There may be a time when you find yourself using almost all of the available storage space on your Synology NAS. Luckily, there are some ways to free up space without adding or replacing drives. In this guide, we’ll show you how to free up space on Synology NAS.
Just like your smartphone or PC, your Synology NAS is only capable of storing as much data as the available physical storage can hold. Luckily, it’s easy to free up some space on your NAS, should you be reaching what your drives can store.
- How to check how much space you have
- Empty the recycle bin
- Move shared folders to another volume
- Uninstall Synology Drive Server
- Reduce or disable version control
- Add or replace drives
How to check how much space you have
Before you start to free up space, it’s worth checking just how much space is available. Here’s how to do it on a Synology NAS:
- Open Storage Manager.
That’s all there is to it! You can now view in detail your current drive setup, which bays are used in the Synology NAS, how much space is taken up in the storage volume, and if you’ve any expansion units connected.
If you’re using more than 80% of your available capacity, it may be time to consider some options below.
Empty the recycle bin
The recycle bin on Synology NAS is enabled by default. Just like your Linux, Windows, or Mac PC, this is where deleted files will reside for easy retrieval upon accidental deletion. Synology makes it easy to clear the recycle bin:
- Go to Control Panel > Shared Folder.
- Select a shared folder and click Edit.
- Click the Empty Recycle Bin button.
And if you want to empty the recycle bins of all shared folders on a Synology NAS:
- Go to Control Panel > Shared Folder.
- Go to Action > Empty all Recycle Bins.
Move shared folders to another volume
Did you know you can move shared folders between volumes? Well, now you do! Here’s how to go about it:
- Go to Control Panel > Shared Folder.
- Select a folder you want to move.
- Click Edit.
- From the Location drop-down menu, select the volume where you want to move the folder
- Click OK.
This process may take some time, depending on the size of the folder. If you have a team folder that you wish to migrate to another volume, you will need to follow these steps:
- Go to DSM > Synology Drive Admin Console > Team Folder.
- Select the folder.
- Click Versioning.
- Untick Enable version control
- Click OK.
- Go to DSM > Control Panel > Shared Folder.
- Select the folder you want to move.
- Click Edit.
- From the Location drop-down menu, select the volume to which you want to move the folder.
- Click Save.
Once this process has been completed, you may want to go to Synology Drive Admin Console > Team Folder and enabled versioning once more.
Uninstall Synology Drive Server
Historical versions are saved in the Synology Drive Server database. This package can be deleted, should it no longer be required. It’s worth noting that you should make sure the data on Synology Drive Server is no longer needed before uninstalling the package.
- Go to Package Center > Synology Drive Server.
- Below the package name and status, locate a button with a drop-down menu. Click the downward arrow.
- Click Uninstall.
- Tick Delete the items listed above when uninstalling the package when the option appears on the screen.
Reduce or disable version control
Synology Drive Server keeps historical versions of the files for future restoration, which is brilliant should you need to restore data at a later date, but this takes up additional storage space. We can free up space by changing the number of versions or disabling the service altogether.
- Go to DSM > Synology Drive Admin Console > Team Folder.
- Select the desired folder.
- Click Versioning.
- For Maximum Versions, change the value to a lower number. Synology recommends a number lower than 5.
- Check Rotate version regularly and choose a desired period from the drop-down menu to have expired versions automatically rotated.
- If you do not have the need to restore files, uncheck Enable version control to disable it.
Add or replace drives
If you’re not utilizing all the available drive bays on the Synology NAS, we’d highly recommend you purchase additional drives and populate all the bays when it’s not possible to free up space using other methods. We’ve compiled a list of the best NAS drives for use inside servers.
Should all the drive bays be fully loaded, it may be worth looking into replacing drives with larger counterparts. We’ve written up an in-depth guide on how to replace a drive in Synology NAS to help walk you through the process.