SYMPTOM
“My Synology says all drives are healthy and the volume is ‘Normal’ — but my files are gone.”
Everything in DSM looks green:
- Drives report “Healthy”
- Storage Pool shows “Normal”
- Volume is online
But… the file share is empty.
No folders. No documents. Just blank.
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING
This usually means:
- The volume was recreated, not repaired
- The original file system was replaced during a failed repair
- A rebuild occurred on the wrong disk set or incomplete data
Synology’s “repair” prompts can be misleading — especially if multiple drives were flagged or swapped out.
You may still have:
- Partial RAID metadata
- Recoverable volume snapshots
- Left-behind Btrfs volume structures
But the system itself will not show them in File Station.
WHAT NOT TO DO
- ❌ Don’t try to re-share the volume or create a new shared folder
- ❌ Don’t reset DSM or reinitialize storage pool
- ❌ Don’t believe “healthy” means safe — Synology doesn’t check actual data validity
WHEN TO ESCALATE
If your files are gone, and especially if this is after a “repair” operation:
- You need manual metadata inspection
- You may still recover data if you stop now
Trying to reconfigure DSM can overwrite raw file remnants.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Let Jeannie Diagnostic review:
- Synology volume headers
- Pool member alignment
- Shadow volumes or snapshots
ADR can often rebuild outside DSM and extract full Btrfs volumes even after “healthy” shows empty.