Synology Photos is Synology's built-in photo management application for DSM 7.0 and later, replacing the older Moments and Photo Station apps. It combines a personal photo library with optional shared family or team albums, supports AI-powered subject and face recognition, and includes automatic mobile backup via the Synology Photos mobile app. Unlike cloud photo services, everything stays on your hardware. No per-GB subscription, no vendor lock-in, and no data leaving your premises.
In short: Install Synology Photos from Package Center, create a shared folder called photo (lowercase), enable the Personal Space for each user, then install the Synology Photos mobile app for automatic device backup. Setup takes about 20 minutes. The most common mistake is skipping folder permissions. If users can't see photos, check Shared Folder permissions first.
Before You Start: Requirements and Compatibility
Synology Photos requires DSM 7.0 or later. Check your current DSM version in Control Panel > Update & Restore. Any NAS released since 2018 that can run DSM 7.0 supports Synology Photos, including the DS225+, DS425+, DS925+, and DS1525+. Older units from 2016-2018 that are limited to DSM 6.x cannot run Synology Photos. Check the Synology Product Lifecycle page to confirm whether your model supports DSM 7.
For AI features (face recognition, subject detection), the NAS needs to run the Photos AI package separately. This is resource-intensive. A Celeron J4125 (DS225+, DS425+) handles it acceptably for personal libraries up to ~50,000 photos, but if you have a larger collection or multiple users indexing simultaneously, an AMD Ryzen model (DS725+, DS925+) will process significantly faster.
A dedicated volume for photos is recommended if you have drives available. This isn't mandatory, but it simplifies storage planning and allows you to allocate quota per user. If you're on a single-volume setup, that's fine. Synology Photos works on any volume.
Step 1. Install Synology Photos
Open Package Center from the DSM desktop. Search for Synology Photos. Click Install. The installer will prompt you to choose which volume to store the photo library on. Select the volume with the most free space, or a dedicated photo volume if you created one.
During installation, DSM will create a shared folder called photo (all lowercase) on the chosen volume. This is the Shared Space. It holds albums and photos accessible to all users with permission. Do not rename this folder after creation. If you accidentally created it with a capital letter, delete the folder from File Station and reinstall the package to let DSM recreate it correctly.
After installation, Synology Photos appears in the App menu. Open it once to initialise the database. This can take a few minutes on first launch if DSM needs to index existing files.
Step 2. Configure Shared Space and Personal Spaces
Synology Photos has two distinct storage spaces:
- Shared Space. The
photofolder, accessible to all users you grant permission. Good for family albums, shared memories, or household photos. - Personal Space. Each user gets their own
/home/Photosfolder, private by default. This is where mobile backups land.
To enable Personal Spaces, go to Synology Photos > Settings (top-right gear icon) > Personal Space. Toggle it on. All user accounts will now have a private library tied to their home folder.
For the Shared Space, set permissions in Control Panel > Shared Folder > photo > Edit > Permissions. Add the users or groups who should access shared albums. Users need at least Read/Write permission to upload to the Shared Space, or Read Only for viewing only. This is the most common source of confusion. If a family member can't see shared albums, check here first.
Step 3. Enable Mobile Backup
Install the Synology Photos app on Android or iOS. Open it and enter your NAS address. For local network access, the IP address works (e.g. 192.168.1.x). For remote backup when away from home, you'll need either QuickConnect (enabled in Control Panel > QuickConnect) or a direct DDNS hostname.
QuickConnect note for Australian users: QuickConnect routes traffic through Synology's servers, which adds latency for uploads from outside the home network. For heavy use (continuous mobile backup over 4G/5G), setting up direct remote access via DDNS or VPN gives better throughput. On NBN connections with 20Mbps upload (typical NBN 100 plan), QuickConnect upload speeds are generally adequate for casual backup but will queue large batch uploads.
In the app, go to Me > Auto Backup and enable it. Set the backup destination. Choose Personal Space for private backup or Shared Space if you want family photos in a shared album automatically. Select whether to back up over mobile data or Wi-Fi only (Wi-Fi only is the sensible default to avoid burning through mobile data).
CGNAT and remote access: Many Australian NBN connections (particularly fixed wireless and some cable plans) use CGNAT, which prevents port forwarding. If you can't reach your NAS remotely with a direct connection, check with your ISP. Aussie Broadband, TPG, and Internode offer static IP upgrades for ~$5-10/month. Alternatively, Tailscale VPN works through CGNAT without a static IP. see the remote access guide for setup instructions.
Step 4. Enable AI Indexing (Optional)
Synology Photos' AI features (face grouping, subject detection, scene classification) require the Synology Photos AI supplementary package. Install it from Package Center by searching for Photos AI.
After installation, go to Synology Photos > Settings > Face Recognition and toggle it on. Initial indexing of your library will run in the background. On a DS225+ with 20,000 photos, expect 6-12 hours for first-pass indexing. The NAS can be used normally during this time, though you may notice slightly slower response times.
Face grouping works by clustering similar faces. Once indexing completes, go to Albums > People to see detected face groups. You can name each person by clicking the group and entering a name. DSM will then group new photos automatically as they're added.
Subject categories (Animals, Food, Outdoor, etc.) appear under Albums > Things. These are generated automatically without any manual input.
Step 5. Create Shared Albums for Family Use
Shared albums let you curate collections and share them with specific users or via a public link. In Synology Photos, click Albums > + New Album. Choose Manual Album for a curated collection you add photos to individually, or Conditional Album to auto-populate based on date, tag, or camera metadata.
To share an album with family members: open the album, click the Share icon, and choose either Share with users on this NAS or Create share link. Share links can be set to expire after a period and optionally require a password. Useful for sending holiday photos to relatives without giving them a NAS account.
For households where everyone backs up their mobile photos separately (each to their own Personal Space), you can create a Smart Album that pulls photos from all users' Personal Spaces matching a date range. This gives the 'combined family timeline' experience without merging everyone's libraries permanently. Set it up under Shared Space > Albums > + New Album > Conditional Album and set the condition to include all owners.
Common Issues and Fixes
Photos not appearing after upload: Synology Photos thumbnails are generated asynchronously. After uploading a large batch, thumbnails may take several minutes to generate. If photos still don't appear after 10 minutes, check if the indexing service is running: Control Panel > Task Scheduler, look for the Photos indexing task.
Mobile app shows 'connection failed': Confirm the NAS is reachable on the local network first (try the IP address). If local works but remote fails, the issue is almost always port forwarding or CGNAT. Run the built-in NBN Remote Access Checker to diagnose connectivity.
Videos not playing: Synology Photos plays most H.264 videos natively but H.265/HEVC (common on iPhone 13+) requires transcoding. The DS225+ and DS423 can do software transcoding but it's slow. If you shoot a lot of iPhone video, consider enabling the HEVC hardware transcoding option in Synology Photos Settings if your NAS has a capable CPU (DS725+, DS925+, DS1525+).
Storage running out: Use Storage Manager > Volume to monitor free space. Set per-user quotas in Control Panel > User > Edit > Quota to prevent any one person's library from filling the volume.
AU Pricing Context
Synology Photos is free. Included with DSM on every Synology NAS. There's no per-user licence fee, no subscription tier, and no storage cap beyond what your drives provide. The AI package is also free.
If you're buying a Synology NAS specifically for photo management, the DS225+ (from $585 at Mwave) is the minimum recommended model. It has enough CPU headroom for AI indexing on a personal library and supports the latest DSM. Add two drives: 4TB WD Red Plus (~$160 each at Mwave) gives 4TB usable in RAID 1, which comfortably holds 200,000+ RAW photos or several years of iPhone backup. Total hardware outlay around $905 vs Google Photos at $4.49/month for 200GB or $13.99/month for 2TB. The NAS pays for itself in under 5 years on storage cost alone, with the added benefit that you own the data.
Buying from an Australian retailer (Mwave, PLE, Scorptec, Umart) means full Australian Consumer Law protections. A significant advantage given the 1-year international warranty on Synology products extends to a reasonable remedy period under ACL. Overseas purchases through Amazon Global or US grey-market importers void AU warranty support.
Related reading: our NAS buyer's guide, our Synology brand guide, and our NAS explainer.
Use our free NAS Sizing Wizard to get a personalised NAS recommendation.
Can I use Synology Photos without an internet connection?
Yes. Synology Photos runs entirely on your local network. Internet access is only needed for remote access features (QuickConnect, DDNS) and for downloading the app. Photo storage, viewing, and mobile backup on the local network all work fully offline. This is one of the key advantages over Google Photos, which requires an internet connection for everything.
What happened to Synology Moments and Photo Station?
Both were discontinued when Synology Photos launched with DSM 7.0 in 2021. If you're migrating from Photo Station, your photos in the photo shared folder carry over automatically. Synology Photos uses the same folder. Moments libraries (stored in /home/Drive/Moments/) need to be manually moved to the new Personal Space folder structure. Synology published a migration guide in the DSM 7.0 release notes. The key step is running the migration assistant in the Photos settings panel before uninstalling the old app.
How many users can use Synology Photos simultaneously?
Synology Photos has no hard user limit beyond DSM's user account cap (up to 2048 on most models). In practice, performance degrades if many users are simultaneously uploading and indexing. For a household of 2-6 people, any current Synology model handles concurrent use comfortably. For small business use (10+ users), a DS1525+ or rack model is more appropriate to handle the indexing load without impacting other services running on the NAS.
Does Synology Photos support RAW files?
Yes, Synology Photos can store any file format including RAW (CR2, CR3, ARW, NEF, RAF, DNG, etc.). Thumbnails are generated for most common RAW formats. However, thumbnail generation for RAW files is significantly slower than for JPEGs. Expect indexing to take longer on a large RAW library. Full editing of RAW files requires exporting to a desktop app; Synology Photos is for management and organisation, not editing.
Can I access Synology Photos via a web browser?
Yes. Go to your NAS IP address or QuickConnect URL in any browser, log in to DSM, and open the Synology Photos app. The web interface is functionally identical to the desktop app. For sharing albums with people who don't have a NAS account, use the share link feature. They can view (and optionally upload to) the shared album in a browser without needing DSM credentials.
How do I migrate from Google Photos to Synology Photos?
Use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) to export your Google Photos library. Google exports in zip archives containing JPEGs with separate JSON metadata files. Import the images into Synology Photos via File Station (drag to the photo folder or your Personal Space). The creation dates in the JSON sidecar files are not automatically merged with the images. Run a metadata fix tool like ExifTool on the exported files to embed the correct dates into EXIF before importing, otherwise photos may sort incorrectly by date in Synology Photos.
Thinking about using your NAS for remote photo access or backups from outside the home? Read the complete guide to Synology remote access over NBN. Covers QuickConnect, DDNS, and VPN options with Australian ISP context.
Remote Access Guide →