MACOS & Synology tip: How to connect to a shared drive automatically on logon

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I have a synology NAS mounted in my home network. Everytime I boot up my MacBook Pro I have to connect to the shared drives in the synology via the finder:

finder -> Go -> Connect to server

After you need to put the Synology IP, password and login.

Each time you boot your computer you need to do this. Now wouldn´t it be great if this was automatic? It can be! How to set it up:

Step #1: Connect to your shared drive via Finder following the steps above

Step #2: Add to your logon

- Open system preferences -> Users & Groups

 

 

Go to Login items

Press the + sign beneath the list of login items.

Navigate to the shared folder of the Synology. Any if the shared folders will work to automatically add the Synology on login.

It will now appear in the list of login items. If you are not on a local LAN it will display an error message of not being able to connect.

Check hide if you don.'to want a finder window to open. Close and voila!

 

Sync Synology with Dropbox and Google Drive

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With DSM 5.0 Synology introduced a feature a lot of people have been asking for - the possibility to sync or use your Synology with Dropbox or Google Drive.

What a cool way to:

1) transfer files from whatever to your Synology! Dropbox or Google Drive is compatible with almost every platform out there, be it Mac, Windows, IPhone, iPad, Android or Windows phone. As soon as you upload for example a picture from your iPhone to Dropbox, it will automatically be synced to your Synology.

2) Share! If you have a shared folder in Dropbox, by adding a file to that folder on your Synology, you are sending it to people you have that particular folder shared with.

3) Cloud Backup! Google has taken a decision in March 2014 to slash prices of google drive. I currently use Amazon Glacier on my Synology to backup a lot of information - mostly Pictures and videos. As per my blog post on why I bought the Synology it had an automatic upload system to Glacier and my monthly cost for an online backup of a lot of information (TBs) is only around 5$.

However Amazin Glacier has disadvantages. It had no dedicated program to upload / download info. Files are stores without filenames, so the program you use needs to solve this. And finally it is sloooowwww. A request to take something out of Glacier takes approx 4 hours to start the download, and is extremely slow to send. Good for cheap backup of files you do not need in a rush or to modify often, but not for much more.

So, back to google drive. With the price slash, google is turning storage into a commodity. For a whopping 1TB of info, google charges only 9.99$ per month! If you need less, 100Gb for only 1.99USD And we all know the advantages of google drive - it's fast, secure, files are just there, it even keeps previous copies.

 

Any limitations?

I only saw:

1) you can only synchronize your complete Dropbox or Google Drive folder. You can't select a set of subfolders. It's either everything or nothing!

2) for the Mac you might be wasting Synology space with multiple backups. If you use Time Machine on your Mac with Synology with your backup disk and you have Dropbox installed it is backing up th 2-10Gbs of info via time capsule to the Synology and if you install this sync it repeats the info again. The solution? Tell Time Capsule to exclude the Dropbox folder from the backup.

 

How to install?

You need:

- A Synology installed with DSM 5 and internet access. If unsure on what version you have, It should show on the bottom left DSM 5.0 on the main window.

- Basic knowledge around the Synology interface

- A Google Drive or Dropbox account

 

With the above checked, let's start!

1) Log in to your Synology and head over to the package center.

2) In the upper right corner of the package center is a search box. Search for Cloud.

3) 3 options should appear - Cloud station, Cloud Station Client ( both for making your personal cloud) and Cloud Sync. Press Cloud Sync for more information ( as image below ) or directly press install.

4) After installing when you enter the base menu a new option appears called Cloud Sync. Open the application.

Synology DSM 5.0 main menu

5) When you enter the program for the first time, it will automatically open up the connection wizard. Select the service you want to configure. We will start with Dropbox. Select it and press next.

Synology Cloud Sync Wizard

6) a pop-up window will appear asking you to allow cloud sync to access your Dropbox. If you are not already logged onto Dropbox in your browser, you will need to login before the allow screen appears.

7) The pop-up will disappear, and the wizard will continue. The next step is to select where you want the Dropbox folder synced. Remember it will be the whole Dropbox, including every subfolders and file. On my Synology I created a separate shared folder just for this with it's own permissions.

Synology Cloud Sync

Compress HD video for free from 10Gb to 1GB on a Mac

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After using my automatic duplicate and big file finder on my Synology (see CharlieTechLife blog to set-up) I saw that I had several HD videos weighing a whopping 12 to 15Gb in .ts format. This means over 100GBs in vídeos I see maybe once per year.
So I started investigating how I could compress those videos into a more reasonable size. My objective is to have each file reduced to approx. 1Gb with minimal quality loss and be compatible with playback on PS3, IOS devices, Windows, etc..., so I need a compression codec (divx, xvid, x264) and a container (.avi, .divx, .mkv) compatible with these devices.
On the Mac there are two software programs that are FREE that allow you to do just this. One is Handbrake, a free video transcoder that works extremely well. The second is Mediacalc, a bitrate calculator - it's there to ensure your video ends up being the right size.
After you download them following the links above, let's get started!
Fire up Handbrake. The interface is pretty straightforward.

Press source and select the video you want to compress. Under title you will see details of the video. Before our next step jot down the duration ( in my example it's.00:41:57). We will use this in a minute to ensure the compressed file is 1Gb.
As my Output setting options:
- Format: MP4 file. The mp4 format is playable across most platforms I need (iPad, IPhone, PS3, Xbox...)
- Large file size: uncheck. This is to enable 64bit - it allows files bigger than 4Gb for nonFAT32 systems. Will not affect any compression beneath this size, and if checked can limit compatibility
- Web Optimized: Checked. This places the container header in the beginning of the file. It will make the video start faster if streaming.
Under the video tab:
- Video Codec: H.264 (x.264). This codes into MPEG-4 part 10, also known as H.264/AVC. It gives much better quality and lower file sizes than the normal MPEG-4 / VP3 encoders and all modern devices like I want to use will support this format. (iPhone, iPad, BluRay Players, PS3, XBox360, etc....)
Framerate: Same as source. I want to keep the video quality as close to the original as possible. As such I keep the same frame rate as per the original one.
Variable framerate: ticked. I keep this as to imitate the original.
Video quality: Average bitrate. Here there is no preview available to see how the video comes out in terms of quality or size, be it using constant quality or average bitrate option. As my main limitation is size, if I wanted to use the constant quality option I would need to try a number on the scale, compress, see file size, try another number and compress again. So for a specific size, I use average bitrate.
2-pass encoding: ticked. Takes longer (almost double the time), but results are worth it.
Mediacalc:

We will just use the first Calculation part of the application. We fill in:
- Media size: 1Gb. This is the final size we want.
- Video Duration: 41.57. Here we put the exact size of our original video that we jotted down from handbrake as per above.
- Audio bitrate: 160kbps. My original file has this bitrate. The program needs this number as to see what is the total file size of audio+video. The more space occupied by audio, the less we have for video.
- Overhead: 2% this is how much space is used by the mp4 container. I haven't found the exact number, but 2% seems to keep the file close to what I intend it to be.
The number that appears under Video Datarate is the one you want to use in handbrake (3135.981 Kbps). Make sure you have the result in Kbps.

Back to handbrake. After setting the Average bitrate, we get into the H.264 codec options. Here we can make a huge difference on the end result in terms of look&feel of the video. Of course there is a trade off: the better looking the video the more time is needed to encode it, and a better processor needed to decode it. For example an iPad 1 will struggle to decode the video with the settings I will use here.

Use x264 Advanced Options Panel: unchecked as we will use this more basic interface
X264 Preset: Very Slow. Here the options on the scale go from Ultra fast to placebo. Ultra fast as the name indicates is a extremely quick encoder, but at the cost of video quality. For example same colors tend to be blocks vs. HD resolution. This is the setting I find affects video quality the most, the slower you encode the better the end result will be. Placebo speed is overkill, giving only slightly better results than very slow at a extreme time cost.
X264 Tune: Film. Select the type that is closest to the content you are encoding. Possibilities are:

• Film: Filmed footage (I.e. Real life movie) footage, not Cartoons or Anime. If in doubt, use this one by default.
• Animation: Use for hand-drawn animated content.
• Grain: Use for very grainy or old content.
• Still Image: Use for Photo slideshows or presentations where there is very little moving content.
• Psnr/sslm: used for testing. Do not use.
• Zerolatency: Optimise for faster decoding, Useful for low power devices that struggle to decode the video like ipad 1.
• Fast decode: uncheck

H.264 Profile: High. There are 4 options here:

• Auto: will automatically set the profile based on all the options that have been selected.
• Baseline: Baseline is the most basic form of encoding. While decoding is much easier, it may also require much higher bit-rates to maintain the same level of quality.
• Main: The middle ground. Most modern / current devices will support this profile.
• High Profile: For best quality and filesize at the expense of CPU time in both decode and encode.

If after encoding the video stutters on the playback device, try lowering this from high profile to main or baseline.
H.264 Level: 4.0. This has to do with frame rate and resolution. Leave with handbrake default.
Change to the Audio tab in handbrake:

As I don't want to re-encode the audio for this video we choose "Audio Passthru" from the drop down list.

Go back to video and check that everything is OK.

If yes, press add to queue. If you want to encode more than one file, repeat the process after selecting source for the next file. When you have everything in the queue, press start. Leave the computer for a couple hours to encode... And voila!!!!! Compressed movie done!

Synology tip: How to find duplicate files or large files automatically

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I love my Synology, as I use it for many things and it just works. From media server, to file archive, to backup, to photo server, to surveillance... It has many possibilities. If you add high capacity drives (I have 2 x 3 TB), it can hold quite a lot of information.

Lately I've been centralizing all digital information on the Synology, mainly because I used to have info on multiple computers, external hard drives, backups of backups, etc... and wanted to have everything in one place. After copying and organizing a bit, I found out that I had multiple copies of same files, pictures, videos, etc...

But how to check and erase only duplicates?

 

I started by using Gemini, a duplicate finding software for MacOS. However the search needs to be done via network (executed on the Mac) and takes forever to generate a report. Wouldn't it be great if Synology could do this without a computer involved?

Luckily, Synology thought of a way to do this automatically by the DSM. Not only that but it can automatically generate duplicate reports on a regular basis and email them to you. The email contains a link which takes you to a webpage where you can delete the duplicate file. EASY!

How to set it up:

Enter your Synology via the desktop DSM ( or simply put login to your Synology ). If you have DSM 5, you should see something like this:

Charlietechlife.blogspot.com

Open the control panel and under "System" go to "Info center"

Information on your Synology product will appear. On the top there is a tab named "Report". Click on it

Press "Create" to start the report wizard

In the next screen give a identifiable name to your report. I called mine "Duplicates". Also add an email so that your Synology can email you a direct link when the report is ready.

 

After pressing next, the screen will contain several options. Check Only "Duplicate File Candidates" and press next.

 

 

The next screen is about scheduling, when do you want Synology to generate the report. I have it once per week every Monday at 00:00. To note this is when it starts generating the report, not when it finishes or sends you the email. In the case you want to verify duplicated (next screen), and depending on the quantity of files you have it make take a while.

After pressing next, you can check "Find confirmed duplicates", which makes 100% sure the files shown are duplicates. I definitely recommend this option. Here you can also choose to check every files in the Synology or only specific folders.

In the next screen verify your options and press "Apply". And there it is! After a some time you will get your first duplicate report.

 

And within it you can erase the files you don't want to keep!

 

How to delete or show only archived emails in Gmail

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Apparently over the years I didn't configure some of my devices correctly to interact with gmail. If I blame Blackberry, Outlook, Mac Mail, Gmail app for blackberry, IOS 4, IOS 5, the iPhone 3GS, the iPad 1, iPad Air, iPhone 4s or iPhone 5s, I don't know.
(Mental note.. way too many gadgets passed through my hands!)

Why do I think incorrectly? Because instead of deleted emails like I wanted to when I trash them, some of these apps / devices (not sure which ones) would archive them. Meaning they are still occupying space in gmail and are searchable. Google seems to like that you never erase anything and it is the default behaviour in most interfaces with their mail system.

The issue? There seems to be no easy way of finding this archive and deleting it. Gmails' archive is simply an email with no labels. A label is how gmail classifies email into virtual folders. How to see if you have the same issue?

On the left of the gmail web interface you have a list of all your labels ( Inbox, Sent mail, Drafts, etc... ). Scroll down until you see "All mail"

Gmail all mail

After pressing, you should see a list of emails and next to the subject the label they belong to (Inbox, etc..). If you see no label as the email "es espectacular" below.... It's because it is archived and occupying space.

Gmail all mail

 

However gmail doesn't have a way of filtering these archived messages as to delete them. To do so, enter in the gmail search box ( on the top ) the following filter search:

has:nouserlabels -in:Inbox -in:Sent -in:Draft -in:Chat

A list of archived messages should appear and you can erase all of them. Double check none has a label before erasing....

 

Streaming Movies & Series from Synology to AppleTV

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Synology has several ways for video streaming from it's hard drives. The one I use the most is sending via DLNA to the Playstation3, which means that it appears on the PS3 menu.Adding an AppleTV to the home network I wanted a way to stream to the it as well, not just to have 2 ways of doing the same thing, but sometimes with my DVD backups (I prefer to have all movies on 1 hard drive and choose then opening DVD boxes and swapping discs) I get the Cinavia protection error on the PS3.Unfortunately AppleTV doesn´t have DLNA, however synology has thought of a solution.

Synology has an app for IOS devices called Video Station. I normally use it to stream video to my IOS device out of home. So when I'm at the airport or train, I can see videos directly from my Synology which is at home over the internet, only requirement being a 3G or wifi connection. If you are in your home network, as of the latest update you can choose to send to AppleTV.

How to use:1) Download & Install the Video Station package on the Synology2) Download the DS Video app from iTunes on your iPhone or iPad3) Ensure you have the correct ports open for your home network.

Video Station

5000 (HTTP), 5001 (HTTPS), 9025-9040, 5002, 5004, 65001 (for using the HDHomeRun network tuner)

TCP

DS video

5000 (HTTP), 5001 (HTTPS)

TCP

For more ports see the following link:https://www.synology.com/en-global/support/faq/299

4) On the Synology you just need to make sure that the Media Server has within the directories it has indexed the one with your media files. The Video Station will see the files and automatically search the internet for the information needed to show on it´s page, including IMDB link.

5) Open the app and login

6) Press the play button

7) Press the icon on the bottom right and choose AppleTV

 

8) Wait 1 minmute while it sets up and done it's on the TV!

I've only seen two limitation, first is that you must keep the app open for the duration of the movie, even multitasking is not allowed and second it takes a while to start playing the movie for the first time (1 - 2 minutes)

 

AppleTV issue: Unable to login to iCloud as I can´t pass the iCloud Terms of Use

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For my birthday my friends got me an Apple TV. Today I was making a new trailer for my youtube channel:

and I saw an interesting new function that comes with iMovie and the AppleTV update - the iMovie theater. When you finish editing your video, you can share to iCloud and it will automatically appear under this icon in AppleTV. You don't need to have a computer or iPad to see it, just press the icon and it streams automatically!

However, when logging on to iCloud on the AppleTV, after entering the login and password for the service, the terms of use screen would appear but as much as I would press accept it would repeat the screen.
The solution is simple:
1) Go to settings

2) Go to General


3) Go to Region format

4) Change from United States to your iCloud region

5) Try again to login into iCloud and accept the terms & conditions

Should work now!

Scared of losing years of Photos? Here is the perfect backup solution

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Two things can easily happen to your computer: HDD failure or get stolen. Of course, you can always put in a new HDD or buy a new computer and install the OS and all the programs you use. It's time consuming but not the end of the world. But then the thought comes - when was the last time I backed up???

Oh no, THE foto and video collection. The one you have been archiving since your first digital camera or your friends' first digital camera. Probably older files are on some external drive, but you haven't updated it in the last 9 or 12 months, almost a year of memories lost.

This already happened to me once, and ever since I've been looking for a solution. Enter the Synology NAS server - it sounds and looks geeky, but WOW, it solved my backup problem in several ways and added tons of extra functionalities like torrent managing, media server, internet server for pictures / streaming video and home camera surveillance.
What is a NAS server? Basically a hard disk plugged into your home network - a shared drive that any device on your home WIFI can access. Synology took the concept one step further and included RAID and a processor that can do things with the information on the hard disk such as uploading them to online storage or creating an online webpage for your pictures that you can access anywhere in the world. I'll talk about this in an upcoming post, for now backup.
I wanted something that could:
- Take care of automatic backups from my Mac / PC
- protect itself from failure of it's own HDD
- upload pictures / videos to the cheapest online backup. Reason being that if someone steals my house and my computer and the synology, the backups on it are not very useful....
The device I found that ticked all these boxes and was "cheap" is the Synology DS212j. Nowadays they've launched an upgraded version - the DS214 which adds more internal RAM memory and an improved processor. Functionalities are the same. Besides the device, you need to buy separately the HDDs to put inside. To have RAID ( explained in a second ) you should have two same sizes HDDs, I got 2 x Western Digital's Red 3TB HDDs. The Red family are made to work on NAS servers, prioritizing longetivity and low heat generation over speed - which you don't need as much Ina. NAS server vs a computer. These disks are designed to be on 24/7, just like your synology.

Why the Synology?
- Take care of automatic backups from my Mac / PC:
For Mac it has time machine functionality, a software included in the Mac by Apple that backs up all your computer content automatically to a time machine device. It also can handle automatically complete restore of your information in case of issues with the Mac.
For windows it has software that can automate backups, although if haven't used it yet (only use macs for now...)
- protect itself from failure of it's own HDD
With 2 hard disks installed, it mirrors all information automatically in between them. Meaning that if one HDD fails, all info is stored on the other one. Synology handles this without any involvement from you - you only see one shared drive and once the info.
- upload pictures / videos to the cheapest online backup. Reason being that if someone steals my house and my computer and the synology, the backups on it are not very useful. Synology can upload to several online storage sites p, but for me the mist interesting is Amazon glacier. It's real cheap, I think I have approx 300Gbs put there and I pay approx 4USD per month. With Dropbox a 200Gb plan is 19.99USD and 500Gb a whopping 49.99USD. I save 400 to 500$ per year. The catch? It isn't like Dropbox that you always have access to your files. With glacier you request a file and it is only available 4 hours later.
To be honest, none of these files I need in a rush - they are always local on my Synology. Amazon glacier is online backup just in case the Synology is stolen.... And probably I can wait a little while to download them when my house has been burglarized - they are not priority #1. Amazon even has a service where you can send an external HDD and they record all files there.
Set-up posts coming up!

iPad Air: setting up for the first time

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When you get your new iPad Air out of it's box, you really want to turn it on!

 

This is a tutorial on how to set it up as a fresh, new IPad, not restoring it from a previous backup.

 

First screen is a Hello screen which will do a sideshow of the word hello in several languages, to start the initial set-up slide from the arrow to the right.

 

In the next screen choose which language you want the iPad to be in, when you press it will go automatically to the next screen

 

 

Select your country or region from the next screen. This will help the iPad set-up regional settings such as how it shows the date, the currency, numbers, etc... It also will default your App Store to that country - it is easily changed after if needed.

 

 

The next setting is wifi. If you aren't setting up tethered to a computer with iTunes you will need wifi to proceed aporia install apps. Press on your wifi and insert the password if you have one.

 

 

The iPad will take a few moments to contact Apple's servers and activate itself

 

 

Next screen is to turn location services on or off. If you are extremely concerned with privacy I would turn them off otherwise keep them on as to have applications such as maps know where you are and be able to supply directions or even have the iPad change the time automatically when you go to a new time zone.

 

In the next screen you can restore settings from another iPad device (if you are upgrading or changing iPad) from iCloud or from iTunes. Since we are setting up the iPad as a new device, we press set up as new iPad.

 

 

Next screen is to set-up your Apple ID. Very useful for downloading apps or music on the App Store / iTunes music store or for FaceTime calls. If you don't have an Apple ID yet you can create one here.

 

Next screen is for you to agree with Apple's terms and conditions. The agree button is way down on the button to the right. Another pop up comes up. Press agree again.

 

 

 

 

It will take a few minutes to communicate with Apple and set-up your ID

 

 

Next screen is about iCloud. iCloud can automatically synchronizes several items with apple servers. The advantage for you is that it is a secure online backup ( in case your iPad is stolen or breaks ) and it automatically pushes to your other Apple devices - such as a picture that you take with the iPad will appear automatically on your iPhone or on iPhoto on your MacBook if they are logged on to the same Apple ID. You can choose what to synchronize afterwards, options are email, contacts, calendar, reminders, Safari history / favourites, notes, the new keychain, photos, documents and apps and find my iPad.

 

 

Next screen after iCloud is Find my iPad! which allows you to pinpoint on a map where your iPad is, if it is connected to a wifi or 3G, and even send messages, lock it or in extreme cases erase all it's info A very useful feature that most people don't know about. 

Imagine you lost your iPad, you can send a message to it that appears on the lock screen saying:

Please contact phone number xxxxx 

To try and get it back.

I would have it enabled.

 

 

After choosing Find my iPad, the next screen you can choose if you want iMessage and FaceTime activated and in which email / phone number people can reach you. Have ticked where you want people to be able to FaceTime you. You can turn off iMessage or FaceTime individually later.

After all these iCloud settings it will take a few minutes to set it up:

 

It will then set-up the lock screen passcode. Insert a four digit number you can remember.

 

 

You can set-up the iCloud keychain, useful if you have multiple Apple devices to keep passwords. Particularly useful if you have a Mac with MacOS Mavericks and you don´t want to memorise a lot of passwords. Not sure how secure it is yet….

 

 

And done! Press get started to start using your new iPad!!!

 

 

 

In the next post, how to set-up email and others!