On smartphone and tablet, the Synology Drive app gives you access to your cloud storage. Browse, upload, download, sharing — all like on the desktop, plus offline marking and a photo-upload function. Here’s what the app can do.
Important: two different apps
In the mobile space, Synology has:
- Synology Drive — file management (this one)
- Synology Photos — photos and videos (separate article: Synology Photos)
Depending on your workflow you need both. They use the same login.
Download
App Store / Google Play → search for Synology Drive.
The official app by Synology Inc. Keep an eye on updates — the app is maintained continuously.
First sign-in
Open the app → Connect.
- Address:
https://drive.xaweho.de(or your server URL from the setup mail) - Username and password
With 2FA: enter the code from your authenticator app.
After that the app keeps its own device session — you only need the 2FA code at login, not on every use.
What the app can do
Browsing
- Sidebar: My Files, Shared with me, Shared links, Starred, Recent, Recycle bin
- Folder navigation by tapping
- Preview for images, PDFs, Office files, videos
Upload
- Plus icon → Upload
- Pick a photo / video from the gallery
- A file from the iOS Files app / Android storage provider
- Straight from the camera (new photo, new video)
Download
- Tap a file → Action → Save as
- The file lands in the iOS Files app / Android downloads
Offline marking
Long-press a file → Make available offline. The file is stored on the smartphone and readable without internet.
While connected, the local copy is updated automatically when the server version changes.
Sensible for:
- Important PDFs you need on the road
- Travel documents
- Contracts
Careful: this uses smartphone storage. Don’t mark everything for offline.
File actions
Long-press a file:
- Open
- Make available offline
- Share (generate a public link)
- Move / copy
- Rename
- Delete
- Properties
Sharing from the mobile app
Long-press → Share:
- Generate a public link
- Password, expiry, permission
- Share directly with other apps (WhatsApp, Mail, Signal, AirDrop, etc.)
Co-editing from the mobile app
Office files (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) open in the app in a narrow viewer. Editing on a smartphone screen: technically possible, practically tedious.
For serious editing: a tablet in landscape mode or dedicated Office apps (Microsoft Word, LibreOffice on Android etc.) plus sync.
Photo upload from the Drive app
Confusing: the Drive app has an auto-upload mode for photos. But:
Recommendation: use Synology Photos for that. It’s optimized for photo upload, with gallery view, people recognition etc.
Drive auto-upload makes sense for documents — scanner app on the smartphone, automatically into a Drive folder.
Document scanner
Plus icon → Scan document. The app uses the smartphone camera, detects document edges, corrects the perspective, outputs a PDF.
Handy for:
- Scanning receipts
- Digitizing contracts
- Capturing whiteboard notes
The PDF lands straight in your Drive.
Camera-roll backup for documents
If you want auto-upload for documents (not photos):
App → Settings → Auto upload:
- Pick a target folder (e.g.
/Dokumente-Auto) - Pick a source album (e.g. only a “Receipts” album, not the entire camera roll)
- Wi-Fi only
Some smartphone cameras support app-specific saving into their own albums — you can auto-upload those selectively with Drive.
Notifications
The app sends push notifications:
- New files in shared folders
- Sharing requests
- Sync problems
Configurable in app → Settings → Notifications.
Security lock
App → Settings → App lock. Code, Face ID, fingerprint to open the app.
We recommend it, especially if you carry family files around.
If a device is lost
Smartphone gone / stolen?
- Sign in via browser → avatar → Personal → change the account password
- Open a ticket — we terminate the device’s active sessions server-side
- Sign in again on your remaining devices with the new password
That way the lost smartphone can’t reach your cloud anymore — it knows neither the new password nor your 2FA code. The app lock (see above) additionally protects the locally cached files.
Frequently asked questions
Push doesn’t work — what to do?
- Check the app’s notification permission in the iOS/Android settings
- Reinstall the app
- If the problem persists: open a ticket — we check the push-provider configuration
How much storage does the app use? The app itself: ~150 MB. Plus offline-marked files plus cache.
Do multiple accounts work in the app? Yes, app settings → Add account. Switch via the avatar at the top. Note: each account is its own storageDRIVE plan — one plan has exactly one user account (your devices are unlimited independently of that). If several people need their own logins, take a plan per person or Nextcloud Hosting.
Does drag and drop from other apps work? iOS: yes, with multitasking. Drag a file from the iOS Files app into the Drive app. Android: yes, via the Storage Access Framework.
Synology Drive mobile vs iCloud Drive mobile — which is better? Functionally similar. With Synology Drive: you keep the data private, no US cloud provider. iCloud Drive is more polished UI-wise, but costs privacy.
Photos uploaded twice with auto-upload and Synology Photos? If both apps have auto-upload active: the photo gets uploaded twice, into both target folders. You don’t want that — pick one app. Recommendation: Photos for photos, Drive for documents.
Streaming mode on mobile too? Yes — files appear without downloading and are loaded when tapped. That’s the mobile app’s default behavior.
Does Drive work offline? Only for offline-marked files. Other files need internet.
What’s next
First login to DSM
What you receive after ordering and how to log in to your storageDRIVE account for the first time.
Account and quota — how your storageDRIVE storage works
One plan, one user account, a fixed quota: what counts toward the quota, what happens when it's full, and how upgrades work.
File Station — the file manager in your browser
The classic file manager in DSM. Upload, download, creating folders, ZIP creation, previews, sharing links.
Mounting storageDRIVE as a drive (SMB)
How to connect your storageDRIVE via SMB as a drive — in the Mac Finder, Windows Explorer and as a mount on Linux. Step by step, including auto-mount and Time Machine.