# Synology Photos

> Mobile client for Synology Photos NAS service for photo backup and browsing. (iPhone/iPad app by Synology Inc..)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/synology-photos/id1484764501 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Synology Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/321493109)
- Category: Photo & Video, Lifestyle
- Price: Free
- Rating: 3.00/5 from 577 App Store ratings · 1,130 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 175 MB
- Languages: Korean, Dutch, Norwegian Nynorsk, Danish, German (Germany), Russian, Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish, European Spanish, American English and 11 more
- Released: 2020-12-07
- Data updated: 2026-08-27
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/synology-photos/id1484764501/reviews.md

## What is Synology Photos?

**Synology NAS and the Synology Photos service enabled are required for this application.**
**For optimal experience, DSM 7.2 or above is recommended.**

A flexible and comprehensive management tool that allows photo backup and browsing by chronological order or folder structure. Explore photos of loved ones or favorite vacation spots through AI recognition and auto-created albums. Group photos by themes or topics of your choice. Enjoy cherished memories in the palm of your hand.

## Key features

- Photo backup
- Chronological browsing
- Folder structure browsing
- AI recognition
- Auto-created albums
- Theme-based grouping

## What do users think of Synology Photos?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Quick and efficient backup
- 👍 Intuitive user interface
- 💡 Conditional albums based on metadata
- 🔒 Secure local storage

**Cons**

- 🐛 Unreliable background sync
- 🔋 Drains battery when running
- ⏱️ Slow upload speeds
- 🤔 Lacks basic photo editing tools

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Inconsistent handling of Live Photos
- Crashes when processing large videos
- Incorrect date/time stamps on imported photos
- Syncing issues after iOS 16 update

**Most requested features**

- Ability to rotate/edit photos within the app
- Automatic HEIC to JPEG conversion
- Duplicate photo detection and removal
- Customizable backup schedules and settings
- Apple TV app support

## Recent user reviews (10 of 1,130)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/synology-photos/id1484764501/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Login Mystery

*2026-08-16, version 2.4.0*

This app is super frustrating. I can’t even get past the login page using the same credentials that I use on every other Synology product that I use. Maybe it’s a functional app but I guess I’ll never know.

### 5/5 — Excellent

*2026-08-05, version 2.4.0*

I am not sure what people expected from this app. I currently have two phones & an iPad which back up to the Synology photo app remotely, allowing me to remove them from my phone saving space. It works perfect every time, I can view all the pictures in the Synology Photo’s app on my phone and also can access them via my laptop. It’s excellent and free.

### 3/5 — Great Performance - Lacks Features

*2026-07-31, version 2.4.0*

Utilizing the Synology Photos app and ecosystem has been a wonderful escape from Apple, Google, and other back up platforms. The Liquid Glass is a welcomed and modernized taste to the applications look and feel, but there are two features that would make the experience supreme. A locked folder and a duplication tab would provide a way to store the more sensitive items as well as delete those pesky duplicated files that the lesser experienced users may come across while integrating into the Synology ecosystem. 

Other than this the performance is good and again, a great way to take hold of your privacy. 

Thanks Synology

### 4/5 — Love having all my photos stored locally on NAS

*2026-07-28, version 2.4.0*

I really like the app and haven’t seen major issues until just recently. I guess the problem has started occurring after an update last week - I’m unable to use “delete” button on a photo, it just does nothing. I’ve been using it for removing photos from both my NAS and my iPhone. This is a blocker since there’s no real workaround for that. Can someone look into it and fix the issue? I’m happy to help with reproduction steps.

### 4/5 — Great app but lacks full resolution view

*2026-07-28, version 2.4.0*

Seems like when it retrieves, especially when we have big files from DSLR etc they are not full resolution. It would be neat to see those images at full resolution if possible

### 3/5 — Feature Request: Add Hide & Lock Photos in Synology Photos

*2026-07-26, version 2.4.0*

Synology Photos is an excellent application with a clean interface, powerful backup capabilities, and great AI-powered organization. However, one very important feature is still missing: the ability to hide and lock private photos and videos.

Many users store personal and sensitive memories on their NAS. Without a built-in Hide & Lock option, private content remains visible in the main timeline and albums unless it is moved to a separate folder, which is not a convenient solution.

I strongly recommend adding the following features in a future update:

* A Hide option to remove selected photos and videos from the main timeline.
* A Locked/Private Album protected by a PIN, password, or biometric authentication.
* The ability to quickly unhide items after authentication.
* Support for these features across both the mobile app and web interface.

This functionality is already available in many modern photo applications, and it has become an essential privacy feature. Adding it would significantly improve the user experience and make Synology Photos a more complete and secure photo management solution.

I hope the Synology team considers this feature in an upcoming update. It would be a valuable improvement for users who care about both privacy and convenience.

### 3/5 — The app is great but UI ….

*2026-07-22, version 2.4.0*

I love this app. Very easy to use to backup my photo and video. But this app lack of modern user interface design. The UI is a disaster. Not friendly to use. I thought the update to adapt iOS 26 Liquid Glass design will fix this. I was wrong…. It just looks like Liquid Glass but whole UI design logic still the same….. Synology…. Please do something…..

### 5/5 — Fantastic update!

*2026-07-22, version 2.4.0*

I knew a favorites update was coming, but bringing over the new iOS 26 design language and favorites syncing was a great choice! The app looks much better now. Thanks!

### 2/5 — Very slow back up process

*2026-07-20, version 2.3.2*

While preview the photo and videos very slowly process pls fix this

### 1/5 — Losing HDR

*2026-07-20, version 2.3.2*

When I upload videos from iPhone 17 pro they dont preserve HDR 
The original file is not uploaded it is smaller

## Frequently asked questions about Synology Photos

### What is Synology Photos?

Synology Photos is a mobile application that acts as a client for the Synology Photos service on a Synology NAS. It allows you to back up your photos and videos from your mobile device and browse your existing library.

### What are the key features of Synology Photos?

Key features include automatic photo backup from your mobile device, browsing photos by chronological order or folder structure, AI-powered recognition for identifying people and places, and the creation of auto-generated albums. You can also group photos by themes.

### Is Synology Photos free to use?

The Synology Photos mobile application itself is free to download and use. However, it requires a Synology NAS device with the Synology Photos service enabled to function.

### What devices is Synology Photos compatible with?

This application is designed to work with Synology NAS devices. For an optimal experience, Synology recommends using DSM 7.2 or above on your NAS. The mobile app itself is available for mobile devices.

### How can I use Synology Photos to organize my memories?

You can use Synology Photos to automatically back up your photos, making them accessible from your mobile device. The app's AI recognition helps you explore photos of loved ones or vacation spots, and it automatically creates albums. You can also manually group photos by themes or topics for easier organization and retrieval.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.4.0 — 2026-07-21

Important Note
1. Starting from this version, Synology Photos requires iOS 17 or above.

What's New
1. Supports marking photos as favorites and viewing them in the Favorites album. You can also add the Favorites album as a photo widget and sync favorites with Apple Photos for photos backed up from the mobile device.
2. Supports viewing backup status at the top of the timeline view, with quick access to the task queue, backup settings, and features of "Focused Backup" and "Free Up Space".
3. Supports the Liquid Glass design on iOS 26.

Bug Fixed
1. Enhanced backup performance and stability.
2. Fixed an issue where edited videos might be treated as duplicate files and skipped during backup.
3. Fixed an issue where an unexpected error might occur when opening albums that were no longer shared.
4. Fixed an issue where incorrect German was displayed in photo widgets.
5. Fixed an issue where photos uploaded from Shared Albums might not be removed when using Free Up Space or deleting synced photos.
6. Fixed an issue where changing time zones might cause duplicate backups.

### 2.3.2 — 2026-03-31

Fixed Bugs:
1. Fixed an issue where photos restored from the OneDrive recycle bin might not back up successfully.
2. Fixed an issue where high bitrate videos might get stuck loading during playback.
3. Fixed an issue where the Shared Space switching button might not appear correctly after updating to iOS 26.

### 2.3.0 — 2025-07-15

What’s New:
1. Supports stacking similar items, viewable in Timeline and the Album page.
2. Supports items moved to another space to be flagged for free-up from your phone, instead of showing as out-of-sync changes (Requires Synology Photos 1.8 or later on DSM).

Fixed Issues:
1. Fixed an issue where sharing certain large-size items from third-party apps might cause the Synology Photos mobile app to crash.
2. Fixed an issue where Shared Space folders exceeding 1,000 might not display correctly.
3. Fixed an issue where the app interface might be stuck during searches.

### 2.2.2 — 2025-04-09

Fixed Issues:
1. Fixed an issue where photos in map view might not display correctly when there were a large number of photos.
2. Fixed an issue where local backed-up items couldn’t be deleted through the mobile app or its Free Up Space feature when using Synology Photos version earlier than 1.6.

### 2.2.0 — 2025-01-06

What's New:
1. Supports adding photo widgets to the home screen to shuffle photos from throwbacks or selected albums.
2. Supports filtering items by file size and date taken, or excluding photos marked as favorites on iOS devices before deleting files to free up space.
3. Supports shuffling and speed adjustment in slideshow mode.
4. Supports editing taken date and time of items.
5. Supports pinch-to-zoom during video playback.
6. Supports three options when re-enabling Photo Backup: scan and back up all photos, resume the previous task, and back up new photos only.

Fixed Issues:
1. Fixed an issue where items that have local copies might not be downloaded to the phone.
2. Fixed an issue where Live Photos might be incorrectly recognized as out-of-sync changes after uploads.
3. Fixed an issue where the passcode setting was not reset after re-installing the mobile app.
4. Fixed an issue where the mobile app might crash when browsing a large number of items in map view.
5. Fixed an issue where the Synology Photos web portal could not play spatial videos because the mobile app did not generate compressed versions during uploads.
6. Fixed an issue where the mobile app might crash when a large number of items were in the backup queue.
7. Fixed an issue where the Photo Backup status might incorrectly display as complete while some items were still pending backup.
8. Fixed an issue where geographic information might not match the language of the mobile device.
9. Fixed an issue where the Synology Photos web portal could not display HEIC photos taken by Sony or Fujifilm cameras because the mobile app did not generate their previews during uploads.

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## More apps by Synology Inc.

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All apps by Synology Inc.: https://appshunter.io/developer/321493109

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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 2026-08-27.*