Live data from Hacker News

Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

syncthing.net

81–90 of 233 posts

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#81
post #7

I could never get this to work on my home network. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you're using Windows, make sure Windows doesn't think your network is public. My dad's computers thought they were on a public network and so wouldn't see each other directly (they were syncing though, very slowly via an external relay).

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another alternative for contact, calendar, and task syncing is EteSync, which is end-to-end encrypted: https://www.etesync.com

I access radicale via an nginx proxy with proper HTTPS (LetsEncrypt) and an HTPASSWD over that, so the setup is secure. However radicale default setup is not secure, I agree.

Radicale is a great FOSS solution for syncing via the CardDAV and CalDAV protocols. I simply prefer using end-to-end encryption for extra protection where possible, which is why I think EteSync is a good alternative. E2EE means that even if the server is compromised, my contacts, calendars, and tasks won't be.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#83

I used to be a user of both Syncthing and Resilio Sync, but i've replaced both with regular cloud storage with Cryptomator or rclone+crypt instead (Cryptomator for clients). It turns out that the power consumption of keeping redundant hardware running at home is about twice as high as just buying the same storage in the cloud, and then you need to figure in the cost of hardware as well. I.e. Microsoft Family 365 can…

I run a NAS with syncthing and a dappnode at home. The dappnode runs Storj, which I allocated about 2TB. It is paying me now about 6€/month, which is barely enough to cover the electricity costs and the cost of the drive. It certainly hasn't helped to cover any of the cost from the NAS.

Decentralized solutions are always going to be less cost-effective than central services. We still should do it anyway. Optimizing for cost is a mistake. It makes us overly dependent on the big companies. It makes us fragile and susceptible to any change in their terms.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#84
post #58
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you happen to have a list of these unusual characters ?

It seems to be anything which isn't either ASCII or UTF-8. My father's PC had files written by old versions of OpenOffice (when it was called StarOffice), with "native" names but before his PC was set up to use UTF-8. Early versions of Syncthing didn't have problems with those files, but later versions refused to back them up. I had to rename all those files one by one to get it working again.

If you ever have to do to this again checkout convmv - this can convert for example latin1 encoded file names into utf8 encoded file names.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#85
I really like syncthing. I mainly use it for syncing passwordstore directory and a few other small files that I like having synced. Once set up, I basically forget about it, unless I have to go check why this password is the old one, and in this case it is usually android killing syncthing due to low power more or something, which requires me to manually restart it.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#86

With Android 11, I think this breaks my use case. Android 11 apps, with a few exceptions, can only access files they create. You can add in a "grant all" access, but google limits that to certain apps, like file sharing apps. My use case is I want to "de-cloud" my life, and use syncthing to push things like wireguard keys to my phone, along with backing up photos and pushing down audiobooks and music. I bought a fair…

I don't think the changes in Android 11 are catastrophic. I'm using Syncthing on Android 11, and Syncthing can read/write to any directory in the filesystem under /sdcard, with the exception of the /sdcard/Android/data directory (private app data). Syncthing does request the "All files access" permission that gives it access to most of the filesystem.

I'm not sure about external SD cards, though, since I haven't tested this.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#87
post #84
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be anything which isn't either ASCII or UTF-8. My father's PC had files written by old versions of OpenOffice (when it was called StarOffice), with "native" names but before his PC was set up to use UTF-8. Early versions of Syncthing didn't have problems with those files, but later versions refused to back them up. I had to rename all those files one by one to get it working again.

If you ever have to do to this again checkout convmv - this can convert for example latin1 encoded file names into utf8 encoded file names.

wish I'd known about this sooner - thanks

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#89
This seems to rely on inotify which is not always triggered when files change when they are watched.

In the following scenario realtime syncing would then fail silently:

- You have a server A which contains files which you are editing.

- You have setup realtime syncing between server A and a machine B.

- On server A you have a Docker container which runs Samba and is hosting the directories of server A which contains the files you are editing.

- You are editing those files on a machine where you mounted those shares. Upon saving, the files on server A would be modified, but inotify would not trigger and the file would not get synced to machine B.

Re: Syncthing – a continuous file synchronization program

#90
Love it. Have an "always-on" raspberry pi with usb drive just running syncthing in my home network. That way, I don't have my data "in the cloud" somewhere, I don't have to open my home network for external access to my NAS etc, and always have an up to date "source" when I start syncthing on a tablet or mobile (where i dont have them running all the time).
Post reply on HN