Get a Plus Series model. J model the processor is too weak for some apps. Avoid Plus Series models released in 2025 and onwards as it locked the device to only Synology own HDD which is a lot more expensive than other brand HDD.


Same as above. Get a Plus Series model. Avoid Plus Series models released in 2025 and onwards as it locked the device to only Synology own HDD which is a lot more expensive than other brand HDD.

I checked Lazada and Shopee, it's actually hard to find Plus Series model year 2024 and older. I guess everyone been buying the older model and avoid 2025 model.

Another option is to buy second hand. Year 2020 and above should be okay.

Beestation is no difference than J model. Only good for transferring files in and out of the NAS. If you want to do more processor intensive stuff such as cataloguing the photos or using Synology word/spreadsheet app, it will be slow.

Don't forget if your photos only at the NAS, then it is not a backup. You only have a backup when the photo/file have 2 copies or more at separate device. Read more about 3-2-1 backup rule for protection of your data.

Synology's Download Station can also download torrents. You need to port forward the necessary port.
Most router these days also support download torrent, I think it will be better to use router than opening port to your NAS, reduce the risk of exposing the NAS to internet.

For hardware transcoding you need Intel CPU suuch as J4125, but I'm not sure how Plex handle it these days. Might need Plex pass for hardware transcoding. Recently Synology also remove the ability for the NAS to use hardware transcoding on it's app, don't know if that have any impact on Plex and hardware transcoding.

Are you already using Plex now? It can have a lot troubleshooting when something is not right, such as wrong setting that causes it to do transcoding just because subtitle format in SSA or something. If playback 4k and because of the transcode, the video is uncompressed and if you stream from Wi-Fi then not enough bandwidth. I'm using Jellyfin and encounter these problems but I believe Plex also will have same issue. It will be more easier if the NAS doesn't need to do any transcode, just stream the media.

Good news! But I wonder how much damage has been done and how many consumer that still wary of Synology and buy other brand in case this thing happened again in future.


There's a nuance. New buyer of 2025 Plus model need to update DSM to v7.3 then only they can use HDD that is not in the compatibility list, but they cannot install HDD that is not in the compatibility list if the DSM is not v7.3

New buyer need to ask seller to update the DSM to v7.3 before ships out the NAS then they can use HDD that is not in the compatibility list.

Recognition & classification and duplicate image function already have in Synology. Semantic search don't have.

PSA: Don't simply update container image in Docker just because it is easy to do. It's so easy to just click 1 time on the update to update it. Read the developer or maintainer release note first.

I updated my Jellyfin server container without reading it first and after update the container stopped immediately after run. Then only I read release note and found out need to stop the container first before update. Also need to update to v10.10.7 before update to the latest v10.11.0, unfortunately I was on v10.9 when I update and run the container. Going from v10.9 directly to v10.11.0 causes the database or config files to be corrupted. I re create back v10.9 container but the server still can't run because the database or config files have corrupted. All the weeks spent to set up the database for the image, description, grouping and many more now all gone.

Never guessed that I have luck on my side. Turned out I have set Snapshot Replication to run every 2 hours for Docker config & cache folder. I restore back the snapshot before update to v10.11.0, re create v10.9 image and it run as if nothing has happened before this.

Another PSA: make sure to have snapshot or versioning for all your files. This is like rewind function back to before the mess up.