Syncthing is so great, I don't have to deal with things like a FTP server, sending files to a cloud drive, connecting via USB, or similar. I just point syncthing to the folder I want to replicate and my PC has it immediately and receives new files as soon as I connect to a WiFi (because of my configuration), and then at the PC I can easily backup the files.
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
198 points (99.0% liked)
Privacy
40181 readers
488 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Syncthing and Warpinator take care of 99% of my file transfer needs. They've become essentials.
I have it on RPi with NAS and it automatically accept shares and announce to other devices
When I tried stock Syncthing for Android it drained my battery very quickly. I use Syncthing-Fork which only checks for changes once an hour.
Can't you specify this with the normal app?
I would never use it in battery mode, only plugged in, that is how I have my Swiftbackup, Pocket Casts and Feeder downloads schedule.
I honestly don’t remember, I just googled “Syncthing drains battery” or something, someone recommended Fork, it worked.
Fantastic application. I use it to sync my retro game saves: retroarch, dolphin, PCSX2, etc. Got it on the Steam Deck and Windows Desktop. They all sync with the NVIDIA Shield, which is always on. Works fantastically well and doesn't seem to noticably impact the Deck's battery life.
Syncthing has become one of my must use apps. I use it regularly to back up files from my phone to my PC.
It's an incredible tool, don't know why I thought only cloud providers could do cross-device file syncing in the past...
Nice but what low quality post is that. Not even a "decentralized sync setup", just an F-Droid link? I see this with Git* projects too. If its not yours, and you dont really have anythings special to say on it, maybe dont use it to get likes
I use it to transfer large video files and 40000+ images from my phone to PC it transfer fast then normal copy between systems
I connect my PC and phone in tethering mode and open syncthing on both devices
I get 30mb+ per second transfer speed
That's one of the advantages with p2p-ish networks, if you're on the same network, devices can often disover each other and communicate directly, bypassing the bottleneck of an internet connection like traditional cloud services have ^.^
I (currently) only use it for my passwords and my music between my laptop and my phone, but it's incredibly useful, even for just those 2 things.
The one issue I have with syncthing is the abundance of .sync-conflict files it will generate sometimes.
it happens if you change files on each device while offline, if you change then sync it is ok, if you change same file on multiple devices, that is a conflict as it can't decide which file you want to keep
Yeah I noticed it only happened while offline, I don't mind really, just something I gotta curate from time to time.
You can choose which to keep in the web interface. That's a feature preventing data loss. You can choose to just delete all of these files but that would mean Syncthing might use the wrong data.
Great program, I use it to sync my music and movies/tv show folders to my phone.
It's nice to see syncthing becoming more popular. It's a great foss app that deserves more attention and can be used in so many contexts, replacing several proprietary and restrictive solutions
If I'm not mistake the default settings makes it so syncthing is not peer to peer but it involves their servers to pass the data. If anyone knows more about this please share.
You probably mean the relay servers. They are used in case your devices are behind a NAT and don't have any ports forwarded. In that case, it would be impossible for devices on different networks to communicate over the internet, so the relay servers make the communication work. It's not something to worry, since your data is encrypted when passing through it, but it can be disabled.
I think that's only if you're not on the same network
Basically just install it on all 3 devices, then identify which folders need to sync. And back up any saves you care about first, just in case.
First I set up the Shield. I think I just found it on the play store. Then set up each folder I wanted. SyncThing gives each shared folder a unique code, so when setting up folders on other devices you just enter that to let SyncThing know those 2 folders should sync. The Shield might not be ideal: a Raspberry Pi or something might be easier to work with than Android TV, but it still works.
On the Deck, you can just go to Desktop mode and find Syncthing in the repository. You don't need to do any major changes like the Decoy loader or anything, but if I remember correctly it's handy to have FlatSeal as well to grant the various programs permissions to each other's folders. I also installed SyncThing GTK and added that as a non-Steam game, so even in Gaming mode I can access a GUI for it. I think that also made it easy to set up SyncThing to automatically start.
From there I chose to make a new directory, set that folder up on SyncThing, and then re-configured my emulators to save there. Retroarch, Dolphin, PCSX2. They all have different settings for it: PCSX2 sets up virtual Memory Cards, for example.
On Windows, I just followed the instructions to install SyncThing, then I also installed SyncThingy, which makes SyncThing run on startup. On a full desktop I found it easier to just use the existing folders for each program rather than create new ones and move them around.
I've been using Resilio Sync for the same purposes. Syncthing is probably better.
Why not use the better product? Resilio was one of the inspirations IIRC. Syncthing became really good a while ago, I never had data loss with it after they 1.0d it.
how to sync keepass kdbx ultimate guide!!!
How do I connect it to my laptop, running Manjaro?
it should be in the repository, you can use web UI, default is http://localhost:8384/
It's really annoying to back up anything on Android as the fucking SAF doesn't allow me to back up root folders, so I have to back up everything individually.