Test Synology Folder Permissions With a Second User Account
The most skipped step in every NAS setup — and the only one that actually proves your permissions work. Five minutes as a normal user beats a month of surprises.
✍️ Technical Anshu🖥️ Synology DSM⏱️ 6 minute read
🎥 Watch the full video — the complete team folder setup on Synology NAS, step by step
The setup video ends with a step many tutorials skip entirely: logging out of the admin account and checking the folders as another user. It is the difference between believing your permissions are right and knowing it. This page turns that moment into a repeatable method — build a small expectation table, test as the real user over both DSM and Windows SMB, fix mismatches at the source, and re-test whenever the team changes.
Permission Test — Checklist (example)
Logged in as: rahul (sales-team)
------------------------------------------------
GoogleDocs visible YES
GoogleDocs open file YES
GoogleDocs save edit YES — allowed
Accounts visible NO — correct
Accounts open file DENIED — correctSetup matches the plan. Ship it.
👆 A five-line test that proves the whole setup — run it as the user, not as the admin (checklist recreated as an example)
1
Why Admin Testing Proves Nothing
Admins can open every folder on the NAS no matter what permissions say. So when you finish a setup while logged in as admin and think it works, you have tested nothing except that the folders exist. Permission mistakes — a folder left open to everyone, a deny on the wrong person — stay invisible until real data is involved. The only honest test is to become the user.
2
Build the Test Before You Run It
Write down what each account should experience, in a small table like the panel above:
Which folders this user should see
Which they can open and save in
Which they can open but not change
Which must refuse them completely
If you cannot write the table, the permission design itself is not finished — fix the plan first.
3
Run the Test as the Real User
Log out of DSM completely, or use a private browser window, and sign in with the user's own account
Open File Station and compare the visible folders against the table
From their Windows PC, open \\NAS-IP over SMB with the same account
Inside an allowed folder, create a test file, edit it, save it — then delete it
Inside a read-only folder, try to save a change and confirm it is refused
Try to open a denied folder directly by path and confirm it is refused
4
Fix Mismatches in the Permission Screen, Not by Sharing Passwords
When the test fails, the cause is almost always one of three things: the user is in a group with different rights than you remembered, a direct deny is overriding a group allow, or the user tested with a saved wrong credential on the PC. Fix the actual entry in DSM, clear the saved Windows credential if needed, and re-run the same test until the table and reality match.
5
Repeat the Test When People Change Roles
Permissions drift. Every joiner, leaver and role change alters what someone should see. Re-running this five-minute test at each change keeps the NAS honest — and gives you proof, not hope, that the person who left last month really cannot open the accounts folder today.
🔴 The rule from the video worth keeping forever: a setup is not finished when the admin clicks Save. It is finished when a normal user, on their own PC, with their own login, sees exactly what you planned — no more, no less.
🎥 Watch the Complete Video Guide
See the full setup live — creating the folder, setting permissions and verifying access with a second user.
Why can I open every folder even after setting permissions?
Because you are still signed in as an administrator. Admins bypass folder permissions by design. Log out fully and sign in with the user's own account — in DSM and in Windows — to see their real access.
A user can see a folder but cannot save files in it. What is wrong?
Most likely they have Read only on that folder, either directly or through a group. Check the folder's permission screen for both the user entry and every group they belong to.
How often should I repeat the permission test?
At every team change — someone joins, leaves or changes role — and after any permission edit. The test takes about five minutes per account and catches drift before it becomes a data incident.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu video on configuring multiple user access on Synology NAS • Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments 🙏