Make a Read Only Archive Folder on Synology Nobody Can Edit
Give last year's records a folder of their own - read only for the whole office, write for a named few. How to build a Synology archive that history cannot be rewritten in.
✍️ Technical Anshu🗄️ Synology DSM 6 / 7⏱️ Built once per year
🎥 Watch the full setup in the video - shared folders on Synology NAS, step by step
Every office has files that must never change again: last year's accounts, submitted tenders, signed contracts, the records an auditor will ask for. Leaving them in the working folder means one tired drag-and-drop can rewrite history. The fix is a separate archive folder where the whole office has eyes and nobody - except a named few - has hands.
DSM - archive-2024 permissions (example)
Folder - archive-2024
group: managersRead/WriteOWNER
group: accounts-teamRead onlyRO
group: everyoneRead onlyRO
✔ Recycle Bin: on (deletes by managers are still recoverable)
✔ Writes by staff: blocked at the permission level
Example only - read only at the DSM permission level, not a promise typed in the folder name.
1
Why Read Only Belongs on Its Own Folder
You could set subfolders read only inside a working folder, but permissions get murky fast and the next cleanup spree may not notice. A dedicated shared folder named by year - archive-2024 - makes the rule visible in the folder list itself, lets you apply one clean permission set, and lets you move or offload the whole archive later without surgery.
2
Build the Archive Folder
Control Panel → Shared Folder → Create and name it for the closed period
Copy in the finished work, then verify counts and open a sample of files - archive day is the wrong day to discover a copy error
Enable the Recycle Bin on it as well; even archives get the occasional mistaken deletion by someone with rights
Optionally tick Hide folders and files from users without permissions so the structure only shows what each person may open
3
Set the Permissions That Make It an Archive
Select the folder → Edit → Permissions
Give the working teams Read only - they can open, copy and print, but cannot save changes, rename or delete
Give a tiny group - the owner and one deputy, as managers - Read/Write, so corrections are possible but deliberate
Test with a normal account: try to edit a file and save. It must fail. An archive you have not tested is a rumour
4
The Honest Limits of Read Only
Read only stops changes through the share. It does not stop the NAS admin (by design), it does not stop someone copying a file out and editing the copy (that copy is no longer the archive - naming discipline matters), and it is not a legal lock. For true frozen evidence, pair the archive folder with scheduled snapshots and an off-NAS backup copy, and say so plainly to anyone who asks.
🔴 Close the year, then close the folder: the archive only works if the team actually moves on. Set one date when the old working folder goes read only too - two truths, one live and one frozen, is how records get "corrected" in the wrong place.
🎥 Watch the Complete Video Guide
The full shared folder setup - creating folders, users and permissions - shown live on a Synology NAS.
Can read only users still copy files out of the archive?
Yes - read means read. They can open and copy anything they can see; they cannot modify, rename or delete the originals. If a folder must not even be copied, the real answer is No access for that group, not read only.
Who should keep write access to the archive?
As few people as possible - typically the owner plus one deputy, in their own group. Every extra writer quietly turns the archive back into a working folder. Corrections should be rare, deliberate and ideally noted in a changes file kept inside the archive itself.
Is a read only folder a substitute for backup?
No. Read only prevents edits through normal access; it does nothing against disk failure, theft of the NAS, or an admin mistake. The archive deserves the strongest backup in the building, because by definition it cannot be recreated.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu Synology shared folder video • Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments - answers come there 🙏