What are /r/Syncthing's favorite Products & Services?

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Check if you have versioning turned on.

Also, if you're on Windows, you can easily see how the space is being used with WizTree.

Syncthing, as the name implies, does syncronization, it's not a client-server architecture like google drive, nextcloud, etc. It's all peer-to-peer.

It's pretty easy to setup:

1. Take a backup
2. Install the app on all devices
3. When opening the app, grant the storage permissions. Beware that pre-6.x Android devices might not have SAF (Storage Access Framework), which may limit your ability to write to folders stored in SDCards in some configurations
4. Go to the Devices tab, click the + sign
5. Go to another device, and click on the hamburger menu -> show QR code
6. Scan the QR code from the first device
7. Repeat until all devices are added
8. Go to the DCIM/Camera folder item on the Folder tab, share this with your pixel
9. On the pixel, accept the share, but and I recommend picking a different folder/empty folder as a target, this way it's guaranteed to not overwrite anything.

I believe Syncthing is easy enough that anyone can learn how to use it, but if you want commercial support, then I'd guess you could talk to the folks over at Kastelo.net.

Just FYI, I'm not associated with, or even used their services, I only know that company because it's listed on the footer of syncthing.net

Hope this helps!

syncthing-fork has a lot of improvements on Android that will probably improve this experience. I stopped getting weird behavior when I switched to it.

Performing a large-scale recovery from the versions feature will be a nightmare. It could also chew up a lot of disk space. By all means use Syncthing to copy source files to the server - then use a backup program for the actual backup. I use restic for this.

A "consumer" VPN (NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc) would accomplish nothing in this scenario. The traffic would go through the VPN to the syncthing relay server and then to your NAS.

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The syncthing relay server are encrypted. If you don't trust their encryption you have options:

Setup a VPN in your home network (maybe on TrueNAS, or maybe your Router supports this) and your friend connects to this VPN and can sync his files as if he is in your home network (no relay server).

The other option is to use software like Cryptomator. Cryptomator is an encryption software designed to be used with cloud services. I use this software with syncthing and I don't have any problems with it.

Are we talking about Syncthing or Syncthing-Fork ?

>For example, automatically start sync when wifi is connected or charging and automatically stop sync when wifi disconnects or not charging.

That's what both apps are already offering without the need to rely on thirdparty apps. I have Syncthing-Fork configured this way and have no problems with my battery.

Syncthing-Fork also offers to run on a fixed schedule. It will start syncing every hour for 5 minutes.

ProtonVPN has a setting where you can set certain apps to not use the VPN, I think it's called "splitting" in the settings. They use OpenVPN protocol so that may be a feature of the protocol and not unique to Proton.

I have the Android app however you can also have it on a PC or on Apple devices, no idea if that feature is applicable to those but I expect is would be.

I know what you're looking for. For audiobooks, you have Voice:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.ph1b.audiobook

This offers you resume functionality. For i don't have anything yet. For ebooks, I guess you'll find many .epub reader apps.

Well, you are in luck with an on/off button, but you have to put it together yourself.

Assuming you are using this android app, you can take advantage of remote intents to set up a quick settings tile that toggles syncthing with an automation app like tasker.

Good luck!

Ah, good to know! I'll favor WD over Seagate.

BTW, I am not seeing the point in a NAS over a DAS (like this https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TR-004-Enclosure-Attached-hardware/dp/B07K4RC7X9). As far as I understand, the main thing a NAS will do is allow me to conveniently/quickly access the files stored there from any device on the network. But I don't need that since Syncthing will already replicate my files to my other devices' storage. IOW, I will have a local copy on all devices already! :)

Thanks! I didn't know what MTBF/MTFF was until I looked it up just now. I'll stick to the big brand names. Any that you recommend?

I also need to look into RAID a bit more. I am starting to think that may be I should get a DAS with hardware RAID to connect to the Pi. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/QNAP-TR-004-Enclosure-Attached-hardware/dp/B07K4RC7X9

Sorry about that. I was unclear. I'm using the RPi for multiple purposes. The SSD and Syncthing are used across my devices. The other external drives are powered up in groups via something like this this and backed up to. Then dismounted and powered down. I use a Gosun smart plug (apparently no longer sold on Amazon) to control power via a phone app. Saves running down to the basement. :-)

I have a system synchronising the photos of my parents two phones, my phone, two cloud systems, four computers and an offline backup system. Among other things, I delete the nonsense images on my mom's What's App feed, and I manage, edit, and tag the photos that are captured from our phones and push back the updated images to my parents phones and computers.

I know a thing or two about synchronising. Syncthing's instructions do everything as promised if followed, except, you know, synchronising files.

Turning off the VPN doesn't help. I am not willing to deconstruct my browser settings to see if that works, and in any case, I shouldn't have to.

Specs: Dell computer dated from at least 2015 w/ 8GB RAM. Linux Mint 20 Firefox Browser with uBlockOrigin (Cookie Autodelete was disabled) Mullvad VPN. Two dogs who have to be walked later tonight.

Are there any alternate synchronising software? I'm reaching the point where hooking attaching the devices to a cable sounds good.

I'm on the non fork on Android 12 and haven't noticed any battery drain issues.

I do have a question, if I decided to try the fork, what setup issues would I have. I had so much trouble getting syncthing setup initially I've very hesitant to mess with it again.

I use it to sync Obsidian.md between Android and Linux and it works fine, the sync is pretty much instantaneous.

Homebrew casks are almost always exactly the same as installing the .dmg from the official website.

Using Syncthing as an example, you can check the source code of the cask, and see that it installs the .dmg file from the official GitHub release, the same URL as the official website uses for the download: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/blob/HEAD/Casks/syncthing.rb

So, if you're comfortable with the command line, using Homebrew is way faster and easier, and does the exact same thing as the official install method. You can also write a simple script to install Homebrew and all (or at least most) of the software you use, so you can get up and running faster after a re-install or after moving to a new Mac.

Look up if your router supports OpenWRT. It not only is an upgrade to the router's firmware, but also a fully-fledged Linux distribution.

Apparently they have an installable (https://openwrt.org/packages/pkgdata/syncthing)[package] for Syncthing.

I worked on something that will work, I am not done yet, and I want to take my time to draft it as a well written feedback for the developers.

For now I suggest you to try Resilio Sync It has less of this issue but their solution is not perfect, The support do listen to bug reports and it seems like they do try to fix them.

StoopoidoMan is sorry

I'd take out the VPN as it will be muddying the waters. What versions are you using? What changes to the defaults have been set on both devices? Do you get direct or relay connections on a Syncthing restart, and say after 10 minutes? Are there connections errors in the logs on either end? Are both devices "Scanning" at all? How long have you left Syncthing once it's started, for speeds to improve? What do you both get from speed tests?

Lots of great comment in this post. Another open source tool to look at is rClone which can do snapshot backups to just about any cloud backend (AWS, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, etc etc) . Duplicati may be more appropriate, but I just wanted to throw rclone out there.

I currently have several Macs backing up to an old mac in the basement that has TimeMachine taking regular snapshots; it also is running Backblaze Personal Backup for a cloud copy. Long term I want to migrate the basement backup machine to Linux with open source tools but I have some learning curve ahead of me first.

I'll answer my own question in case anyone is ever facing the same situation.

It was painless! I did an apt-get delete syncthing to remove the "factory" version. Then I added the Syncthing repos as detailed here: https://syncthing.net/downloads/ and then reinstalled.

After the installation, I started syncthing on both sides. The database went through a rebuild process. One of my machines is an ancient desktop and that took a while, but after that finished, the two machines found each other and are syncing as normal.

The only thing - it looks like the auto-update feature is disabled and can't be enabled... probably something in the config file, but I don't really care so won't spend time fixing that one!

What are you trying to sync to iOS? I just kind of leave my iOS devices out of the party.

If you have a Mac, you could look into using Hazel to copy files dropped into Syncthing and move them into iCloud or something.

Disable the discovery options and configure your nodes with static addresses. After doing this, I never got it over 4% battery consumption per day.

EDIT: See here: https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android/wiki/Info-on-battery-optimization-and-settings-affecting-battery-usage

I use Syncthing to sync photos from my laptop to my PC. I then use a program called DropIT to move the RAW files to a different folder on the PC. This then triggers Syncthing to delete the files on my laptop.

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http://www.dropitproject.com/

If you want to backup your photos, use backup software. Having it synced is not a backup.

The way I solve this is to have two sets of shared folders:

"Media" shared between phone, laptop and desktop.

"Media Archive" shared only between desktop and laptop.

Every year I create a new folder in the Archive, and move all the photos from Media into the Archive. This removes the photos from the phone and keeps them on the computers.

I use restic to keep both folders backed up as Syncthing is not backup software.

For anyone reading this in the future, the process for downgrading (or upgrading to a beta) the version of Syncthing supplied by SyncTrayzor is detailed here.

well, according to https://syncthing.net/ in the section called "Secure & Private" it says "All communication is secured using TLS. The encryption used includes perfect forward secrecy to prevent any eavesdropper from ever gaining access to your data"

In case you seek the same I did some time before to place my donation: Syncthing donations to generic development and infrastructure costs can be done here https://syncthing.net/donations/ and the Android development mainly done by Catfriend1 regarding the fork here https://liberapay.com/~1534877 Definitely all contributors and maintainers do a good job keeping Syncthing healthy and granting new features :-)

Thanks for the recommendation I've seen EteSync before but never got round to installing it and trying it out.

Just got a RaspberryPi4b though and am in the process of setting that up so may give it a whirl on that.

I've tried playing around with Radicale and got it installed on a server and could view the WebUI but could never get a client to succesfully connect.

Developer of EteSync here.

If you need any help setting things up, please come to our chat at https://www.etesync.com/community-chat/ (also accessible through IRC and Matrix). There's a great community there that would be happy to help.

If it's calendar sync you're after you should take a look at EteSync. It provides end-to-end encrypted synchronization of calendar, tasks, and contacts. It's fully journaled, so any changes can be rolled back. All based on open source technology.

It works on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, and they offer a web client too. It's fully transparent, no need for special apps. You keep using your existing address book and calendar apps. The EteSync app merely installs a sync framework on your device, similar to the preinstalled ones for Apple/Google, and provides a management interface for the account. In daily use you don't access the EteSync app.

You can either use the hosted service ($24 a year) or self-host it (free).

To share your calendar with your wife you create a free associate account. I've been using it for about 2½ years now, and it's been brilliant.

I'm with ProtonMail too, but I have no intention of using ProtonCalendar as EteSync just does the job so extremely well.

They offer a 2-week free trial, no payment info required. PM me if you want a referral code that gives you an additional 2 weeks free (starts once you sign up for a paid account).

That is what phone -> pc sync is. PC has to accept changes from phone but not vice versa.

I think I know what you want. You want files in your phones to be copied to PC and then you want to free up space on your phone (but not delete the same file on PC). Syncthing cannot help you here; what you want is not syncing, you want backup. Maybe you need something like this.

Meanwhile I think the best Syncthing Device is an old Android Phone. This has several of advantages:

• most of the people have still an unused Android Phone lying arround
• small size
• low power usage
• battery backup holds up several hours in case of power outage
• Camera to Scan Device ID QR-Codes
• good chance to support full device encryption

optional: - add a SIM Card to have backup for Wifi outage

I am using: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nutomic.syncthingandroid

I've used Syncthing with devices running ExpressVPN and NordVPN without issues. Devices on VPN on local networks still find each other locally and sync at local speeds and remotely they sync at normal speeds which seem to be driven by relay speeds and other factors.

I am using syncthing fork, so my application path may be different from the normal one, and your storage id for sure will be. If I create folders on the sdcard in this directory they are read write for syncing and for most other applications are r/w or read only. Android sdcard access sucks.

/storage/BEBC-93E4/Android/media/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid

For you it will be:

/storage/????-????/Android/media/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid/

Use something like solid explorer to find the directory: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplorer2

Ultimately the Google language go just doesn't work well on Android, which is a shame. Typical Google though - another project that doesn't quite work great.

For those missing the Android app:

- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid