Create a Shared Folder

Shared folders are the basic directories where you can store and manage files and folders on your Synology NAS. Before storing any files, you'll need to create at least one shared folder in DSM.

To create a shared folder:

Go to Control Panel > Shared Folder and click Create.

Specify a name and description for the shared folder.

Select a storage on which to create the shared folder (skip this step if only one storage exists).

Modify the following options if necessary:

Hide this shared folder in "My Network Places": Keeps the shared folder from appearing under “Network” in Windows File Explorer. This option does not affect the access privileges of the shared folder.

Note:

Hiding a shared folder in "My Network Places" does not affect its access right. The access right of the hidden shared folder will remain unchanged. Users who have the proper access rights to the shared folder can still access it by entering "\\server name\shared folder name".
Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions: When Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions is enabled, if a user without read privileges attempts to access a shared folder via Windows File Sharing protocol, the user will not be able to view sub-folders or files within the shared folder. This prevents users from being confused when they connect to their Synology NAS, but encounter a large number of files and sub-folders that they cannot open.
Note:
- This feature is only supported with Windows File Sharing protocol.
- You can modify privilege settings of each folder and file in File Station by right-clicking on it. Choose Properties from the drop-down menu and click on the Permission tab.
- The shared folder itself will not be hidden from users without permissions by enabling Hide sub-folders and files from users without permissions. Only the sub-folders and files within this shared folder will be hidden.
Enable Recycle Bin: When files in the shared folder are deleted, they will be moved to a folder named #recycled. Access to the recycle bin can be limited to users belonging to the administrators group.
Make snapshot visible: The folders and files in snapshots can be accessed via file services in #snapshot folders of the shared folder. Snapshots will be named after the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) when they are taken.
Note:
- Users who are granted the read permission of a file in the volume can read the corresponding file in a snapshot copy, and vice versa. However, users do not have the write permission of any snapshot copies.

Enable shared folder quota: To specify the maximum capacity for each shared folder, tick Enable shared folder quota checkbox, and enter the maximum capacity (e.g. 10 GB) in the following field.
Note:
- Only when the storage is using Btrfs file system will the options of Make snapshot visible and Enable shared folder quota be available for shared folders.
- The combined storage usage of all users’ home directories cannot exceed the quota of “homes”.

Enable advanced data integrity protection: To protect a shared folder with CRC32 checksum and copy-on-write strategies, you can enable advanced data integrity protection during the shared folder’s creation. CRC32 checksum is applied to checking if the data remain identical to when they were originally written, and will notify the user once any corruption has been detected. Copy-on-write helps to improve data consistency upon abnormal system shutdown.
Note:
- This option is available for only the volumes using the Btrfs file system.
- You can enable/disable this option for each shared folder during its creation. This option cannot be modified once the shared folder has been created.
- The system performance may be affected if this option is enabled.
Encrypt this shared folder: If you would like to encrypt the shared folder, do the following:
1. Specify and confirm a new encryption key. The encryption key cannot include commas (,) or equal signs (=).
2. If necessary, tick the box Mount automatically on startup to mount the encrypted folder automatically when the system starts. If this option is disabled, the encrypted shared folder will be unmounted next time the Synology NAS restarts. To view or access an unmounted shared folder, you will need to mount the folder manually by importing or entering the encryption key.

Click OK to finish.

Shared Folder Naming Rules:

Shared folder names are case insensitive and can include 1-32 characters. Names cannot include the following characters: ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , / : ; <= > ? @ [ ] \ ^ ` { } | ~
The following names are reserved for system use: ., .., global, home, homes, printers, public, satashare, surveillance, usbbackup, usbshare.
The first character of a shared folder name cannot be a minus sign or a space, and the last character cannot be a space character.
The shared folder description is case sensitive and limited up to 64 displayable Unicode characters.

Encrypting Shared Folders:

AES 256-bit encryption protects data by blocking off all unauthorized access attempts. Once a shared folder is encrypted, those without the encryption key will not be able to access or modify the encrypted data even if they remove the hard drives from your Synology NAS and mount them on another device.

Note:

Shared folders can only be encrypted at the time of creation.
The names of files and folders within encrypted shared folders cannot exceed 143 English characters or 43 Asian characters.
Encrypted shared folders cannot be accessed via NFS.
If passwords are restored to default using the reset button located on the Synology NAS, encrypted shared folders will be unmounted, and the option to automatically mount encrypted shared folders will be disabled.