If you are looking for a solution to manage or transfer your files with a simple drag and drop web user interface with loads of options, Droppy might be what you’re after!

Droppy is a self-hosted file storage server with a web interface and capabilities to edit files and view media directly in the browser. It is particularly well-suited to be run on low-end hardware like the Raspberry Pi.

I’ll be showing you how to install Droppy on your Synology NAS using Docker. It’s quite simple and only takes a few minutes to spin up! That’s the beauty of docker. First, let’s take a closer look at the features to see if Droppy is a fit for your needs.

Features

Responsive, scalable HTML5 interface

Realtime updates of file system changes

Directory and Multi-File upload

Drag-and-Drop support

Clipboard support to create image/text files

Side-by-Side mode

Simple and fast Search

Shareable public download links

Zip download of directories

Powerful text editor with themes and broad language support

Image and video gallery with touch support

Audio player with seeking support

Fullscreen support for editor and gallery

Supports installing to the homescreen

Docker images available for x86-64, ARMv6, ARMv7 and ARMv8

Personally, my favorite feature is the image and text copying from clipboard. For example, you can right click any image on a website and click “copy image” then go into any folder on Droppy and hit ctrl+v to paste the image right into the folder. Droppy will upload the image and assign it a generic name. You can do the same for any text. This is great for quikly saving text snippets that you can later use. But this is only scratching the surface! Let’s get this installed on our Synology.

Step 1. Install Docker on your Synology device. This requires a plus model.

Step 2. Open docker and click the Registry tab. Then search for droppy. Double click the silverwind/droppy image to pull it down.

Step 3. Click the Image tab and find the droppy image. Wait for it to finish downloading then double click it to launch it. Then click Advanced settings in the General Settings menu.

Step 4. In the Advanced Settings tab tick Enable auto-start then go to the Volume tab.

Step 5. In the Volume tab we have to bind 2 folders. One for the config and one for files. The files bind can be any folder you choose on your NAS or you can create a new one. In my case, I mounted the files to a shared folder I already had on my NAS loaded with files called “Save”. This is the folder Droppy will index and utilize for all the files. Clearly you knew that!

Step 6. Click the Port Settings tab to set a port for the container. You can leave it as the default port of 8989 or change it to something else. Here I used 8999 and it worked just fine. Hit Apply and we are done!

Now you can visit http://my_nas_ip_here:8999 (or whatever port you used for this) to view the web ui. You will have to create an admin account first then log in.

When you first log in you will see the directory we bound earlier in step 5 along with all the files and sub folders. Familiarize yourself with all the features. Try things like dragging and dropping files to the web interface, editing files and go through the feature list to test things out.

To add more users you can click the cogwheel in the upper right corner. Here you can also change a few settings.

Other Docker system users can deploy the image using the following

$ docker run --name droppy -p 127.0.0.1:8989:8989 silverwind/droppy

More Screenshots















Let me know in the comments below what you think! However, if you have a request or questions regarding the script itself, I’ll refer you to the Droppy Github Repo.