# DS photo — user reviews

> 236 indexed App Store user reviews of DS photo by Synology Inc., rated 2.20/5 from 122 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ds-photo/id321493106/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ds-photo/id321493106.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 19 · 4★ 11 · 3★ 13 · 2★ 16 · 1★ 63

## What do users think of DS photo?

Overall sentiment: negative

**Pros**

- 🚀 Fast photo viewing
- 👍 Useful for backing up photos
- 👍 Ability to access photos remotely

**Cons**

- 🐛 Crashes and login issues
- 🐛 Unreliable photo backup
- 🐛 Slow performance and freezes
- 🐛 Incompatible with newer iOS versions
- 🐛 Conversion of photos to JPEG format
- 🐛 Inability to retry failed uploads

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Crashes on startup
- Login failures
- Issues with geofencing and background uploads
- Problems with uploading large files or videos

**Most requested features**

- Add support for HEIC/HEIF photo format
- Improve background upload capabilities
- Add option to save photos/videos to camera roll
- Enhance album management and sorting options
- Improve slideshow and video playback functionality

## Newest reviews (20 of 236)

### 4/5 — Bien globalement

*2024-03-30*

Appli très bien
Mieux en tout cas que les nouvelles moutures de synology qui deviennnent payante ou sur abonnement > grotesque 
La mode est de faire un peu comme tout monde ; on te met un abonnement hors de prix à la semaine et dérisoire à l’année
Et en plus qui marche mal
Donc retour au source sur cette appli qui fait complètement le taff
Ne reconnaît cette pas les visages mais ce n’est pas son rôle

### 3/5 — More usable if able to save albums to camera roll

*2024-03-14, version 4.15.2*

Although great at viewing photos and sharing with family members. It would be nice if the app can support saving multiple photos or an album to the camera roll. I’m not sure if it retains metadata of the photos this way, if not it should be kept.

### 2/5 — Backup feature has issues

*2022-12-15*

Seriously, if you have any images downloaded that happen to be .webp format you’re not going to get any photo backing up done. It will get to one of those and just stop at “preparing” for the rest of eternity until you find the image and manually delete it.

### 4/5 — Was a great app

*2022-10-04, version 4.15.2*

This app used to be the perfect way for me to view my photos on Apple TV, but is no longer supported/available. Lost one of the best features of my NAS!

### 2/5 — Get stuck on missing files

*2022-08-25, version 4.15.2*

I was offline when I downloaded a .webp file.  I was away from home and therefore it never uploaded the webp file via photo backup.  Before I got home the was deleted but when I got home the photo backup was stuck looping on the webp file instead of flagging it as an error and continuing with other file uploading.  Fix this major bug.  Only way to clear bug was to restart all downloading again.

### 4/5 — Webp 확장자만 만나면 멈추던데 언제쯤 가능한가요.

*2022-07-17*

백그라운드 무한 대기라던지 webp확장자라던지 이 두개 문제는 아직도 여전하네요.

### 2/5 — Desperate for an update… ignored

*2022-07-08*

Over 3 years waiting for an update says about all you can say. We have this app on all of our iphones and continue to use it to transfer family photos to our synology server for archive and processing in photo station… but it is fair to question if this app is truly still supported after 3 years. 

Most of the problems are well-documented in other comments, and they continue to grow and be ignored. 

My main annoyance is the looping bug on WEBP photos. WEBP is growing more popular by the day as a photo format but Synology continues to ignore it. Every time we are updating photos to the server we must delete any WEBP format photos from the phone to allow updating to successfully complete. This bug has been known for years. Ignored. 

The Moments experiment has mostly been a failure. It is time for Synology to update these more stable and useful older programs.

### 3/5 — Please update for the iPad mini 6

*2022-05-13, version 4.15.2*

Works well enough but the last update was 3 years ago! Could do with a bit of a look and feel update to make things a little more modern. My big ask would be to support the screen ratio of the 6th gen iPad mini as at the moment there are black bars at the top and bottom.

### 1/5 — ne fonctionne pas

*2022-04-24*

La sauvegarde de photo ne fonctionne pas: Ne détecte pas les nouvelles photos et ne les envoie pas. Déçu

### 1/5 — Doesn’t Upload in Background

*2022-04-08*

It doesn’t upload in the background. Zero part of me wants to just have the app open with my screen on watching it upload one by one. Please fix this. Is it really that hard?

### 1/5 — Not working on IOS

*2022-04-02, version 4.15.2*

Works on 3 of my android devices, but will not sign in on my iPad. Other Synology apps on my iPad will sign in to my Synology server using the same login credentials, but not this one.

### 2/5 — Wasted some of my time..

*2022-03-27*

I had ds photo,file, and video all working at one point. After a while I came back to backup my photos on the iPhone and the app will not allow me to login. I changed nothing..   ok, then I went to file app and it gave me an option to backup photos. It does nothing..   I am realizing the apps seem broken. Disappointed,   Synology please keep apps updated…

### 1/5 — Ne fonctionne plus

*2022-03-24*

Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais DS File fonctionne très bien et plus DS photo tout en ayant les memes identifiants !
Est ce la faute de l’application ?
Ça énerve puisque tout allait bien auparavant.

### 1/5 — 와 이거 나만 안되는게 아니었네 ㅠ

*2022-01-05*

로그인을 해본적이 없어요

### 2/5 — Good but stop working on Apple TV!

*2022-01-02, version 4.15.2*

I like the app, but during the update from DSM 6 to 7, I lost all my notes and comments on my Albums (10 years…) plus it stop working on Apple TV. That’s a shame, we cannot share our photos to our friends and family now…

### 2/5 — Great idea but fails to deliver

*2021-09-29, version 4.15.2*

Great idea but too slow/impossible to access and takes days for photos to even appear, with no explanation of why. DS File is easier to access photos and that is also very slow. 

Repeated log in failures despite active log-in on other DS apps. 

Repeated failure to upload backup photos from iPhone.

### 2/5 — Photo backup again and again

*2021-09-19*

It seems really hard to remember if a picture is uploaded or not. When I open the app after a month to back up pictures, it will start over from the beginning.

### 1/5 — 로그인 안되는 문제 해결해주세요

*2021-09-05*

ds file과 video는 로그인 잘 되는데 photo만 로그인이 안됩니다. 오류 해결해주세요.

### 2/5 — Poor experience

*2021-08-27, version 4.15.2*

This app is the worst part of synology experience and if I do leave synology this will be why. 
The backup experience is just plain bad. No option to backup into folders by month or even by year. 

Also performance of loading folders is bad.

### 1/5 — It doesn’t work

*2021-07-30, version 4.15.2*

It doesn’t work anymore!

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — No longer supported

*2026-07-01*

Not sure why this app is still available - it hasn’t been updated in years and no longer functions. I can’t log in, view downloaded photos, or upload new photos. Controls (e.g. the back button) are blocked by newer iOS control overlays. Ds file serves my needs well, but does not have as smooth of a photo integration.

### 1/5 — Why have it if you’re not keeping it working

*2026-03-30, version 4.15.2*

Cannot login to the photo app. Same username and password work fine in the web interface. Seriously, just take the app down if it’s intentionally unusable.

### 1/5 — Delete it

*2025-08-11, version 4.15.2*

It is wasting your time to download it and your memory to install.

### 1/5 — No longer able to sign in

*2024-12-30*

Everything up to date and the app will no longer connect to the server. The other DS apps work fine, but this one refuses to connect. Waste of time.

### 1/5 — Afful and required

*2024-10-20, version 4.15.2*

Can’t access photos through a browser anymore. And can’t log on not the photos app because it says can’t contact the sinilogy disk station. Usesless now

### 1/5 — Very basic

*2023-05-18, version 4.15.2*

Very basic apps from a manufacturer. It doesn’t even support parallel uploads of images over local network.
Can’t add security to server application. It just running bare security.

### 1/5 — Unable to login

*2022-12-08, version 4.15.2*

Sitting on the same Wi-Fi the NAS is on and login immediately fails.

### 1/5 — Stupid app

*2022-10-17, version 4.15.2*

I can connect using windows pc but cannot connect using DS photo app.  Waste of time 😱😡

### 1/5 — App doesn’t allow any login …

*2022-06-19, version 4.15.2*

Can’t login with same credentials used on other apps … permissions are all checked, recheck, redone and …well…a failed app or inadequate instructions

### 1/5 — Not working any more?

*2022-06-01, version 4.15.2*

I have no idea what I’m supposed to do to get access to my albums on Synology. 
Used to be perfect.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Initial upload took a while, no support for proprietary Apple format

*2020-09-14*

The initial upload took a while since the app transcodes all photos from Apple proprietary format to the standard JPG but it went well and the app kept the phone unlocked in the meantime. Now I can relax that all my photos are automatically backed up and I can view them from the server.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2020-03-10*

Une application juste parfaite, tellement mieux que Synology Moment. Classement par les répertoires du drive (pas d’albums a recréer), aperçu rapide, fonction de recherche. La visualisation par la carte est bien vue.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2019-05-05*

This app is excellent and extremely easy to use. Some of the less than 5 star reviews are definitely under rating this app.

### 5/5 — Excellente application

*2019-01-21*

Excellente application, stable et fiable, très jolie et bien conçue, simple et efficace.

L’affichage des photos est fluide, avec affichages de toutes les informations exit. Les différents modes de présentation (carte, historique, miniature) sont idéals et pertinents. Possibilité d’éditer les infos de lieux.

La gestion multi-utilisateur avec Photo Station est très simple et efficace. 

Sauvegarde automatique des photos récentes ; avec possibilité de charger un Live sous la forme d’une photo et d’une petite vidéo. Sauvage fiable sur laquelle on peut compter (pas d’erreur de chargement, reprise des téléchargements inachevés).

Pas de prise en charge du format .heif mais conversion en .jpeg excellente.

De nombreuses options sont disponibles, de la reconnaissance de visage aux album intelligents (via photo station), au partage public, privé, directement sur les réseaux sociaux (via app), sans nuire à la simplicité de l’ensemble.

### 5/5 — Great backup tool

*2018-10-05, version 4.15.1*

Works well to backup media over WiFi.

### 5/5 — Great way to manage a large library of photos

*2018-09-28, version 4.15.0*

I am using Moments for family photos and PhotoStation for work/professional photos. PhotoStation allows me to access a huge library and download from anywhere on any device. You can maintain whatever folder structure you want. It has worked really well for me. It takes a bit of time to get familiar with the photo upload workflow, but very happy so far. Synology - please keep supporting and maintaining this app - it is a great partner to Moments.

### 5/5 — 👍 HAMMER 👍

*2018-05-23*

Diese app ist eine vorzeige app, läuft flüssig und ist übersichtlich. Ständige gute Verbesserungen und immer auf dem neuesten Stand. Ein großes Lob an das Team.

### 5/5 — Silky smooth with this update

*2018-04-16, version 4.14.2*

With this last update everything is working great as far as I can tell, things now load quickly with no shudder and geofence send spot on!

iPhone 6 running IOS 11.2.5 (15D60).

### 5/5 — (Fehler behoben!)Geofencing funktioniert nicht

*2018-04-11*

Tolle app und fast alles klappte bis jetzt sehr gut und die App ist einfach zu bedienen! Leider funktionierte Geofencing vorher nicht. Zwei Tage nachdem ich es mitteilte und eine Bewertung abgegeben habe wurde das Problem behoben und es gab ein Update! Super schneller Service! Leider konnte ich es noch nicht richtig testen. 5 Sterne wenn das noch läuft! Danke !!

### 5/5 — Latest update

*2018-02-07, version 4.14.0*

The latest update seems to have fixed the network change issue.

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*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 2026-08-13.*