I’m running a Synology NAS here at home for a few years now, and I admit: I’m quite happy with it. Even though I haven’t really utilized all of the services. But recently Synology reminded me why I don’t want to buy into one system too deeply.
The Video Station “Update”
Back in September 2024, they discontinued the Video Station. The Video Station was the built-in multimedia management tool, allowing users to organize the video collections, movies etc – with metadata, posters, and so on. I had been using it for a while, even though I always had a bad feeling about its proprietary nature.
Turns out that feeling was justified.
What annoyed me was the fact that it wasn’t just deprecated – it was gone after a DSM update. I was still on DSM 6 at the time and only stumbled upon the oneliner in the changelog before I triggered the update myself: “Video Station is not available on DSM 7.2.2“.
Also notice that it was disabled in an update from Version: 7.2.1-69057 to 7.2.2-72806. I ended up migrating everything to Jellyfin (which I probably should have done earlier anyway).
Synology-Branded Drives?
That was not nice but … okay. Then this week, I heard rumors about Synology forcing customers to use the company’s self-branded hard drives. Unfortunately these weren’t just rumors as can be ssen on Tom’s Hardware and Synology’s Press release:
Using non-compliant hardware with Synology’s 2025 Plus series NAS models would disable several advanced features, including volume-wide deduplication, drive lifespan analysis, predictive health status reporting, and automatic firmware updates. Users may also face restrictions in creating storage pools and limited support for issues arising from incompatible drives.
Also keep in mind that the Synology drives, are just whitelabeled drives. So you’re just paying additional money for a different sticker, seriously?
What This Means for Me
Will this affect my current setup? Probably not immediately – maybe not even in the medium term. Currently it is said that the 2024 Synology models and older are not affected by this change.
But it’s the direction Synology is going with its customers that bothers me. Removing apps in a minor update, limiting hardware compatibility, and tying advanced features to branded, whitelabled components? That doesn’t sound trustworthy any more to me.
To me, it’s clear: I need an exit strategy. Not just for individual Synology services which might disappear with the next update, but potentially for the platform as a whole.
And who knows: this restriction could also come in a minor update. Just to … ensure compatibility.