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Files

Your shares, from anywhere

File Station and Shared Folders, copy and move on the NAS itself, plus the three DSM apps that are really about content: Note Station, Synology Office and Contacts. If Download Station is installed it lives here too - it has its own page.

File Station browsing shared folders
On this page
File Station

Browse and download

Starts at Root - every shared folder your account can see - and walks down from there. The breadcrumb at the top shows where you are and takes you back up.

What you can see is what DSM lets you see. File Station here respects your DSM account's permissions exactly - a folder your account cannot read does not appear, the same as in the web interface.
File Station

Copy and move, on the NAS itself

Pick files or folders, choose Copy to or Move to, and the NAS carries out the transfer - not your phone. Even hundreds of gigabytes never pass through the device in your hand.

  • Long-press to select one or more files and folders. The bar at the top switches to Copy to... and Move to....
  • Pick a destination the same way you browse File Station - open a share or a folder and confirm. Every share the NAS lists is a destination, an external drive plugged into the NAS included: it appears exactly like a shared folder, because the NAS mounts it as one.
  • A name clash asks first. If an item already exists at the destination, you choose overwrite it or skip it and keep the existing one before anything starts.
  • A move is held to confirm. Moving deletes the originals once the copy lands, so the confirm button has to be pressed and held rather than tapped - a beat of friction on purpose, before something that cannot be undone from the app.
A folder selected in File Station with Copy to and Move to in the action bar
The Move to destination picker listing every share the NAS offers

The destination picker is File Station again, scoped to choosing a folder rather than opening a file.

  • Progress while it runs - bytes moved and a percentage, read from the NAS itself. A total the NAS is still working out shows as sizing rather than a number that means nothing yet, and while it is sizing the banner still shows how much has copied so far, for example "6.82 GB so far", with a moving bar rather than a stalled one.
  • Speed shows whenever the NAS reports one. If the NAS goes quiet for a while - common while it writes to a slow USB drive - the banner keeps the amount already copied, hides the speed until a fresh reading arrives, and checks in less often until the NAS answers again. The copy itself keeps running on the NAS the whole time.
  • Cancel stops it on the NAS, mid-transfer. Whatever already copied stays at the destination; nothing is rolled back.
  • Close the app and it keeps going. The task belongs to the NAS, not to a screen you have to keep open. Reopen File Station and the app reattaches to the same task rather than losing track of it.
Why hold instead of tap. A copy leaves the originals in place, so a mis-tap costs nothing - that one is a single tap. A move deletes them once the copy lands, so it gets the same hold-to-confirm pattern as the reboot and shutdown controls elsewhere in the app.
Shared Folders

The shares themselves

Not the files - the shares. Each entry shows its name, the volume it sits on, its description and an ACL chip when it carries access-control permissions.

  • Create a shared folder with the button at the bottom right.
  • The overflow on each row holds what you can do to that share.
  • Encrypted shares are identified as such, so you can tell at a glance which ones need unlocking after a reboot.
Where a share lives matters. The volume is shown on every row, which is the fastest way to answer "which volume is filling up" when you are looking at a full one on the Storage screen.
Shared folders with volume, description and ACL chips
Note Station

Notebooks and notes

Note Station notebooks with note counts

A summary at the top - total notes, notebooks and tags - then All Notes and each notebook with its own count.

  • Open any note and read its full content.
  • Images show where they sit in the note, between its paragraphs rather than stripped out or bunched at the end.
  • An image the NAS cannot send shows Image could not be loaded in its place instead of just disappearing - including images the web clipper added from outside web pages, which a NAS sometimes cannot serve back.
  • Create a notebook or add a note with the two buttons at the bottom right.
  • Delete a notebook from its row.

Three notebook titles in this screenshot are blurred - they are a real NAS's.

Synology Office

Installed, and what it supports

A status screen rather than an editor: the version of Synology Office your NAS runs, and which document types it supports - Documents, Spreadsheets and Slides - each with a tick.

Why it stops there. Office documents are stored in and opened through Synology Drive. Rather than build half a spreadsheet editor into a NAS monitor, the app tells you Office is there and points you at Drive, which is where the documents actually live.
Synology Office status with Documents, Spreadsheets and Slides
Contacts

Address books

Synology Contacts address books with contact counts

A total across every address book, then each book with its own count - including books imported from Google, which appear alongside the ones created on the NAS.

  • Search across everything from the box at the top.
  • Expand a book to see the contacts in it; the sections collapse so a book with two thousand entries does not swamp one with six.
  • Add a contact to a specific book from its row, or with the button at the bottom right.
  • Edit or delete an existing contact.

One address book name is blurred - it is a real address.

Common questions

Files FAQ

Can I download a file from my NAS to my phone?
Yes. Open File Station, find the file and download it. On mobile the share sheet takes over; on Windows and macOS you get a native Save As dialog. Downloads work over QuickConnect too.
Can I copy or move files to a USB drive plugged into the NAS?
Yes. An external drive shows up as a destination the same way a shared folder does, because the NAS mounts it as one. Pick Copy to or Move to, open the drive and confirm - the NAS writes to it directly.
Does copying or moving pass through my phone?
No. The NAS does the work itself. Your phone sends the request and watches progress, so a transfer of hundreds of gigabytes never touches your data plan, and it keeps running if you close the app.
Can I create a shared folder from the app?
Yes, from the Shared Folders sub-view. Existing shares show their name, their volume, their description and whether they carry ACL permissions.
Can I read my Note Station notes?
Yes. The Notes sub-view shows your notebooks with a note count and a tag count, and you can open any note to read it in full, create a notebook, or add a note. Images inside a note show where they sit in the note, and an image the NAS cannot send shows a could-not-be-loaded placeholder instead of disappearing.
Why does Synology Office only show a status?
Because Office documents are stored in and opened through Synology Drive. The app reports that Office is installed and which document types it supports; editing a document belongs in Synology's Drive app.
Why can I not see a folder I know exists?
File Station here respects your DSM account's permissions exactly. A folder your account cannot read does not appear, the same as in the web interface. Sign in as an account that can see it.

Next: Download Station

Add by link, magnet or .torrent, and change the settings your NAS reported.

Download Station →   Back to the guide