# DS cam — user reviews > 283 indexed App Store user reviews of DS cam by Synology Inc., rated 3.00/5 from 172 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ds-cam/id349087111/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ds-cam/id349087111.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 51 · 4★ 20 · 3★ 24 · 2★ 24 · 1★ 53 ## What do users think of DS cam? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 🚀 Works great - 👍 Good and useful app - 🚀 Fast and stable - 👍 Completely control camera recordings - 👍 Toggle through events easily **Cons** - 🐛 Regular app crashing - 🐛 Crashes frequently - 🐛 Cannot scroll back in timeline without issues - 🐛 Event viewer rarely works - 🐛 Slow and clunky - 🐛 Keeps buffering - 🐛 Crashes constantly - 🔋 Battery drain - 🐛 Push notifications not reliable - 🐛 Cannot click on push notifications - 🐛 No bookmarks or advanced filtering - 🐛 Cannot download h265 videos - 🐛 Notifications missing thumbnails - 🐛 Slow login process - 🐛 Loses remembered connections - 🐛 Slow to connect - 🐛 Notifications stopped working - 🐛 Crashes iPhone 14 Pro - 🐛 Incompatible with older Surveillance Station versions **Commonly reported bugs** - Regular app crashing - Cannot scroll back in timeline without issues - Event viewer rarely works - Keeps buffering - Crashes constantly - Battery drain - Push notifications not reliable - Cannot click on push notifications - Cannot download h265 videos - Notifications missing thumbnails - Slow login process - Loses remembered connections - Slow to connect - Notifications stopped working - Crashes iPhone 14 Pro - Incompatible with older Surveillance Station versions **Most requested features** - Selective motion notifications - Custom notification sounds - Ability to categorize alerts - Live scrubbing on timeline - Bookmarks and advanced filtering - Ability to download h265 videos - Faster login process - Ability to retain remembered connections - Apple TV app - Dark mode for all screens - Ability to quickly switch between cameras ## Newest reviews (18 of 283) ### 3/5 — Decent app *2026-06-11, version 5.12.0* Decent app with basic functionalities. I wish it would support Face ID to provide a quick access and better user experience. I noticed that when a session is opened via WiFi, if you try to access the app again via another connection (LTE, 5G etc…), you need to open a new session. ### 3/5 — OK but needs a few tweaks *2026-05-12, version 5.12.0* Reasonable app. Does most things. One annoyance though is the login regularly fails when connected to a VPN. I have to disconnect from the and force kill to be able to logo again. Push notifications aren’t affected. ### 4/5 — Good app with some cool features *2026-03-21, version 5.12.0* Like the app but I wish there was a way to set notification sound separately and have it custom. ### 2/5 — Pinch zoom quality terrible *2026-03-14, version 5.12.0* Not sure what you done but when I select a 4K quality stream and try to zoom in the quality is terrible compared to doing it on a pc. I can’t see details any more but I know they see these on my surveillance station. Kinda defeats the point in having a mobile app if you put such a terrible software zoom in that I can see much. Can you PLEASE make this open source and we will all fix it. ### 2/5 — Super buggy *2026-02-28, version 5.12.0* This thing is just plain bad. More often than not after dragging the time slider to go back in time it will lose audio; only way to get it back is to quit and restart, but then you’re back at live so that means it’s pretty hit and miss to listen to audio from the past at all. Going back in time produces wildly long delays before video starts playing. Why does Synology not care enough to fix this thing? ### 3/5 — It’s not great *2026-02-05, version 5.12.0* It’s slow, buggy, and the app doesn't have critical alerts, but seems to work well enough otherwise. I get notifications that I need to update the app for encryption but I’m on the latest version. It records and sends me notifications, so it has the basics covered. ### 4/5 — Läuft gut auf meinem IPhone *2026-01-16* Ich nutze die App seit ca. 3 Jahren und hatte noch nie ein Problem. Habe aktuell die Version 5.12.0. nutze aktuell 5 Kameras. ### 3/5 — I thought this was great *2025-11-18, version 5.11.0* This was great. I put in one POE camera successfully in my backyard so I decided to buy two more for my front yard and my front door. But upon attempting to add the third camera, I was prompted to pay for a license, but when you go to purchase the license, it just says out of stock so now my third camera is completely useless to me. I am now stuck trying to locate a open source program. ### 3/5 — Struggling with Remote Access *2025-11-01, version 5.11.0* Generally speaking I really like the app and live view works fine but I have had ongoing issues with trying to access recordings from notifications even on my home network. ### 4/5 — Almost Perfect *2025-10-10, version 5.11.0* Using the app with the new C400 cam. Only thing I really need in the app before I switch all my cams to Synology is live scrubbing on the timeline. When scrubbing back and forward it doesn’t show previews and only starts playing when stopping scrubbing. Please add this feature. ### 2/5 — Push not reliable and no bookmarks!? *2025-07-19, version 5.10.0* IOS Push alerts are often missing the camera thumbnail. Also if Action Rule triggers a push notification you cannot click on it in DS Cam, it is useless. Surveillance Station supports bookmarks - markers in the recording timeline of interest. These are important for integrations with external systems and for identification. Why does the app not? Motion events are too coarse and bookmarks have custom text which you can set and search for. You need to support more of the excellent SS functionality in your app. The app becomes the deciding factor in which NVR manufacturer solution users choose. I want to be able to filter for events like action rules or DVA AI triggers. All of this is missing. If you can’t keep your app up to date then open source it! Update: the app crashes constantly if you add a Reolink Duo 3 to your system. A camera that SS claims to ‘support’… again, the app is really a let down. ### 3/5 — Videos saved from h265 cameras are not viewable on device *2025-07-03, version 5.10.0* I love the app, hardly had any problem but since I changed 2 of my cameras which use h265, I cannot save, edit or share any recording as I can’t even open them on my mobile devices. It sounds ridiculous since I can view the cameras via the app. ### 2/5 — Would love the ability to customize ios notification sounds… *2025-06-22, version 5.10.0* If we could categorize alerts, have custom notification sounds in ios, that would be ideal… Would be great way to take advantage of more advance ai face analysis to avoid notifications at times. Edit: New issue June 2025, ios notifications now wont show previews, and instead mention encryption. ### 3/5 — App shuts down *2025-06-02, version 5.10.0* While watching notifications videos, the app may play the video for a couple seconds and then shut itself down and then you have to restart the app to view the notification videos. ### 2/5 — No updates *2025-05-30, version 5.10.0* 2025 and they still do not support downloading h265 videos while nearly all other systems do. They also dropped support for AAC audio to save a buck. ### 3/5 — Version 5.4 wird verlangt, gibt’s aber nicht *2025-05-09* Seit Monaten erhalte ich diese Fehlermeldung: „Benachrichtigungen sind verschlüsselt. Bitte aktualisieren Sie auf iOS DS Cam 5.4.0 oderAndroid DS Cam 3.5.0 oder höher, um die Nachrichten zu lesen.“ Aber die jüngste Version ist und bleibt 5.10. Wie kann ich diese Fehlermeldung abstellen? So kann man nicht sinnvoll mit der App arbeiten. ### 3/5 — OK but needs a few tweaks *2025-04-28, version 5.10.0* App has good potential. Unfortunately the login process wont support things like cloudflare login. Opening this up would be a nice win. At the moment, quick connect is the only external option as far as i know ### 2/5 — Battery Drain *2025-03-04, version 5.9.0* The apps drains the battery even when not in use. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not a great app *2026-07-13, version 5.12.0* I am a fan of Synology but not if this app. Many times a camera’s image will freeze or there is a spinning wheel in the camera. The app should be smart enough to restart the connection to that camera. I think better thought needs to be put into this. Contact me and I can help test it. Look forward to your reply. ### 1/5 — Poorly designed app *2026-05-19, version 5.12.0* Web app drops can’t connect remotely, then have to travel to site to enable quick connect. Poorly designed app. ### 1/5 — No downloading video *2026-02-19, version 5.12.0* App is a bit slow and clunky. Parts are downright broken; it keeps telling me to give it access to my photo library in order to download video (it already has write access to the library). ### 1/5 — Regular app crashing. *2025-12-31, version 5.11.0* App regularly crashes. Randomly. Irritates me. On many iOS devices. Please can you improve the stability of the app. Fees are charged for camera licences so I expect this to work. ### 1/5 — Absolutely horrible. *2025-12-13, version 5.11.0* Barely works on iPhone 13, iPhone 12 or iPad 10. Crashes frequently. Cannot scroll back in timeline without endless hang or crash. Event viewer works approx 4% of the time. Can’t believe this is what they offer. ### 1/5 — Slow and clunky *2025-06-19, version 5.10.0* When is this going to get some attention? Reviewing footage is nearly impossible. App hangs and takes MINUTES to load previous events, if it ever loads at all! ### 1/5 — Keeps buffering *2025-04-14, version 5.10.0* The latest version causes my camera feeds to keep buffering and go offline. I have to close the app and restart it to bring the feeds back. I wish I could use the older app again, it was solid. ### 1/5 — Crash *2025-03-21, version 5.9.0* Can’t use on iPhone 14 Pro (iOS 18.3.2). Keep crashing. ### 1/5 — Crashes constantly *2025-02-15, version 5.9.0* Why is there no support or updates for this app? It is absolute trash. ### 1/5 — Constantly Crashing *2025-01-14, version 5.9.0* App crashes all the time. If you add a camera on your Synology you have to uninstall and reinstall the app for it to het picked up. Really overall a pretty terrible app. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Nice little cam app *2026-03-22, version 5.12.0* This is a nice little app for my two security cams (TP-Link). Suggestion - It would be great if you could pop a camera out into PiP (Picture in Picture) on the iPad . ### 5/5 — Works great *2026-02-01, version 5.12.0* I can completely control my camera recordings and easily toggle through events ### 5/5 — App is fast and stable! *2025-05-22, version 5.10.0* I've used this app for over 5yrs and it's easily one of the most consistent and reliable apps I have. It's super quick and easy to use, great features for even novice users. My only wish is that in the camera layout view that they could add a larger grid for more cameras! The 2x3 view is nice but it would be great if a 3x3 (or custom views) could be added. Otherwise it's excellent! ### 5/5 — My go-to tool to check recordings *2024-06-17, version 5.8.0* A very quality app. I don’t understand all the bad ratings, the app is very good. In fact, I like it better than the original web client, as in the app I can find what I need faster. The app has everything you need, and I have not encountered any bugs or crashes. ### 5/5 — Sehr gute App, deutlich besser als Qnap *2024-06-01* Ich bin von Qnap auf Synology umgestiegen. Ein Unterschied wie Tag und Nacht. Übersicht in der App und durch die „Ereignisse“ kann man sehr gut suchen. Dazu bisher keine Stabilitätsprobleme und auch von Außen mit VPN ein klasse Aufbau. Eingesetzt werden bei uns 1x 8MP und 7x 4MP IPCams von Dahua. ### 5/5 — Zuverlässige Pflege seit vielen Jahren *2023-08-16* Ich bin prinzipiell sehr zufrieden. Alles läuft flüssig und stabil. Einziges großes Problem: Beim Zoomen von 4K Videos wird die verfügbare Auflösung nicht ausgeschöpft. Das sollte unbedingt korrigiert werden. **Developer response:** Dear User, thank you for the kindly feedback and we apologize for the inconvenience. Could you please provide more details on this issue, so we can help you further? We will keep working hard to make DS cam better. ### 5/5 — Working well *2023-07-26, version 5.6.1* Ive been using this for 18 months and It suits my needs fine. Im pretty low maintenance with my needs, I run 8 POE cameras and have no issues. I had disconnect issues in the beginning but realized I needed to have static IP addresses so my cameras would stop getting diff IPs during power outages. Since making that change in my configuration all has been good. Also, set playback quality to Low so you are not trying to send high quality video to your tiny mobile screen. Took me another minute to figure out why my mobile would bog down, it was due to 8 cameras of high quality video coming in at same time. Now all is smooth and has been fitting my needs for some time with no issues for me. Your results may vary. ### 5/5 — Good APP *2023-06-22, version 5.6.1* Best PM ever!!!! ### 5/5 — Great app to replace my AVR *2023-06-07, version 5.6.1* I was using Hikvision AVR not the best option and the UI looks pretty old school. The DS Cam definitely is a better choice for my family. Easy to scroll to detection. Download record etc. everyone own has a IP camera should give a shot on this app ### 5/5 — Excellent. Will you be adding the Synology TC500 support please? *2023-05-25, version 5.6.1* I love this app, it works very well. I hope you will add support for the new Synology TC500 soon. Thanks! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*