Synology
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Network-attached storage |
| Official website | https://www.synology.com/ |
Synology is a Taiwanese corporation that specializes in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances.
They have built a reputation for using open standards (eg. relying on standard Linux RAID instead of proprietary RAID like QNAP), providing feature and security updates for a very long time (in some cases offering security fixes for 12 year old hardware) and offering replacement parts for a long time and at a reasonable cost.
Consumer-impact summary[edit | edit source]
Incidents[edit | edit source]
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Synology category.
Requiring Synology-branded hard drives for certain features[edit | edit source]
For the Plus Series of NAS systems, Synology required the use of their own rebranded hard drives in order to obtain full functionality.[1]
Hardwareluxx reports that you’ll lose several critical functions, including estimated hard drive health reports, volume-wide deduplication, lifespan analyses, and automatic firmware updates. The company also restricts storage pools and provides limited or zero support for third-party drives.[2]
The 2024 Synology models and older are not affected by this change. Still, those upgrading to or purchasing the latest Plus Series device, set to be released this year, will have to buy their drives directly from Synology or its certified suppliers to maximize their system. Because of this, you won’t be able to pick from the best hard drives if you get Synology’s latest Plus Series NAS Systems.[1]
This can currently be circumvented at the user's own risk with a hack using a script available on Github that adds the drives in the system to the list of compatible drives. Other solutions use changes to configuration files to disable the checks.[3] However, these workarounds may cease to function at any time or have unexpected side effects or consequences.
Intel C2000 controversy (2015)[edit | edit source]
Some of the 2015 series NAS devices from Synology used an Intel C2000 series processor, which, due to a clock issue on Intel's side, would cease to function after a certain time. Synology did replace affected devices if they failed within the warranty period, but the replacements were identical devices that had the same defect and would again cease to function after a certain amount of time.
The issue can be permanently fixed by installing a simple resistor on the main board of the device. This requires basic soldering skills.[4]
Proprietary bootloader[edit | edit source]
Unlike on competing products, It is not easily possible to install a Linux distribution other than the manufacturer's DSM. This makes it difficult to repurpose the devices for other uses or install alternative software when support runs out for the manufacturer's OS. The devices also have no video output, thus limiting other uses.[5]
Products[edit | edit source]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Morales, Jowi (16 Apr 2025). "Synology requires self-branded drives for some consumer NAS systems, drops full functionality and support for third-party HDDs". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved 18 Apr 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Synology weitet Nutzung auf Plus-Modelle aus". www.hardwareluxx.de. 16 Apr 2025. Retrieved 18 Apr 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Finally managed to get WD Red Disks working without compatibility issue on DS3622xs+". Reddit. 2023. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ Lixandru, Marius Bogdan (2022-01-05). "Synology: How To Fix C2000 Flaw With 100 Ohm Resistor". Mariushosting. Retrieved 2025-04-19.
- ↑ UN_Synapse (2023). "Can you install a OS other than DSM on Synology hardware". Reddit. Retrieved 2025-04-19.