Want to start fresh with facial recognition in Synology Photos? The move-out/move-back method below cleared existing face assignments in our original experience, allowing us to name people again.
Before you begin: Back up your photos and Synology Photos application data with Hyper Backup, and verify the backup completed. This process may also remove custom-album membership, so be prepared to rebuild albums as well as face labels.
Reset facial recognition
- Locate your photos. Personal Space uses
/home/Photos; Shared Space uses/photo. - Move them out temporarily. Using File Station or a network share, move a small, backed-up test folder to a safe location outside those library folders. Keep track of its original path.
- Let Photos register the removal. Wait until the selected photos no longer appear in Synology Photos.
- Move the folder back. Return it to its exact original location and allow Photos to finish processing it.
- Check the People album. If the face names have cleared, begin tagging again. Check your originals and custom albums before repeating with the rest of your library.
What to expect
In our original experience, faces returned untagged with a “Who’s this?” prompt. Processing can take time, especially with a large library. If the old names remain, the workaround has not reset them on your installation.
If needed after returning the files, use Synology Photos → Settings → Personal or Shared Space → Indexing → Re-index. Menu locations vary by version. Re-indexing alone does not guarantee that face names will be cleared; a NAS restart is not an established requirement.
Version note: Our original test did not record the DSM/Photos versions. This workaround has not been freshly retested on current releases and is not an official Synology reset procedure.
Updated September 23, 2026: clarified the steps, corrected /photo, and added backup and version notes. References: Synology’s folder paths and reindexing controls · Photos backup guidance. These references support the controls and backup advice, not the reset workaround itself.
