Paperless-ngx on Synology: Container Manager Setup and Smarter OCR

If you searched for paperless ngx synology, you already have (or plan to buy) a Synology NAS and want Paperless-ngx there, not on a separate Ubuntu VM. Short answer: yes. Synology’s Container Manager can run Paperless-ngx as a Docker Compose project. You map consume and media folders to DSM shared folders, set UID/GID so scanners can drop files, and keep OCR realistic for NAS CPU. OCRskill sits beside that stack when you want document type, issue date, and correspondent filled without typing every label.

This guide is Synology-specific. For a full Ubuntu Docker Compose plus Traefik and agentic archive walkthrough, use our Paperless-ngx electronic archive tutorial. The official install path lives in the Paperless-ngx setup docs.

What you need on the NAS

• A Synology model that supports Container Manager (DSM 7.x with the Container Manager package from Package Center). Older “Docker” package installs can still run Compose over SSH; the Project UI described here is the Container Manager path most people use on current DSM.
• Enough free RAM that Paperless, PostgreSQL, and a Redis-compatible broker can coexist with your other containers. Budget roughly a few gigabytes for a quiet home or small-office load; heavy overnight OCR batches need more headroom.
• A shared folder layout you control (commonly under docker on volume1).
• SSH enabled temporarily if you need to run id for UID/GID, or Task Scheduler for the same check.

Paperless-ngx’s maintainers recommend PostgreSQL for new installs and publish ready Compose templates under the project’s docker/compose directory.

Folder map that fits DSM

Create a project directory on the NAS, for example:

/volume1/docker/paperless-ngx/

Inside it, prepare at least:

Host path (example)	Role inside Paperless
.../consume	Drop zone for new scans and PDFs
.../export	Documenter export / backup dumps
.../data (optional bind)	App data if you prefer bind mounts over named volumes
.../media (optional bind)	Stored originals and archive PDFs

On Synology, Compose volume paths should use the full /volumeN/... form, not a File Station shortcut. Create the folders in File Station first so Container Manager can mount them. Give your DSM user (and any scanner account that writes to consume) read/write permission on those shares.

Scanner workflow stays simple: the multifunction printer or desktop scan profile writes to the consume share over SMB. Paperless watches that folder and ingests new files.

Deploy with Container Manager Project

Official Paperless steps, adapted for Synology:

1. Download a Compose template from the Paperless repo. Prefer docker-compose.postgres.yml for new installs; use a *-tika.yml variant if you need Office document conversion via Tika and Gotenberg.
2. Save it as docker-compose.yml in /volume1/docker/paperless-ngx/, and place docker-compose.env plus .env from the same compose directory beside it.
3. Edit bind mounts so consume and export (and optionally data / media / Postgres data) point at your /volume1/... folders.
4. Change the published port if 8000 conflicts with something else on the NAS, for example 8010:8000.
5. In docker-compose.env, set a real PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY, your PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE, and PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE (ISO 639-2 codes such as eng or deu). Uncomment and set USERMAP_UID / USERMAP_GID to match the DSM account that writes into consume. On Synology that is often not 1000; run id over SSH as that user and copy the printed uid/gid.
6. Open Container Manager → Project → Create, name the project (for example paperless-ngx), set the path to the folder that already holds docker-compose.yml, review the stack, and build/start it.

Synology documents Projects as the way to create and manage multi-container Compose apps inside Container Manager. After the containers are healthy, open http://<nas-ip>:<host-port> and create the first administrator account when prompted (current Paperless Docker flow prompts in the UI on first access).

If files land in consume but never appear, check permissions first, then consider polling. Network shares that lack reliable inotify need PAPERLESS_CONSUMER_POLLING_INTERVAL set to a positive number in the Paperless configuration; the setup docs call this out for NFS-style mounts.

Reverse proxy caveats on a NAS

Exposing Paperless only on the LAN IP and port is fine for a first week. For HTTPS on a hostname:

• DSM Application Portal → Reverse Proxy can forward https://paperless.example.com to http://127.0.0.1:8010 (or whichever host port you mapped).
• Set PAPERLESS_URL to that public HTTPS origin in docker-compose.env when you put Paperless behind a reverse proxy. Paperless documents this as required for public domain exposure.
• Prefer Let’s Encrypt certificates managed in DSM Control Panel → Security → Certificate, and keep the NAS itself off the open internet except for the reverse-proxied hostname.
• Do not assume Traefik labels from Ubuntu tutorials apply. On Synology you either use Application Portal or run your own proxy container; mixing both on ports 80/443 needs care so DSM web UI stays reachable.

Treat CSRF and trusted-host misconfiguration as the usual symptoms when the UI loads but login fails after you add a domain name: fix PAPERLESS_URL and restart the project.

OCR on the NAS vs smarter metadata

Built-in Paperless OCR uses Tesseract (via OCRmyPDF) inside the container. That is the right default for searchable PDFs on a Synology. It also burns CPU. On smaller NAS units, large multipage scans can make DSM feel sluggish. Mitigations from Paperless’s own “less powerful devices” guidance include limiting OCR to the first page (PAPERLESS_OCR_PAGES=1), lowering worker/thread counts, keeping PAPERLESS_OCR_MODE at auto, or cleaning less aggressively (PAPERLESS_OCR_CLEAN=none).

When the goal is classification, not only a text layer, pair the archive with OCRskill. Paperless remains the document management system: ingest, storage, tags, and full-text search. OCRskill supplies agentic OCR over a Paperless workflow so new documents can receive structured metadata (document type, issue date, correspondent, and a review flag when the page is unreadable). That pattern is the same idea as in the Ubuntu-oriented archive post, only the host is your NAS shared folders instead of an Ubuntu VM.

For energy-company style paperless document workflows (invoices, meter readings, contractor packets), keep the NAS stack local for retention and search, and use cloud OCR only for the metadata step you trust enough to automate. Spot-check early batches; do not bulk-import decades of paper on day one.

Backup and snapshot notes

Prefer bind-mounted host folders under a known shared folder so Hyper Backup and Snapshot Replication can see them. Named Docker volumes work, but they are harder to include in File Station backups.

Practical habit:

1. Keep docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.env, and .env in the project folder you back up.
2. Include consume, export, media, and database data directories in Hyper Backup (or Btrfs snapshots on the volume).
3. Before a major Paperless version upgrade, stop the Container Manager project, take a snapshot or Hyper Backup job, then pull new images and start again.
4. Use Paperless’s export tooling into the export folder as an application-level safety net, not as the only backup.

Images alone are not a backup. Restore means Compose file plus data directories (and a working Container Manager install).

When Synology is the wrong host

Skip the NAS route if you need heavy concurrent OCR all day, GPU-assisted pipelines, or a stack that already lives on Kubernetes. A modest always-on Linux VM (the path in our other tutorial) will outperform a low-end ARM NAS under continuous consume load. Synology shines when the NAS is already the office file server and you want one less machine to manage.

Also confirm your DSM and Container Manager versions before you rely on the Project UI. Package names and menus changed as Synology moved from the older Docker package to Container Manager; if Package Center only offers Docker on a very old DSM, follow Compose over SSH with the same official YAML rather than inventing UI steps that are not there.

Conclusion

Paperless-ngx on Synology is a solid, practical path: Container Manager Project, /volumeN bind mounts, correct USERMAP_* values, cautious reverse proxy settings, and honest limits on onboard Tesseract. Once ingest and search work, add OCRskill where labels and dates matter more than raw OCR throughput. That split keeps archives on hardware you already trust and reserves agentic metadata for the documents that actually need it.

Start with a week of new scans on a single document type, verify permissions and backups, then widen the consume share. When you outgrow the NAS CPU, move the same Compose layout to a Linux host without redesigning the filing model.