Cannot Add Your Synology Camera License? Fix Add and Registration Issues
Updated on September 27, 2026
5 min read
When a camera licence will not go in, the problem is almost never the key itself. License activation is an online handshake between your NAS and Synology, and in practice it fails for three reasons. Work through them in order and you will find yours.
One cause is worth ruling out first: a key from a generator or a suspiciously cheap listing will never activate, because Synology blocked those keys in DSM 7.1. If that is where your key came from, read what a Synology license keygen does to your NAS before trying anything else.
Why Synology License Activation Fails: 3 Common Causes #
1. License activation cannot reach Synology’s servers #
License activation requires an active Internet connection. If your Surveillance Station is in an isolated network, refer to our offline license activation guide or Synology official tips. In brief, either your Synology NAS or the mobile used for verification needs to be connected to Internet while verification.
Based on this, the most likely solution is to resolve an issue with your NAS being unable to connect to Synology Inc. for license validation. Please ensure that your Synology NAS has HTTPS (port 443) access to the required Synology license validation websites. Your NAS needs to connect to domains such as:
- license.synology.com
- account.synology.com
- payment.synology.com
To isolate the cause of connection failure, you could use the following checking way.
On the NAS, Log into your Synology device via SSH with root privileges and execute the following command:
curl -vL synosurveillance.synology.com 2> /dev/null | grep SynologyA successful connection would normally show a line like:
/* Copyright (c) 2022 Synology Inc. All rights reserved. */If your output shows unable to reach the Synology validation server, likely due to a firewall or network isolation issue.
Given this, we recommend directly trying the DS cam offline license activation method by this to solve it:
。Activate Synology Camera License Offline
2. The licence is registered to Synology Account A, but you are signed in as Account B #
Check that you are signed in to the correct Synology Account, because license activation binds the key to whichever account completes it. If you have multiple accounts, try another one to authenticate the migration → common migration issue
3. A cracked key was used on this NAS before #
If you ever used a cracked license (e.g., from keygen sites like this GitHub one), it may work temporarily, but Synology frequent updates often render these invalid.
For example, this keygen final update was in 2023. It stops working with 2024 Synology updates, leading to your NAS being locked remotely.
We have also seen cases where cracked scripts disable Surveillance Station on newer DSM versions.
To solve this issue, you could do this:
- Stop any running cracked scripts via Task Manager, then reinstall DSM and Surveillance Station (Mode 2: Reset Synology NAS and re-install DSM).
Finally add license again(How to Add and Activate Synology Surveillance Station License). - If the issue persists and the license still fails to verify, your NAS may be locked. Normally this NAS s/n (serial number) will be locked for two weeks.
If you need Surveillance Station working instantly, you need to
a. submit a Synology support ticket with your NAS s/n photo, photo of your license photo (or a PDF virtual key format) and invoice.
b. Synology Support will verify then unlock your NAS
If you purchased from SynoPower Club, we will send you the photo or the original files upon request for support purposes. (Request your license photo)
Or, we are happy to assist with Synology HQ Support tickets with business level, and this is free of charge to our customers.
Cases study of our support tickets with Synology #
(To accelerate the communication with Synology HQ Taiwan, we use Traditional Chinese to communicate and cc our customer to update)
[#3638066] Customer can not add license. We create a business ticket and handle this kind of issue with Synology HQ Support on behalf of our customer. After we provided the photo of license card and invoice, Synology HQ Support unlocked the s/n to fix it.
[#3689022] Customer added the license but its Surveillance Station will be disabled after 24hrs. Submit a ticket first to check with Synology HQ Support. Remotely login customer DS220+ to check the system and found the hacked keygen script. Clean by resetting and install the license again to fix it.
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License Activation FAQ #
Which addresses must the NAS reach for license activation? #
Outbound HTTPS on port 443 to license.synology.com, account.synology.com and payment.synology.com. A quick way to prove the path works is to SSH into the NAS and run curl against synosurveillance.synology.com; a working connection returns a Synology copyright line.
Can I activate a licence without Internet access on the NAS? #
Yes. DS cam can complete the handshake from a phone that has Internet, which covers isolated camera networks. The offline procedure is documented separately in our offline activation guide.
Does a licence move to a new NAS? #
Yes, but it stays bound to the Synology Account that activated it. Sign in with that same account when you migrate, otherwise the key looks used and will refuse to register on the new machine.
A cracked key was used on this NAS before. Is it recoverable? #
Usually yes, but not always cleanly. Synology blocked generator keys in DSM 7.1, and a NAS that recorded one can refuse later genuine keys. Open a support ticket with your proof of purchase rather than retrying the key repeatedly.