How to Empty Synology Recycle Bin?

When you delete files from your Synology NAS, these files are not permanently removed from the storage. Instead, the deleted files go into the Recycle Bin. To free up storage space, you need to empty the Recycle Bin on your Synology NAS. You can do this through the Control Panel in the DiskStation Manager (DSM). Let’s read further and see how it is done.

What is Recycle Bin on Synology NAS?

Recycle Bin on Synology is a sub-folder in every shared folder that temporarily stores the files deleted from that specific folder. According to Synology, when you create a new shared folder, the Enable Recycle Bin option is selected by default. You can view this folder through the File Station by opening the shared folder.

How to Empty a Specific Recycle Bin on Synology NAS?

You can simply empty the recycle bin of a specific shared folder on your Synology NAS device through the Control Panel in the DSM. Here’s the stepwise process:

• Sign in to your NAS device. The DSM will open.
• Click on Control Panel.

• Then, click on Shared Folder under File Sharing.

• Here, you’ll see a list of all the shared folders present on your NAS. Select the shared folder (the Recycle Bin of which you want to empty).
• Click on Edit at the top and then on the General tab.

• Locate the Empty Recycle Bin button under the Enable Recycle Bin option. Click on it.

• You will see a prompt for confirmation. Click on Yes.

• The selected shared folder’s Recycle Bin will be emptied.

How to Empty all Recycle Bins on Synology NAS?

Synology NAS has a feature that lets you empty the recycle bins of all shared folders at once. To do so, follow the steps below:

• Sign in to your NAS device.
• Open DSM and click on Control Panel. Then, click on Shared Folder in the left pane.
• Click on the Action button at the top of the screen.
• Choose the Empty all Recycle Bins option.

• You will get a warning pop-up. Click Yes to proceed.

How to Automatically Empty Synology Recycle Bin?

DSM has a feature that lets you automate the empty recycle bin process. For this, you can use the Task Scheduler in Control Panel. Here’s how:

• Click on Control Panel from the DSM screen.
• Click on Task Scheduler in the left pane.
• Go to Create > Scheduled Task > Recycle Bin.

• The Create Task window will open. Do the following:
• Under General, enter the name of the task.
• Under Schedule, specify the date and time when the task to empty the Recycle Bin will run.

• Under Task Settings, specify whether you want to empty all the Recycle Bins or only from specific shared folders. You can also configure Retention Policy to retain the deleted files for a certain number of days or limit the Recycle Bin size (in MB).
  • You can also click on Advanced Settings to exclude certain files from deletion based on file extension or file size.

• Click on OK to schedule the task.

The process to empty the recycle bin of your Synology NAS will run as per the schedule.

Can Deleted Files from Synology NAS be Recovered?

If you have emptied the Recycle Bin of your Synology NAS, it means that the files are deleted permanently. In such scenarios, you can use a built-in service, like Synology Hyper Backup, Shared Folder Sync, or Synology Drive Server to recover your deleted data, provided these were set up beforehand.

In case you haven’t configured any of the above services, you can use Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery. It is a dedicated NAS data recovery software that lets you recover accidentally deleted files and folders, media files (audio, video, images, etc.), documents, and more, from the NAS devices. Moreover, you can also use it to recover data from the drives of an inaccessible or non-booting NAS, SHR-1 and SHR-2, and RAID-based NAS devices. Additionally, you can recover data from other types of storage media, such as HDDs, SSDs, flash drives (pen drives), optical media (CDs/DVDs), and more.

Below are some salient features of this powerful NAS data recovery software by Stellar:

• Recovers data from Synology, QNAP, and ASUSTOR NAS devices
• Supports data recovery from RAID-based NAS, SHR-1 and SHR-2 configured in Synology NAS devices
• Recovers data from inaccessible or degraded RAID servers
• Retrieves data from all virtual machine images, including VMDK, VDI, VHD, & VHDX
• Recovers data from degraded or crashed RAID-0, 5, 6, and Nested RAID arrays for data recovery
• Recovers files and folders from HDDs, SSDs, flash drives, etc.
• Compatible with NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, APFS, HFS, HFS+, Ext4, Ext3, and Ext2 formatted storage devices

Watch the video to know how you to use Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery.

Conclusion

Deleting files from a shared folder on your Synology NAS doesn’t free up the storage space. This is because they are temporarily stored in the Recycle Bin. So, you need to empty it to reclaim the storage space. In this guide, we have explained the process to empty the recycle bin on Synology NAS.

If you have accidentally deleted some important files from your Synology NAS, you can check your data backups or snapshots (if configured). If you don’t have a backup, then a specialized NAS data recovery software, like Stellar Toolkit for Data Recovery, can help you recover deleted files from your Synology NAS device.

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