Universal Search provides global search for applications and files on a Synology storage system by file name and file content.

Universal Search can search the following items on a Synology storage system:

• Files and file contents in indexed folders, including images, music, and videos
• Note Station notes
• Synology Office documents and spreadsheets
• Offline DSM Help
• Applications

Universal Search supports keyword search and advanced search criteria.

• Created, modified, and last accessed date
• File extension
• File size in MB
• Author, group, and owner
• Program name
• Music metadata, including composer, album, title, publish year, genre, duration (minutes), audio bitrate, and audio sample rate
• Video metadata, including video bitrate and video codec
• Photo metadata, including description, rating, ISO value, camera, camera model, exposure time, lens aperture, horizontal resolution, and vertical resolution

The built-in Search Now widget provides shortcuts for targeted searches.

Search results can be filtered by file type: Document, Photo, Music, and Video.

Universal Search can index up to 1,000 folders. Subfolders inside selected folders are not counted toward this limit.

• File content can be indexed for supported document, image, audio, and video formats. If a file type is not supported, the system automatically falls back to filename indexing and indexes only the file name and its metadata
  • Document: .!!!, .$00, .$01, .$02, .$04, .$05, .$o1, .$ol, .1, .12da, .1st, .7, .7z, .82t, .92t, ._me, .abap, .abl, .ac, .ada, .adiumhtmllog, .adiumlog, .adl, .adt, .adw, .ahk, .aiml, .alx, .aml, .android, .annot, .ans, .ansi, .application, .aprj, .apx, .aqt, .arff, .artask, .as, .asc, .ascii, .asl, .asp, .ass, .assoc, .atc, .att, .awa, .awb, .awd, .awh, .awp, .axt, .azw 3, .ba1, .bad, .bas, .bat, .bbs, .bbxt, .bcr, .bdp, .bdr, .bea, .bel, .bep, .big, .big5, .bk, .blm, .bln, .blw, .bmtp, .bna, .bnx, .bog, .box, .bpdx, .brf, .bsdl, .bss, .bt, .bz2, .bzw, .c, .cag, .cas, .cascii, .cbl, .cc, .cd2, .cfm, .charset, .chm, .cho, .chord, .cif, .cil, .ckn, .clg, .cli, .clix, .clj, .cmd, .cmtx, .cof, .coffee, .conf, .coo, .cpp, .crash, .crd, .cs, .csassembly, .csmanifest, .css, .csv, .ctd, .ctf, .ctl, .ctx, .d, .dart, .dcd, .dce, .ddd, .ddt, .de, .dectest, .des, .desc, .dfe, .dfm, .diff, .dii, .diskdefines, .diz, .dk, .dkz, .dmr, .dne, .doc, .docm, .docx, .dok, .dot, .dotm, .dotx, .dp, .dpv, .dqy, .drp, .dsc, .dsml, .dtd, .dwl, .ecsv, .edml, .edn, .edt, .efm, .eia, .ejs, .eml, .emulecollection, .en, .enc, .enf, .eng, .epub, .erl, .err, .es, .esw, .etf, .etx, .euc, .ext, .extra, .f, .faq, .fff, .ffp, .f in, .first, .flr, .fmr, .fnx, .fon, .forth, .fr, .fra, .frm, .fsa, .fth, .ftl, .full, .gbf, .gdt, .gen, .ger, .glsl, .gnu, .gnumeric, .go, .gpl, .groovy, .gs, .gthr, .gtx, .guide, .gz, .haml, .handlebars, .hdr, .hhc, .hhs, .hlm, .hlx, .hp8, .hs, .hsk, .ht 3, .htm, .html, .htmls, .htx, .hvc, .hwl, .hx, .hz, .id 31, .id32, .idc, .idt, .idx, .iem, .igv, .igy, .iif, .inc, .ini, .inuse, .ion, .ipr, .iqy, .isr, .it, .ivp, .ja, .jack, .jad, .jade, .jam, .java, .jeb, .jis, .jl, .jp1, .js, .json, .jsp, .jss, .jsx, .jtx, .kahl, .kar, .kch, .key, .kix, .klg, .kor, .la, .label, .las, .latex, .lay, .less, .lin, .lin ux, .linx, .liquid, .lisp, .lit, .lnc, .lo_, .log, .lrc, .ls, .lsl, .lst, .ltr, .ltt, .ltx, .lua, .lue, .luf, .lwd, .lxfml, .lyr, .lyt, .m, .man, .manifest, .map, .mar, .markdown, .mathml, .maxfr, .mcw, .md, .mdl, .mdle, .mdown, .mdtext, .mdtxt, .mdwn, .me, .mez, .mf, .mib, .mit, .mk, .mkd, .mkdn, .mno, .mnu, .mobi, .modd, .mpsub, .msg, .mss, .mtx, .mtxt, .mvg, .mw, .mysql, .nbr, .nclk, .ncm, .new, .nfo, .nix, .nlc, .nmbd, .nokogiri, .not, .notes, .now, .npdt, .nt, .numbers, .nwctxt, .ocaml, .ocr, .odb, .odc, .odf, .odg, .odi, .odm, .odoc, .odp, .ods, .odt, .oh, .ojp, .omn, .oogl, .oot, .opc, .ope nbsd, .opml, .ort, .osheet, .osi, .oslides, .otc, .otf, .otg, .oth, .oti, .otp, .ots, .ott, .p 3x, .pages, .panic, .pascal, .pbd, .pc5, .pcl, .pd, .pdb, .pdf, .pdu, .perl, .pfs, .pgw, .php, .pjs, .pl, .pla, .plf, .plg, .plist, .plk, .pln, .pml, .pmo, .pod, .pot, .potm, .potx, .ppa, .pps, .ppsm, .ppsx, .ppt, .pptm, .pptx, .prc, .prc, .prn, .pro, .prr, .ps, .psb, .psi2, .pt 3, .pts, .pvj, .pvw, .py, .q&a, .qdt, .qud, .r, .rar, .rb, .rbdf, .rbw, .rdf, .rea, .readme, .reg, .rel, .rep, .resp, .rest, .rff, .rhtml, .ris, .rml, .rqy, .rs, .rst, .rt, .rtf, .rtl, .rtx, .ru, .rus, .rzk, .rzn, .s, .s19, .s2k, .sami, .sass, .sbv, .scad, .scala, .scm, .scss, .sct, .sdnf, .sen, .seq, .set, .sfb, .sgp, .sh, .sha1, .sha512, .sjs, .skcard, .skv, .slk, .sls, .smali, .smf, .smi, .sms, .snw, .soap, .soundscript, .spa, .spec, .spg, .spn, .spx, .sql, .srt, .srx, .ss, .ssa, .ssf, .st1, .stf, .stq, .strings, .styl, .sub, .syn, .t, .t2t, .tab, .tar, .tbd, .tbl, .tbx, .tbz, .tce, .tcl, .tcm, .tdf, .ted, .tex, .text, .textclipping, .textile, .tfw, .tgf, .tgz, .thml, .thp, .tlb, .tle, .tlx, .tm, .tml, .tmprtf, .tmx, .tnef, .tph, .tpl, .trn, .trt, .tsv, .tt, .ttbl, .tte, .ttpl, .ttxt, .tx8, .tx?, .txa, .txd, .txe, .txh, .txt, .u3i, .uax, .uhtml, .uk, .unauth, .uni, .unx, .us, .usa, .user, .usf, .usg, .utf8, .utx, .utxt, .v, .vb, .ver, .vet, .vfk, .vhd, .vhdl, .vis, .vkp, .vmg, .vmsg, .vna, .vsmproj, .vw, .vw 3, .vxml, .wer, .wir, .wkf, .wn, .wrd, .wrl, .wsc, .wst, .wtf, .wtl, .wtx, .x20, .x60, .x70, .x80, .x90, .xb0, .xc0, .xct, .xd0, .xdl, .xdp, .xfd, .xff, .xhtm, .xlf, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsx, .xlt, .xltm, .xltx, .xml, .xq, .xquery, .xqy, .xsd, .xsl, .xslt, .xsr, .xwp, .xy, .xy 3, .xyp, .xyw, .xyz, .yaml, .yml, .zanebug, .zed, .zhp, .zib, .zip, .zw, .zxe, and files without an extension
  • Images: .3fr, .arw, .bmp, .cr2, .crw, .dcr, .dng, .erf, .gif, .ico, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .k25, .kdc, .mef, .mos, .mrw, .nef, .orf, .pef, .png, .psd, .ptx, .raf, .raw, .rw2, .sr2, .srf, .tif, .tiff, .ufo, .x3f
  • Audio: .aac, .ac3, .aif, .aiff, .ape, .cue, .dff, .dsf, .flac, .m3u, .m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .mp1, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .ogg, .pcm, .pls, .ra, .ram, .wav, .wma, .wpl
  • Video: .3g2, .3gp, .asf, .avi, .divx, .dvr-ms, .f4v, .flv, .ifo, .iso, .m2t, .m2ts, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .mpeg, .mpg, .mts, .qt, .rm, .rmvb, .swf, .tp, .trp, .ts, .vdr, .vob, .webm, .wmv, .xvid

Requirements and Limitations

• The volume that stores indexed folders must have at least 100 MB of available space.
• Hybrid Share folders are not supported for file content indexing.
• There is no fixed file size limit for file content indexing, but if processing a file requires significant system memory, Universal Search automatically falls back to file name indexing.

Semantic indexing is available for a narrower set of file types than file content indexing.

If a file type is not supported by semantic indexing, Universal Search automatically falls back to file content indexing.

Requirements and Limitations

• Hybrid Share folders are not supported for semantic indexing.
• Semantic indexing can be configured only on Synology Drive Team Folders.
• When files exceed the size limits below, Universal Search automatically falls back to file content indexing.

Universal Search does not support searching the following storage locations:

• Items stored on USB or SD external storage devices.
• Items stored in remote folders, cloud services, or virtual drives mounted to a Synology storage system.

Additional search limitations:

• Encrypted files and files without content cannot be previewed from search results.
• If search results contain more than 1,024 matching items, previews will not highlight all matched terms.
• Special character search applies only to file names, not file content.
• AI Search currently supports only Synology Drive and does not support Universal Search.