!

Something I learned the hard way. If you’re using iCloud Drive and want to sync that information to your Synology AND keep it in iCloud Drive, the files must be downloaded to the computer for it to work.

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@SynologyRichie I did not even think about that!

So if you setup regular sync (not on demand) does it not download to the NAS unless you manually download them first?

Correct. I learned this via trial and error and the reason why the files were not syncing to the NAS was due to their iCloud status, aka it’s in iCloud but not on your hard drive.

Once I downloaded the file from iCloud, The Nas saw it and synced it.

That is really good info, I had assumed that Synology Drive would request the files be downloaded! actually pretty surprised by that

9 posts were merged into an existing topic: Synology Drive Backup Error

Hi Will: This a great new feature! Two issues we have is that after setting up an on-demand sync task, we get an error when asked to download a folder (capture one session in our case). Sometimes it works, but mostly no. So I deleted the task and then re-established it, and we were able to download the session folder, but now as my assistant works on the files, they are not syncing back to his synology, so we’ll have to manually copy them over.

A nice to have would be a way to navigate to the downloaded folders inside of Adobe Bridge. Currently the only way to see what’s in the download folders is to drag the folder from the Finder Sidebar folder onto the Bridge icon. It works, but it’s not ideal.

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Replying to my own message here… A follow up. Now ON-Demand seems to be working, but in one case some new files we added did not sync, but showed an icon with a cloud and line through it. When I clicked on those, then the did sync. Who knows…

Hi Will - resurrecting this old topic. Feel free to move it to it’s own place if you prefer.
Not so much an issue with MacOS but with Linux (Debian 12) on demand sync which I became interested in after watching your video on the subject here about a month ago.
I was considering a complete move over from Dropbox to my Synology NAS (DS220j) because Dropbox hasn’t yet implemented Smart Sync after at least 6 years of asking so installed Synology Drive in the expectation that Synology would cover this with their on-demand sync capability - and I am extremely disappointed to find that they don’t!

I have in the order of ~1TB of data on my NAS that would be usefully accessed in my Debian 12 instance Files utility but the capacity on my internal SSD (250Gb) is way insufficient to accommodate that and I see no logical reason to increase it (since that is the function of the NAS in the first place!).

I really don’t understand what the issue is with both Dropbox and Synology on this.

I cover this requirement in the meantime by mounting shares on my desktop (in ~/etc/fstab) so I can access the data easily that way but using SynologyDrive seemed a really sound idea.

Perhaps Expandrive is now worth exploring further to see if it can be made to connect to a Synology NAS on either the local network or a distant location since, on the local PC, the files are not stored natively but merely tokens to the original on the cloud server. If they can do it, why on earth are Dropbox and Synology struggling with it?
I’d be grateful for comments.

I am a photographer using SD for my catalog. I have a M2 MackBook Air.

  1. What exactly does the cloud symbol with nothing else (no down arrow, no exclaimation point, …) mean? I can’t find them in Synology Help. For iCloud, the solid line cloud means the file is up to date and on the local Mac, and the dotted line cloud means waiting to upload. Does SD also use those meanings?

  2. SD lets me download from the NAS to my Mac fine, but how do you force an upload? I create files in the SD folder (via the Sync Task) with and without an internet connection. When I get back to my home network, I expect to be able to upload those files to the NAS. But nothing happens. When I log onto DSM to see what is on SD - it is just not syncing with the Mac. I even turned off WiFi on the Mac to make sure I was using the Eithernet direct connection between the Mac and NAS. Those file should just fly through that link. Why isn’t there a way to force an upload?

So I think that’s an apple one. I think what that means is that the files are on your computer, but have not yet been uploaded to the cloud.

I think at least

OK. I left my Mac connected overnight and in the morning everything was synced. Why does it take so long to upload over an eithernet connection? It is very frustrating.