In my previous blog post – Have Important Files Ready Anytime, some of you asked us why we don’t offer file syncing solutions between NAS server and PC. Today, I am really happy to announce DSM 4.0 beta offers you improved experience to manage your files, including Cloud Station and File Station. In this article, let’s explore how Cloud Station enables you to sync your files between your computers and DiskStation automatically. I’ll be talking about File Station in another post.
Cloud Station – Be More Productive at Work
Sometimes it’s inevitable to work at home. A few weeks earlier I was preparing the presentation slides of the upcoming DSM 4.0 beta, and constantly adding new ideas into it. Every day when I leave office, I uploaded the presentation file to the DiskStation, and downloaded it from DiskStation when I was back in my home.
Well, the repetitive uploading and downloading work between my laptop and DiskStation was bound to cause disaster. So there was one morning I screamed out (loudly) in the office. Because I had just realized that I accidently overwrote the new file with the old one. It was really frustrating because I have to re-do it.
Is it possible to sync all of my important files automatically? The answer is yes – we offer Cloud Station with DSM 4.0 beta today, meaning you are able to access your files more easily without constant downloading & uploading task. So the risk of overwriting the wrong files like I did could be avoided. The best thing is that I can have access to the latest of my documents on any of my computers. Works likes a charm =)
And what happens when I am using a public computer, but need to access the files in Cloud Station? Simple, I can access it with File Station. One more thing – Whenever I mess up the document, I can still get the previous versions and get the rollback.
With Cloud Station, working between different places is much more simplified. You don’t have to worry about identifying which file is the latest version, because they are always up-to-date.
Best of all, you can use it anywhere, no router configuration is required! For example, if you have a DiskStation placed in your campus accommodation, it is likely that you can’t assign it to a public IP address. Don’t worry, even without any network settings, you can still sync your files remotely with Synology’s ezCloud. As long as your DiskStation has access to the Internet, files could be sync automatically as they should be. This makes a step forward to build your personal cloud easier than before.
Okay, I’ve spent a whole day and have finally gotten my work done, I am going to send the documents to my partners and clients to share the new features and enhancement of DSM 4.0. How can I share them? Let’s talk about File Station in my next blog post.
Sounds amazing. Exactly what I’m waiting before buying a NAS for home. Do be sure: This Feature will work under iOS, Mac OS X and Windows? And could I also share folders with friends and family? Well, in other words: Will it be as cool as dropbox?
Well, the client of Cloud Station is only for Windows PC only, and don’t worry, we don’t forget Mac users. Share folder to other and allow them to sync is also a cool feature that we are interested in.
Do You know when CloudStation support Mac os ?
Mate, what can I say? Get a real computer
You’re exacly right! It should work -more or less- like DropBox, and at least for the OSX!
It looks great Darren! The only thing I miss is a change of this message: “Cloud Station is currently only available on Windows-run PCs.”. If you guys provided this feature for Linux-users I (and many other customers I guess) would scream out (even more loudly) – in joy!
Yes we know everyone is asking us about Cloud Station on Mac. =)
I didn’t mention Mac?
Sorry I mean client app for Mac and Linux =)
Another Mac user here who was at first super excited, but then surprised by the current Cloud Station ‘Windows only’ statement. That’s even a feature worth paying extra for!
Darrren, that’s great feature. It makes my 211j even more lovable
Anyway, just waiting for a full release (I have betafobia 
)
My choice of getting my first Synology nas (DS411j) just gets better and better with every DSM upgrade! Awesome, thanks! I have been running the beta for a few weeks and it seems to work perfectly for me.
The “being your own cloud” features is taking a great step up with the dropbox similar function, a really good feature! A private dropbox solution without limits. The file sharing is the first step, and to complete my personal cloud even more I’m dreaming of a good syncronisation software for us home users that works similar to exchange. Where i can syncronize my old fashion mail@telia.com mail which uses smtp/pop3, calender, tasks and contacts so i can use the information seemless between outlook on my pc, apple, mirosoft or google smartphone and tablet.
I think that Im one of many users out there who love using outlook/eqivalent on the desktop and laptop but have a hard time syncronizing it with android, iphone an such other platforms.
Maby this is not Synologys main focus but there seems to be a lot of frustratated users like me around the globe which have found out that cross platform syncronisation today is not quite that easy as it sounds and would love to get a simple solution to this. And the Synology device would then really become the heart of my digital life even more than it is today
And being a swede hooked on home automation I’m also dreaming about getting support for the Telldus usb Tellstick and its software as a package in package center to automate my electrical devices at home. Its an open souce based (software runs on almost every platform) that works brilliant running on other linux based units like the Linksys NSLU2 and would complement the synology nas perfectly
Thank you. Things like Outlook equivalent would be convenient for everyone and we are looking for solutions about it. We will keep an eye on home automation as well.
Hi Darren,
I have been planning to use my Synology DS as for personal dropbox for a longtime. Now, i see this cloud station is coming, I must tell you that I am extremely happy about it.
I have three different DS station, I would like to only whether the client is account based? So that i can install in my company so that my staff can sync their computer file and their laptop at home?
Yes, every user has his/her own syncing folder on DiskStation, so I think it works for your scenario.
Hi! I was wondering if its possible to limit certain folders to certain groups/users in CloudStation? So I can share a folder with my studygroup and one with my family?
Hi, currently every user has his/her own syncing folder on DiskStation, and we will think about making sharing these folders possible in the future as well.
Hi,
are there any news on a Linux client for the Cloud Station?
Greetings
+1 for Mac software!
Sure!
Hi,
i tested great new feature CloudStation (build 2166) and what about security? When I sniffed data for cloudStation , they were unencrypted. It is unacceptable.
Thanks for your feedback. Currently the data transfer is not encrypted, and we are aware of this and would like to improve it in the future.
@Darren, How is it now ? Is Cloud Station secured or still not ? If not when will it be ? That’s a wonderful feature but if not encrypted, I would never use it and pretty sure I’m not the only one
Thanks for your (all Synology team) job on that 4.0, everything works just so fine !!
Hi, is the data synchronisation for CloudStation encrypted yet, or is it still unencrypted?
I am eager to try out Cloudstation and was wondering if DSM 4.0 Beta will be able to be upgraded to the final dsm 4.0 without reinstalling.
Of course you can upgrade from DSM 4.0 beta to official when it comes out.
I’m excited about the possibilities of Cloud Station as everyone else, but do you have a specific plan for supporting OSX? When v4.0 is launched? v4.1? v5?
Don’t worry, we will not forget Mac OS users, even though I don’t have a timeline yet.
@Darren, Mac and Linux please
Yes, we’ve heard your voice. =)
Hi there,
I really like the idea of Cloud Station! Although two points that need to be solved before its really usable:
- I would want to specify a custom folder for it. E.g. my whole /home, instead of /home/CloudStation…
- A client for iPhone
Is there plans for this in the near future?
One other thing that would be really handy: A linux client, preferably one that is installable on systems WITHOUT root/sudo access.
Also, in the windows client, once you’ve set it up, it’s not possible to change the address of my DS… I can go to settings but cant change anything.
So this means, I’ve entered “192.168…” for testing, and when I later decide to set up ezCloud or use “…dscloud….” ddns, I can’t change that.
Will there be a limit to the number of users that can use Cloud Station on a DS409?
If so, let it be for “simultaneous” users! The members of my family are almost never “online” at the same time…
Yes, there is a limit to number of users who can use Cloud Station. The # of users on DS409 is 4 so far with the latest Cloud Station beta version.
Is there a way to stop this syncing over the internet. I only want to sync while I am connected to the LAN, not over the internet.
Is there a way to run this as a windows service? So that a PC will sync if a user isn’t logged in. What will happen if I log in to the PC as 2 different users at the same time, and both are set to sync from the same user on the NAS?
Does this support incremental file copy, or does it recopy the entire file every time the file changes. I am worried that would suck up bandwidth syncing over the internet.
We don’t have the feature in Cloud Station yet, and would forward your suggestion to our developers.
I know this thread is a bit old, but I am curious…is there a way to disconnect the Cloud Station from syncing over the internet yet. Hughesnet is our ISP and we have limited monthly bandwidth usage, the Cloud Station syncing over the internet is killing me. Thanks for any help you can offer!!
FYI
If you want to sync multiple folders, from your windows PC, that is quite easy. You can set up NTFS Junction points under your CloudStation folder on your PC.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768
this was my idea too. But creating a junction link is ignored by syncing to the cloudfolder. Only my local junction works.
I make a junction from my DOCUMENT Folder from Drive D: to the Cloud Folder in C:
Any Idea?
Actually your blog is inaccurate. You say that :
“Whenever I mess up the document, I can still get the previous versions and get the rollback”
However the versioning/recycle bin only work if you access files via SMB. If you accidentally delete, edit a file while connected via Cloud, your stuck with the change.
I bought a Synology based on this blog, now I’m thinking of returning it since it can’t do that and wont work for our company.
Thanks a Lot! (sarcasm)
Hi, both multiple versions and recycle bin work for files in the Cloud Station folder. After you install Cloud Station is installed, when you accidentally delete or edit a file, you can revert back using File Station in DSM. Please let me know if anything we can help.
Hi Darren.
I brought my DS212j a week ago and have been messing about over the last couple of days with Cloudstation and symbolic links, have you had a play with this?
I use multiple PCs on which I have individual My Documents folders – which I want to be able to keep separate but access from each PC. I don’t want to drag the My Documents folder into the Cloudstation folder so created a link folder in the cloudstation folder and have setup a symbolic link to it from My Documents. I have done this on a couple of my PCs and it appeared to kinda work… I add a new file to My Documents, it appears in the link folder in Cloudstation. It wouldn’t sync with the cloud until I rebooted the PC or restarted the cloudstation app but I could live with that. But then I found that when I delete a life in My Documents it gets restored from the cloud. I guess this is working by design? I have been doing the same thing with my dropbox account for the last month or so (symbolic link between My Docs and dropbox folder) and thats been working fine and doesnt restore when docs are deleted. Curious to see if anyone else has played around with this?
If I can’t get it to work as I’d hoped I’ll have to consider physically dropping all my ‘My Documents’ folders into Cloudstation which is something I didn’t really want to do!
While waiting for the Linux client, I discovered ownCloud (www.owncloud.org). Installing it on my Synology box was a simple matter of uploading the folder with the php scripts. Have you considered joining forces on some levels perhaps? I think your goals are fairly similar..?
They are missing a few important features like encrypting the files on the server and versioning, but I think it is being worked on…
Linux? Yes some of us use it. One thing which worries me is my DSM3.2 is asking me to upgrade Java. Please be careful not to exclude Linux users who don’t automatically get the latest Java code i.e. if your programmers use new features which the updates platform gives you make sure this part of the system is optional for the user.
Hi, thanks for your suggestion and I will forward it to our development team.
Hi Darren,
RE: No of Users limitation with Cloudstation
Good article.. I really like Cloudstation, but I am having a real problem getting my head around the artificial limitation of clients based on the synology box. What is going on ?
I have purchased a number of Synology boxes for coprorates etc and purchased a DS211J for my own family usage and really liked the idea of being to backup my kids files from college etc.. ( 4 users – limited usage of backup etc.. )
Now I find you placed a limitation of 2 clients for Cloudstation on this platform and limits on other larger devices.
So..
1. Can you change your marketing pages / videos on the website to reflect this, as in my view its misleading. There is no mention of this limitation on the sales materials.
2. Can you explain why the limitation? I will not be buying a larger box given my requirements and the likly patterns of usage.
3. Are you going to ask for additional license fees for more clients ? Which in my view goes against the original Synology value proposition.
Many thanks in advance for your resposne,
Simon
Hi, thanks for your feedback. I will let my manager know your opinions and will feedback to you later.
As another Linux user I find it puzzling and annoying that my Diskstation uses Linux as its OS but does not provide access to Cloudstation for Linux users? It seems a little incongruous and VERY frustrating particularly as I purchased Synology product because of its OS and I only use Linux on my computers and servers – no Window$.
Hi, thanks for your suggestion about Cloud Station on Linux and I will forward it to our development team.
Hi Darren, I fully agree with waverider about the weird situation that synology relies on stable linux for its product but does not provide a client for that platform. Are there already plans for a Linux client?
Hi Darren,
Is the cloud station is secure?
Thank you
Sure it is, and it will be more secure in the future.
Hi Darren,
My wife got me a Synology 1511+ full of 3TB drives for Christmas. It really is a nice system, but I am confused about the seemingly confused and conflicting Synology policies and practices.
1) </BOn one hand Synology is a system based on Linux, which I saw as a huge benefit. On the other hand, primary support is for Windows. All I have are OS X systems (4 of them) and Linux systems (2 of them) along with my wife's iPad and a iPhone. Apple market share in about every aspect of the computer industry except the data center space is growing daily. What are you all thinking? Don't ignore Windows, but why provide such poor support to OS X and Linux?
2) On one hand, you have this incredible, market leading technology that is essentially a personal data center in a home that is a huge step to restoring everyone’s data privacy. On the other hand, you don’t provide an option for removing the icons tied to the centralized social network from the PhotoStation or weBlog feature. Fine, allow people to defeat one of the greatest benefits of your system and push data from the privacy of this expensive system right back out into the prying algorithms of facebook and others. That’s their right. I for one, and many like me, would like to keep my information private and detest that we cannot remove those icons.
So do you guys really have a direction and plan, or are you just throwing the easiest features you can out there as time allows? I know you can easily provide the option of removing the social icons. I did it myself with if statements in a little over an hour. I just don’t want to do it every time you send out an upgrade. And many others that want them gone don’t know how to do it. As far as Apple and Linux support goes, how about showing a little more support to the open source community your taking software from?
–Steve
Thanks for your feedback. We are already working on Cloud Station for Mac OS X, and it should be available soon. I will also forward your suggestions to our developers for evaluation.
@Vranicoff : Despite I really appreciate Syno stuff, I completely agree with you. It is not because the youth massively expose themselves on the networks and doesn’t care about their privacy that a lot of users aren’t deeply concerned with those issues.
So, yes, I would be very glad if all those “social media” garbage could be eradicated from Syno environment by clicking a checkbox. In fact I feel it as a “mélange des genres”, not professional at all.
Since 2006 I installed bunches of Syno around me. The first reason for this was reliability. Nowadays it’s privacy. If it wouldn’t, it would e easier and much cheaper to set up some webdav drives around (unlimited OVH HubiC storage is less than 7 euros each month, you set it up in a matter of minutes).
@Darren : why couldn’t we switch Roundcube Mail Station to https via a checkbox ? Each time I install a new Syno setup I have to use the command line to get it modified in the conf file, that’s boring. Basically using https should be the default option.
I am also waiting for the Linux and MacOS cloud clients. I didn’t understood why the windows version came out so long before the OS X and Linux ones. IMO, as DRM is Linux based, the linux users should be the first to be served.
Hi, Thanks for your feedback. Now we’ve released Cloud Station on Mac. I’ve forwarded your request to our developers about Mail Station for evaluation.
Hi Darren,
Yes, I installed it on my Mac as soon as it was released. It works great, smooth integration, fine work, many thanks to Syno team !
What could we ask you next ?
Oh, yes, as you told it a few week ago, it would *very cool* if we could edit doc, ppt & xls files in a collaborative way, simultaneously, “à la google docs”
But that’s a piece of work so it depends on Syno’s strategy…
Oh yes, and I see two other cool functions, and much cheaper…
The first one, which makes me happy with my dropbox, is the ability to make a directory either public, or shared with someone else by sending him/her an url…
My second wish would be to get the ability to set a secondary Syno address in the cloud client for a securing purpose. The primary & secondary Cloud Station dirs would be network synched via the rsync method between the syno units and the user name would have to be replicated on the two sides) so we could exchange some storing space with family or friends in order to secure our data while keeping it private. This -quite light- added function could be a significant incentive for getting more Syno units sold
Can i change the default folder location of the cloud on a windows7 pc?
My C:\ is a SSD which doesn’t have alot of space left
Hi, sure it is possible to change the default folder location of your Cloud Station folder. You can simply do it during installation or in the configuration page of Cloud Station on Windows.
Hi,
thanks for making this available for Mac clients as well. However, I have an immediate feature request: It should be possible to connect to several accounts. One scenario for this is: I have my own Synology at home with private files and synchronize to it. Now it is not possible to synchronize to a company’s Synology at work using the same account. It would be great to connect to have two separate folders on the same user account on my Mac, one synchronizing to the Home-Synology, the other to the Company-Synology.
Thanks
Ulli
Hi Kortenkamp,
Thanks for your suggestion and I will forward it to our developers.
Using this for a couple of days now, and it’s working great. but there are some things that could be better:
- Browsing through the cloud station folder on Mac is really slow (cpu usage of Finder goes to almost 100%), i think it has to do something with the status-icons.
- Maybe a mono-icon for the mac app?
Mads
Same experience here. Browsing the Cloud Station (which is a very good product, though) in Finder is extremely slow. Please investigate how to solve this.
Thanks a lot for you effort.
Best regards,
Matt.
I have sort of solved it. the status icons in Finder are making it slow. so i removed them.
Right click on the Synology Cloud Station app -> show package contents
Click on Contents and then MacOS, remove the icon-overlay folder and reboot your Mac.
After removing the icons browsing the Cloud Station folder is just as fast as any other folder on your Mac.
Mads
Hi, You can turn off the icon overlay option to avoid the situation.
Hi, we are addressing the issue of high CPU usage. Please contact our support team if it still happens. Thank you!
Hi,
First off – hats off for some incredible products. You guys at Synology do a truly awesome job
Now that CloudStation has been released for Mac I was very excited to try it out – unfortunately I couldn’t since use it since you can’t use LDAP accounts. Any chance you will upgrade CloudStation to implement that feature soon-ish?
All the best.
Thanks for your suggestion, I think integrating LDAP account to Cloud Station is important as well.
Hi,
also waiting for a linux client but are there any plans for Android too ?
Cloud Station clients on more platform is our goal.
I waited for months for the Mac version of Cloudstation to come out. It seemed perfect for what I wanted. Alas, after a couple of weeks of extreme frustration I’ve given up. It’s just a mass of bugs. The main show-stoppers for me are:
1) Every time I edit or delete a file it simply re-creates it with a longer file name. I’ve got hundreds of duplicate copies of my iTunes library, documents etc. littered all over the place, and no way of getting rid of them. The help page says this happens when there is a sharing conflict, but it happens to me even with all the clients unlinked.
2) I have 30000 files in the recycle bin which need deleting. You can only do that through the web interface 50 files at a time. At that rate I’d be an old man before I was finished.
Looking through the forum it seems there are lots of people out there having the same issues, and many more, but nobody is getting any help with them.
Lovely idea. Please let me know when it actually works.
Hi, i have question, do you have planned also in cloud station feature so i can make in admin section one public folder so all co-workers have that folder at their home directory?
Lets say, everybody have the home directory when using the APP and then there are also admin defined public folders.
BR
RaigoS
How does the data synchronisation for CloudShare work from the NAS to the end-device? Is data cached/stored on the Synology servers in the cloud and then pushed to end devices, or is data pushed directly from the NAS device to the end device without the data being stored in the cloud in between (i.e. not stored amywhere outside of the NAS and end device)?
Actually a follow-up question to this as well:
Do Synology servers handle the authorization and connection brokering between clients and NAS or is that handled directly from client to NAS?
Do you guys have an architecture diagram describing what happens actually?
Thanks,
- Baran
Is there any news about the Linux client?
Here’s another request for a Linux client and an Android app.
I also would love to see you publish the Cloud Station API so that open source developers can create their own clients.
Maybe I am abusing the tool, but I like the fact that I don’t have to connect to a VPN connection, load a browser, or other “extra” steps to use Cloud Station. I would like to be able to connect to multiple “cloud drives” simultaneously. I am not sure about File Station, so I haven’t given it much though as the “proper” option. Please advise on your recommended approach to access multiple sites (office 1 w/local data cloud; office 2 w/local data cloud 2). Right now, it looks like I have to unlink and define a new link each time I switch office.
@Darren, is there any plans to have CloudStation sync on multiple Diskstations ? That would be very handy to have a backup if one goes down.
Hi,
I’m actually trying to get my administration buy professionnal Synology NAS solutions () but I have a huge show stopper that is:
- cloud station client for Linux
- integration of LDAP account to Cloud Station
I’ve read this should be done… At least for the Linux client. But do you have any idea when ? And what about LDAP account integration to cloud station (would be nice too to have some quick setup for large LDAP database – give all LDAP users Cloud station account – give each user of a particular LDAP group a cloud station account with common characteristics…) ?
TIA,
Cédrick
What, no Linux client !
Disappointing. Do we know if one is going to be created or not ? If not I need to start looking at other options.
I would like to know if the Synology Cloud Storage Client will be available for Ubuntu/Linux operating system.
Allot of Synology users use Ubuntu Linux and it would be a very useful feature to have. Many Linux users will be grateful if this would be available.
Sad I have no answer… concerning Linuw and LDAP coupling…
Result = synology solution abandoned for my company !
Still thin DSM is perfect for personnal use but not (yet) for a company…
see ya
When will there be a cloudstation linux client? I use ubuntu linux.
Cloud Station release notes:
2012/03/06 – Window$ client
2012/05/17 – Mac O$ client
2012/07/11 – nothing interesting
2012/07/16 – nothing interesting
2012/08/31 – nothing interesting
2012/09/07 – nothing interesting
2012/10/02 – nothing interesting
…and 2012/12/17 – still nothing
286 days have passed and we have no ETA or something about Linux client. Why?
This is a shame…
…and sad. VEEERRRYYYYYY SAD
Linux client, please! I use Mac and Linux Mint, so it is very uncomfortable on Linux machine. Have to stay with Dropbox for a while
Please give us Cloud on Linux. We paid our NAS like the other windows users!
I’m on Linux Mint.
I was about to buy a synology NAS, just thought about the “size”. However, the fact that there is no Linux-Software for the Cloud is a real neckbreaker for me. It’s a pitty, but I will have to look for other products or wait – is there a chance that a linux version of the cloud station will come? There is a real need as well as a market for this!
I like how every case of someone asking for a Mac and Linux client, Synology staff replied apologizing for the lack of a Mac client… I don’t think they even mentioned the word “Linux” once in a single reply. Very confusing for a Linux based system…
Anyway, I still like my DS413, but if it ever dies I don’t think I’ll be replacing it with another Synology product if their Linux support doesn’t improve.
What’s missing the most in Cloud Station is an official SDK and API.
Today, every application you download on iOS has the ability to access DropBox, Sugarsync, SkyDrive, iCloud, Box,… dans many more BUT not my private cloud !
It reduces a lot the interest of Cloud Station. So please, publish an official API so the developers who made the effort to integrate all other cloud solution could now add yours !
May be it is already planned ?
+1 from me for a linux client – I’m on ubuntu
@Darren – could you confirm if there are any plans for a linux client yet, or is it still merely being considered, or has it been ruled out – customers would like to know!
Thanks, Trevor
Is there any way to synchronize a specify a custom folder, instead of /home/CloudStation, in a Mac?
Thanks
+1 for linux from me as well – on Arch Linux
@Daren – the same question as from jtburton above:
could you confirm if there are any plans for a linux client yet, or is it still merely being considered, or has it been ruled out – customers would like to know!
Thanx for your answer in advance,
MicK
@darren
sharing functionality would be more functional if per folder or per item could be indicated with whom to share.
Will this feature be implemented soon?
Thanks in advance.
Wilfred
Hi I have two Synology Boxes. Although I love Synology’s good philosophy of constant improvement of their products I too am disappointed at the lack of support for Linux clients. I use Lubuntu and Linux Mint (ubuntu based). 5 computers in the UK and 2 in Portugal. I wouldn’t use a windows os again if you paid me and all my staff now love Linux so I will have to continue with Dropbox for now.
Also it would be nice for businesses if each user could synchronise their /home folder securely with the cloud. Multiple folders are also essential and choosing sub folders to synchronise would be great (like the old samba offline files system).