this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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[Closed] Is there a easy way to share a batch of synchthing folder keys? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by aluminium@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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A few months ago I setup my own Synching Server and its been working great. I right now have 7 devices (server itself, phone, tablets, laptops, Desktops, ...) synching files from 5 different folders. The problem I have right now is that adding new folders / devices is a huge hassle since in order for EVERY device to properly be in sync I need to manually add for example a new folder to every device. If I were to add 5 new folders I would need to repeat this 5 times for 7 devices... I think you get the point.

What I wanna know is if there is a simple way to basically share all the folder keys of a syncthing device with another device without manually copy pasting them? I don't really care if this would be by enabling some setting on the server or by copying around a file (I do this for example with my newpipe subscriptions and use syncthing for that).

Also just creating one large folder is something I'm trying to avoid since not every device needs everything you loose the ability to fine control individual folders. I for example don't want my phone to start syncing my music library when I'm using data.

EDIT :

I played around a bit more and I found out that going into the server and marking all the devices add as introducers sends a notification to all these devices where you can easily share folders!

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[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I may be misunderstanding what you want, but the introducer feature seems to solve the problem. You setup your "server" as the introducer for all your other devices, then when you add a device, you just setup your new device with the server, and all other devices get the trust of the new device from the server.

[–] aluminium@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I got it working but curiously enough the server needed to add the clients as introducers. Then it worked and I got a message on all devices that a new folder has been added and showing a UI that easily allowed me to add the folder.

[–] greybeard@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

So I setup every "client" to have the "server" as the introducer and auto-accept shares. Then on the "server", I add the new client, and give it all the shares. The new device auto accepts, and all the other clients automatically include the new client.

[–] aluminium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I always added the "server" as an introducer but for some reason the server itsself gets a prompt to add all the folders from the client but the client doesn't get a list of all the folders the server is sharing which is what I'm after. The introducer does however work by directly giving me a list of all the other devices the "server" has been connected to. I'm using syncthing version 1.20.1 on my server btw.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not easily, but what you can do (what I do when setting up/resetting a phone): Setup ST clean on one device. Then configure all the folders/shares you want to use on other devices.

Do a backup.

Copy that backup to other devices. Restore.

Of course, this would overwrite anything there, but it's good for that initial setup, to get the devices/shares in.

Edit: Also check out Syncthing-Fork. Gives you finer control within folders, such as battery and network settings, rather than for ST as a whole.

Edit2: I keep a share on my primary machine (desktop that acts as my server) just for information like this. There are text files in there, one is "Syncthing Info" with Device names, ST identifiers, share names/identifiers, descriptions, etc. Since my phone has that share, I can easily access all that info, or even share that share with other devices.

[–] aluminium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, I have tried method you described but in my case it led to a total mess since the device I exported from and imported from then were indistinctable for all other devices causing issues.

But thanks for telling me about syncthing fork! I will definitly check it out!

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Crap, I didn't realize the backup carried over the device ID. Hmm. Are we able to change the device ID in ST? Or maybe in the backup?

[–] aluminium@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

maybe, since its mostly XML files maybe I can make a script that scrambles the Device IDs for something new. But I was hoping for a built in solution.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

Oh, for sure.

ST has tremendous potential. I realize it's an OSS app, but they do have a corporate sponsor (the company behind Möbius sync for iOS), so I'd hope we'll see some more active development.

Sync job management/sharing would be nice.

Have you tried ResilioSync? It has some management features like this, but I find it heavier on my phone (uses a lot more ram).