How to install Plex on a Synology NAS

Introduction

In my Ubuntu Plex guide, I documented each action from first principles and kept the write-up beginner-friendly on purpose. I am taking the same approach here.

The Ubuntu guide and this Synology walkthrough point to the same broad destination, but they take different roads. On Synology, Plex is still (almost) the same Plex, but the OS expects you to think in terms of Package Center, Shared Folders, system internal users, and DSM-controlled permissions rather than package repositories and cron jobs.

I have a Plex Pass, and certain functionality — such as remote streaming and hardware transcoding — requires this type of licence. After July 1, 2026 the price of a Lifetime Plex Pass is increasing. This guide is narrated on the assumption that you have one.

Prerequisites and Assumptions

You should have a Synology NAS running DSM and an administrator account. Plex's own NAS guidance states that not every NAS is supported and that CPU power is often the biggest limitation. If you plan to rely on hardware transcoding, verify support beforehand. Plex's NAS compatibility list is the source of truth for predicting Direct Play, software transcoding, or hardware-assisted transcoding capabilities.

Besides installing Plex directly on the NAS, another way to run it is within a Docker container on your Synology. If you would like a video on that approach, drop me a note.

This guide also assumes that you know how to create Shared Folders on your Synology.

Timeline at a Glance

The broad installation flow is straightforward, even if the wording inside DSM changes slightly from one release to another.

The Installation: PMS Available through Synology

You can opt to install the version of PMS that came bundled with your Synology. This is normally not the latest version. You will find it listed in Package Center under the Contributor section.

The Installation: PMS from the Plex Website

If you decide to go with the PMS package directly from Plex, you need to find out which version is compatible with your NAS.

Go to Control Panel → Info Center → General tab and take note of the:

DSM version
Model name
CPU

AI can help identify compatibility, but you need to verify its output. Below is what Google's Gemini returned. As you will see, some of the information is not correct.

Go to https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads, select the Plex Media Server tab, and from the drop-down list select your Synology. There are two Synology DSM v7 entries. Choose the one that matches your DSM version. Synology changed package handling in DSM 7.2.2, so Plex had to create separate installers for DSM 7 and DSM 7.2.2+.

Plex may offer multiple packages for different architectures. Choose the one that matches your NAS CPU.
Download the .spk package to your computer.
In DSM's Package Center, click the Manual Install button, select the package you downloaded, and follow the installation process. Keep the defaults.

Installation Successful!

At the start of the installation you have to accept a warning explaining that the package is from a third-party developer and is not verified by Synology. At the end of the installation, a dialogue box appears with the next steps. You cannot copy the text in the box (pity), but you can use a screen-capture tool to save a copy and reference it during the next steps.

PlexMediaServer Application Folder

Once installed, Plex on DSM 7 uses the PlexMediaServer account and data structure. Plex's own documentation states that the Synology DSM 7 data directory lives under /volume1/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server, and its database-repair guidance refers to file ownership under DSM 7 as PlexMediaServer. That is the account you will be granting access to in DSM's shared-folder permissions.

If you navigate to this folder, you will see a notice telling you not to place media files there.

Keeping Plex Up to Date

Unlike the Ubuntu installation — where you can uncomment a line in the apt sources file and let the system update Plex alongside other packages — Plex on Synology does not update automatically. When a new version is available, you will see a yellow up-arrow indicator in the Plex web interface (accessed through your browser). To apply the update, you download the new .spk from the Plex website and install it via Package Center → Manual Install, just as you did the first time.

There are community scripts that automate this process as a scheduled task on the NAS. If you would like details on setting that up, leave me a comment.

Plex Media Folders

The installation process creates a system account called PlexMediaServer. To include media within PMS, this account must be specifically given access rights to your media folders.

There are two types of folders that I normally give Plex access to:

View once and delete
Long term

When creating a Shared Folder, Synology's wizard guides you through the parameters you associate with the folder and the files within it. Remember that certain parameters add considerable overhead; enable them only if you have a genuine need. I will comment on the points I think are important in this context. If your file system is not Btrfs, your settings will vary.

It is far more efficient to control read-only and read-write access by limiting the PlexMediaServer account directly rather than by setting restrictions at the Shared Folder level described below.

Set Up Basic Information

If you would like to manage media from other computers on your network, leave Hide this shared folder in "My Network Places" unchecked.
When you delete a file, should it be retained in Synology's recycle bin?

Enable Additional Security Measures

How should the media you add be stored:

Skip — Creates the shared folder with no extra security layer. This is the standard choice for general-purpose storage and has the least overhead.
Protect this shared folder by encrypting it — Encrypts the folder's contents at rest using an encryption key. You must mount it with the key or passphrase to access files, and it adds performance overhead.
Protect this shared folder with WriteOnce — Applies WORM (Write Once, Read Many) protection. Files cannot be modified, deleted, or renamed for a set retention period. This is generally irreversible for the retention window.

Configure Advanced Settings

Enable data checksum for advanced data integrity — Turns on file self-healing and data scrubbing to detect and repair silent data corruption. The overhead can hurt performance.
Enable file compression — Compresses stored data to save space. It is greyed out here because it depends on data checksum being enabled first (both rely on the Btrfs file system). Most media content is already compressed, so the gain is minimal.
Enable shared folder quota — Sets a maximum size limit (in GB or TB) for the folder to cap how much storage it can consume.

Configure User Permissions

The last screen of the Shared Folder Creation Wizard allows you to set the access rights different accounts have on the shared folder.

Because the PlexMediaServer account is a system account, you need to select it from the System internal user list. From here you can set the access this account will have on that shared folder:

RO means that the media cannot be deleted from within Plex
RW allows you to delete the media using the delete option in Plex

Create a Sensible Folder Structure Before Adding Libraries

Plex's installation and library documentation both emphasise proper structure. Do not point libraries at the root of a drive or volume; create a dedicated share with subfolders such as Movies, TV Shows, Music, Other Videos, or Photos, and point Plex at those. Plex explicitly warns against using a drive root as a library folder because it causes problems.

A tidy Synology-native layout might look like this:


/volume1/PlexMedia/Movies
/volume1/PlexMedia/TV
/volume1/PlexMedia/Other

If your media lives on another volume, replace /volume1 with the correct volume path for your NAS. A dedicated Plex share also makes permission management easier.

If you have media that lives in its own pre-existing shared folder, you need to edit that folder's permissions to grant the PlexMediaServer account the appropriate access rights — RO if you want to ensure the media cannot be deleted from within Plex.

Name Your Files So Plex Can Identify Them

Plex relies on file and folder naming to match your media against its online metadata databases. If files are named inconsistently or ambiguously, Plex may mismatch them, pull the wrong artwork, or fail to identify them entirely. Getting this right from the start saves a lot of manual corrections later.

Movies

The recommended format is:


Movie Name (Year).ext

For example:


/volume1/PlexMedia/Movies/Gladiator (2000)/Gladiator (2000).mkv
/volume1/PlexMedia/Movies/The Shawshank Redemption (1994)/The Shawshank Redemption (1994).mp4

Each film lives in its own subfolder. The year is important because it helps Plex distinguish between films that share the same title (e.g. remakes).

TV Shows

The recommended format is:


Show Name - sNNeEE - Episode Title.ext

Where NN is the two-digit season number and EE is the two-digit episode number. For example:


/volume1/PlexMedia/TV/Breaking Bad/Season 01/Breaking Bad - s01e01 - Pilot.mkv
/volume1/PlexMedia/TV/Breaking Bad/Season 01/Breaking Bad - s01e02 - Cat's in the Bag.mkv

The season subfolder is optional but keeps things tidy.

Key Points

Always include the year for movies.
Always include the sNNeEE pattern for TV episodes — Plex depends on it.
Avoid stuffing quality tags, release group names, or other metadata into the filename. Plex does not need them and they can confuse the scanner.
Plex's own naming guides are at support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-movie-media-files and support.plex.tv/articles/naming-and-organizing-your-tv-show-files.

Open the Plex Web App and Finish First-Run Setup

You can complete setup by opening a browser and navigating to:


http://&lt;local-nas-ip&gt;:32400/web

Associate Plex Libraries with NAS Shared Folders

Select Add Library and choose the type of media that will be stored there.
Specify the folder on the NAS where that media is located. You can associate multiple folders with a single library, but they must contain the same type of content.
Repeat for other media types.

Adding and Viewing Content

To add media to your PMS, simply copy files into the appropriate folder. Plex will normally detect and index new media automatically, making it appear in the menu.

If this does not happen, you can trigger a manual scan via Settings → Libraries → Scan Library Files.

Once indexed, the media can be played by selecting it.

Performance Tuning for Synology

Synology performance with Plex is mostly about avoiding unnecessary transcoding. NAS devices are typically processor-limited, transcoding is CPU-intensive, and some lower-powered ARM-based devices have transcoding disabled entirely. So the first performance improvement is not a setting at all: keep media in formats your clients can Direct Play whenever possible.

If your NAS appears in Plex's compatibility list as supporting hardware-assisted transcoding, and if you have Plex Pass, enable Use hardware acceleration when available under Settings → Server → Transcoder. Hardware acceleration makes transcoding faster and allows more simultaneous streams, though it can reduce quality or compatibility in edge cases. For the remaining transcoder settings, a sensible starting point is to leave Transcoder quality on Automatic.

Deleting Empty Folders

I have Plex running on both Ubuntu servers and my NAS (DS1525+). From an operational perspective, I have not noticed any difference in performance or quality. One function that is missing from PMS on Synology is the ability to automatically delete directories that become empty when their content is removed.

It is not a critical issue, but it would be convenient if emptied folders were automatically cleaned up, as happens on the Ubuntu version.

Accompanying video

Follow This, That and (Maybe), the Other:

Search This Blog

TT(O)M