Getting Started with Your Synology: Installing Jellyfin

Jellyfin, the free and fully self-hosted alternative to Plex. We run Plex day to day, so this one’s written straight: accurate, tested steps, without pretending it’s what’s actually serving our library.

Written for DSM 7.2 and the official jellyfin/jellyfin image.

Jellyfin home screen — What you’re building toward. Official screenshot via jellyfin.org.

Step 1. Make the folders

Same pattern as the Plex guide. A docker/jellyfin folder in File Station with config and cache subfolders inside it, kept separate from the media library.

Step 2. The compose file

In Container Manager → Project → Create, point it at docker/jellyfin and use this, adjusting the media path to match your setup:

services:
  jellyfin:
    image: jellyfin/jellyfin:latest
    container_name: jellyfin
    environment:
      TZ: America/Chicago
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/jellyfin/config:/config
      - /volume1/docker/jellyfin/cache:/cache
      - /volume1/media:/data
    ports:
      - "8096:8096"
    restart: unless-stopped

Unlike Plex, Jellyfin doesn’t need network_mode: host for normal web-client use. Straight port mapping works fine. Jellyfin’s own docs recommend host networking specifically for DLNA auto-discovery, so skip it unless you actually need that.

Step 3. Finish setup in the browser

Deploy the project, then go to http://YOUR_NAS_IP:8096. Jellyfin’s first-run wizard runs entirely locally, with no account on a third-party service, which for a lot of people is the entire point. Set your admin account, point it at the /data path you mapped, name your libraries, let it scan.

Step 4. Hardware transcoding, if you need it

Jellyfin’s hardware acceleration lives in Dashboard → Playback, and it’s available to everyone. No Plex Pass equivalent required, which is a real difference from Plex.

Whether it actually works comes down to your NAS having a supported hardware encoder and that encoder being exposed into the container correctly. Check your specific Synology model before assuming it’s there.

That closes out the media-server half of this series. Both solve the same problem differently. Plex leans on a company’s infrastructure and polish, Jellyfin keeps everything local and hands you the work. Worth knowing both even if you only run one.

Switching over rather than starting fresh? There’s a dedicated guide for pulling your watch history across: migrating from Plex to Jellyfin.

One thing neither protects you from is losing the NAS itself. Next: Backups and Snapshots →

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