Review Insights · App Store
DS file
Synology Inc. · 353 ratings · ★ 2.7
2.7
★★★★★
353 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 62 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"files"
24 negative reviews mention this · 39% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Slow to download or play large files (ie. video). It is ok to view files but transferring data does not work on large files. There is no background download or any progress status to indicate if a file is downloading or not. I do not recommend it." - henryg76
2
"file"
23 negative reviews mention this · 37% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DS file does not work. This app needs version 2.0. It does not work. It opens but says there are connection issues when selecting any folder." - LaCrosse Onalaska
3
"does"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DS file does not work. This app needs version 2.0. It does not work. It opens but says there are connection issues when selecting any folder." - LaCrosse Onalaska
4
"download"
10 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Slow to download or play large files (ie. video). It is ok to view files but transferring data does not work on large files. There is no background download or any progress status to indicate if a file is downloading or not. I do not recommend it." - henryg76
5
"video"
10 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A lot of videos do not load. Terrible experience watching videos on iPhone" - Kaifan19891019
6
"iphone"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A lot of videos do not load. Terrible experience watching videos on iPhone" - Kaifan19891019
7
"needs"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DS file does not work. This app needs version 2.0. It does not work. It opens but says there are connection issues when selecting any folder." - LaCrosse Onalaska
8
"update"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Slow. The app is painfully slow. Just logging in takes close to a minute on local WiFi. Rarely gets updates." - Mysarona
9
"synology"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Crazy buggy. Synology was once a great company with great hardware and software. How have you guys fallen so far? Now I can’t even select multiple files without the app crashing every time. How did you miss something so basic…?" - GreatChiller
10
"videos"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A lot of videos do not load. Terrible experience watching videos on iPhone" - Kaifan19891019
11
"upload"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Needs update. This app needs to be updated to allow faster uploads from iOS. The file uploads are extremely slow compared to using an Android device." - Mash1608
12
"work"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DS file does not work. This app needs version 2.0. It does not work. It opens but says there are connection issues when selecting any folder." - LaCrosse Onalaska
📋 All 62 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
A lot of videos do not load
Terrible experience watching videos on iPhone
DS file does not work
This app needs version 2.0. It does not work. It opens but says there are connection issues when selecting any folder.
Crazy buggy
Synology was once a great company with great hardware and software. How have you guys fallen so far? Now I can’t even select multiple files without the app crashing every time. How did you miss something so basic…?
Crashes after latest update
Every time I press select the app crashes.
Can’t view iOS images
I bought a Synology for its photo support, if you won’t support iOS image formats I’ll find another nas that will
1 star until bring back DS video
1 star until bring back DS video
Does not work
I could never get it to connect to my NAS
Another weak Synology app.
Several issues with this app that make it almost worthless to me. First, in playing audio files, if playback is paused, the playback will not restart.
Second issue, the audio player does not show the title of the file being played. This is just an idiotic oversight by the Synology team.
Third issue is that although one is allowed to ‘Download’ files to what you believe is a local folder, access to this Download folder still requires you to connect to your NAS. So, this download feature is not an ‘offline’ solution as any intelligent person would expect.
Synology loves to tout their ‘wonderful’ NAS features, but their execution of their supporting apps always fall short in meeting expectations.
Second issue, the audio player does not show the title of the file being played. This is just an idiotic oversight by the Synology team.
Third issue is that although one is allowed to ‘Download’ files to what you believe is a local folder, access to this Download folder still requires you to connect to your NAS. So, this download feature is not an ‘offline’ solution as any intelligent person would expect.
Synology loves to tout their ‘wonderful’ NAS features, but their execution of their supporting apps always fall short in meeting expectations.
Needs update
This app needs to be updated to allow faster uploads from iOS. The file uploads are extremely slow compared to using an Android device.
Poorly made
Not very thoughtfully designed. Frustrating to use and thumbnails frequently disappear without warning when you’re reviewing photos. Feels a bit like they hired the cheapest team they could find and haven’t invested any real time or money into making it a legitimate app.
App is slow when trying to watch .mov files
DS file has become very slow now. It takes forever to open .mov files. They market synology drive app as new and improve, but as an administrator you cannot browse through the homes folder to see your users home folders.
Using 80gb+ of space
App was somehow using over 80gb of space with only a single image downloaded, no way to clear cache, deleted and reinstalled and not only fixed the problem but now it logs into my NAS in a fraction of the time.
Still No Share Sheet
Been waiting for years for basic sharing capabilities that allow for documents to be shared into other iOS apps. Why constrain Copy and Move functions to the NAS solely? Should integrate into Apple’s already provided Share Sheet capabilities so files, photos and videos can be shared to other native and third party apps
Useless
Exits when trying to upload any file
Flat out does not work with apple devices since last update in March 2023
With get stuck in a loading loop.
It's not like 2022 App
UI is old and hard to use
Photo Backup Misses Hundreds of Files
Somehow the app will decide when it’s “Done” even though there are quite obviously huge amounts of items it missed during its backup. There’s no way to force it to recheck the file list either. I see why Roku pulled the plug on DS Video now, it’s really Synology falling behind and leaving their other products and services out of date and buggy.
Takes up too much space
Why does this use over 12gb of my iPhone storage?
I would like to leave -5 stars if possible
We are in 2022… I just want to upload some files to the nas… and I have to do it one by one…
Don’t they know it’s all about apps these days?!
Once the cloud storage is more affordable and I would migrate my nas data to there or if this nas die and I won’t bother to replace it.
Don’t they know it’s all about apps these days?!
Once the cloud storage is more affordable and I would migrate my nas data to there or if this nas die and I won’t bother to replace it.
Wrong Dates
Photos uploaded have the wrong date and time. 12/31/1969 17:00:00. Just started last week or so. I made sure the problem wasn’t on my end. My photos on my phone are stamped correctly. Uploading from the apple files app.
collect usage data by default is evil
This app collect usage data by default, need disable it
Unable to open files
Unable to open files. I have to download a file first and then open it. Tried it in excel, pdf files and same behavior
Gets stuck on “logging in”
When trying to connect it just sits on logging in forever never connecting or giving an error or telling your the login is wrong. Just… stalls forever. It used to work not sure what the deal is no problems logging into the web interface.
cannot upload files from local file
cannot upload files from local file(iphone files, size 1.5GB)
Needs updates
I’d think after a few months. It’s time for an update. 300 videos are none of which are big file videos by any means. Over a whole day for the first time to download them back to my phone for a bit and only 60% of the video library downloaded onto the phone. Here I am 4 attempts later and it’s still taking hours to do just a little over 40 now.
Can’t download multiple files to camera roll etc w/o share
Have to use share to download one at a time to camera roll or another application. You can’t select multiple files to share to somewhere on your phone.
Can’t view video or tiff previews. Can’t play videos of any type even iPhone videos.
Can’t view video or tiff previews. Can’t play videos of any type even iPhone videos.
Not able to download to iPhone
Was able to upload to remote folder via de file but not able to download it iPhone as it keeps showing the remote dir when choosing destination. It should directly download to iPhone video folder.
Uploading photos is no longer easy
The last version of the app was very usable this version does not allow uploading of more than one photo at a time please fix this issue, thanks
Crashes on connection
Doesn't seem to be compatible with iOS 14
App will not download from iPhone SE
Just installed app to my new iPhone SE running IOS 14.0.1 and app will not download photos or videos to my NAS. Checking IOS update feature and this is the latest available. I continue to use this app without issue on my older iPhone 6s running IOS 13.4.1 to the same NAS with same settings. Not sure what the problem is with newer phone and IOS.
App crashes
Cannot even login. Same for all of your apps.
App not working after update to iOS 14
This app was good for backing up my pics but now it don’t work at all.
App is crashing in IOS 14
Since iOS 14 is updated synology apps are crashing in iPhone for unclear reason. Possibly apps may need to be updated for this new iOS version. Thanks
Broken on iOS 14
Broken on iOS/iPadOS 14. Seems to not properly request network permissions.
This is sad.
All Synology apps have a poor rating and this is sad to see. I’m giving it a one star because it doesn’t do a simple thing it was designed to do -backup. It just stops backing up randomly.
NO date specific backups
This app BIG time needs to be enhanced so that you can backup by date range!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Missing core features from 2015
Still does not natively integrate with files for drag and drop, does not support splitview nor slide over. These are core features for any file management app that Apple introduced over 4 years ago.
Because of the lack of support for the basics, I’ve actually begun using OneDrive and iCloud Drive for storage because their apps always take advantage of the latest features within a reasonable timeframe.
Final update 2020: This app (and most of their apps) seems to be neglected. As such, I sold my NAS and migrated to iCloud Drive. The whole “private cloud” idea is great, love the hardware and OS, but it’s just not usable in 2020 with abandoned mobile apps.
Because of the lack of support for the basics, I’ve actually begun using OneDrive and iCloud Drive for storage because their apps always take advantage of the latest features within a reasonable timeframe.
Final update 2020: This app (and most of their apps) seems to be neglected. As such, I sold my NAS and migrated to iCloud Drive. The whole “private cloud” idea is great, love the hardware and OS, but it’s just not usable in 2020 with abandoned mobile apps.
Tech support is a complete joke
Don’t bother. You can browse directories and files but you CAN NOT OPEN FILES for viewing. Tech support will first tell you it’s a problem with iOS and then they’ll try to tell you it’s a problem with the files and finally they’ll tell you the only way to view a file is to download it and then open it. Complete crock of bs.
If you recently bought your NAS - return it while you have time. It does not get better. Synology's tech support department is a complete joke.
If you recently bought your NAS - return it while you have time. It does not get better. Synology's tech support department is a complete joke.
Kind of sort of OK, but not really.
Having a Synology is great. Very nice piece of hardware. Apps like this don’t live up to that though. It is not a good user friendly implementation now that iOS has a more robust Files app. It needs to be developed to take advantage of Files “browsing” for a more seamless integration. Until that happens, this app use useless for how I need to manage my professional workflow.
Slow to download or play large files (ie. video)
It is ok to view files but transferring data does not work on large files. There is no background download or any progress status to indicate if a file is downloading or not. I do not recommend it.
Slow
The app is painfully slow. Just logging in takes close to a minute on local WiFi. Rarely gets updates.
Bugs with the select all feature and old UI
While the app works most of the time I have some gripes. When you do a search/filter on iPhones there is no select all button. And on iPadOS if I try to select all after filtering the filter is instantly lost and it puts me back on the screen prior to filtering. It’s really annoying. Also when I select all after selecting the first item, usually the bottom most file gets obscured by the UI. It’s quite annoying. Lastly, the UI is old like over 10 years old as I looked up old videos and the ui hasn’t changed in over 10 years. I couldn’t find older videos from 2011, but I suspect it hasn’t changed since its release.
File select broken on ios26
App needs an update. Tapping on ‘select’ while browsing files in a folder causes the app to immediately crash. I’m not able to download files now from my NAS to my iPad or iPhone.
Refuses to move past log in and prevents local files being accessed
It works fine enough on one device but refuses to move past log in on the other. Everything is identical and there is no help guide for this problem. But even on the one it’s in, I’ve found that locally downloading files does not make them accessible locally as you still have to be signed into the NAS to access them, but downloading locally is so I can access them away from my NAS. It’s honestly not worth the effort.
Inconsistent
This app hasn’t been updated for a year and they need to get it fixed. When you open a music file it is so inconsistent as it closes randomly and prevents you from playing the file with errors.
Slow
I don’t know what’s up with this app. I just downloaded it. But it’s actually quicker for me to upload my files to OneDrive then move them locally to my NAS. Sloooow.
Room for improvement...
It needs to allows upload of multiple files or folder from the local iOS storage, 1 file at a me is very inefficient.
Painful File Management
This app would be much better if it simply exposed its downloaded files to the native Files app. I need to get files there all the time because it’s easier to open files from the apps I use from there. If I download a bunch of files and I need them in the files app, I need to go through each one, by one by one, and export them from there. It’s annoying and not something you expect from any file manager app. The navigation is also painful. They could make it easier to expose downloaded files and the NAS files by adding a another tab. They have plenty of available tabs in the tab bar. Make good use of it.
用户名密码正确但突然提示错误无法登录
之前还正常登陆并记住账号了，何解呢
Can’t even watch videos I’ve uploaded
While trying to watch my personal videos I have recorded that I have uploaded to my drive I keep getting the “unable to play video” error. What’s the point of using this app if I can’t access my videos from my drive. Please fix this.
+ 12 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
33%
Positive (4-5★)
18%
Neutral (3★)
49%
Negative (1-2★)