How to update Synology Cloud Station Server Clients (Cloud Station Drive) after Synology NAS 6.0 update

Looking back, 2009 was kind of a bad year. Somewhere around then we were in the tail end of the Great Recession, Google had turned Evil, and, in retrospect, Apple’s glory days were behind it.

I miss the old Apple. It wasn’t perfect, but it shielded me from a lot of hassles. Like dealing with the complexity of my Synology NAS.

I bought the NAS because Apple’s Time Capsule is broken. Next I started using it as a post-server replacement for Apple’s perennially broken network shares. That’s all I bothered with. I didn’t want to bother my NAS, and I didn’t want it to bother me.

Then, inevitably, there was an update. It took me a while to figure out that Control Panel:System:Info showed the version number: DSM 6.0-7321. 

Oh, great. A complete version update. I #$@$#!# never install those. I’d turn off auto-update, but at this point the damage is done. I’m going to need the big bug fixes; I’ll turn it off in a month or two.

Meanwhile both Time Machine and my Client-Server NAS file sync are broken. I’ll fix Time Machine next, this is about fixing the file sync.

Notice I’m not naming the file sync? That’s because Synology, a Chinese company, uses English words inconsistently. They add and remove “Cloud” to everything and seem to move software names between products on a whim. I think I’ve seen File Sync, Cloud Station Drive, Cloud Station Sync, Cloud Station Server and Cloud Station Client used to refer to similar or identical things.

What I wanted was to update “Cloud Station Drive” running on my Mac, which is actually Cloud Station Server Client, to a version compatible with “Cloud Station Server” running on my Synology NAS. Notice neither of these actually have anything to do with a “Cloud”, they’re both LAN specific.

This document helped: Sync files between NAS and computer Network Attached Storage (NAS)

 Here’s what I did:

1. Quit outdated client on my Mac.
2. Start Synology Assistant to locate FLNAS (IP Address), open it.
3. Go to Package Center, All, find Cloud Station Server, click Open (alt: click the four-square-icon next to question mark to see running apps)
4. Click Overview (sometimes this is empty, quit and start over again)
5. Download Cloud Station Drive
6. Install

It seems to be working. I’ll use the DMG to update my other machines.

Next up: Fix Time Machine. It and Synology are disagreeing about how much space is free in the user-quota for my MacBook Air …

Update 8/23/2016: Synology Cloud Station Server / Cloud Drive is broken again. I think it’s worse in El Capitan than Yosemite. I’ve given up on it.