I have a ‘screenshots’ folder on my laptop. I would like my steam deck to send the screenshots that I take on it to that same folder, or have it synchronized somehow. What is the best or most intuitive way of accomplishing this?
syncthing
Holy cow.
I’ve used syncthing for years and think it’s great.
And I have the same problem as OP, where it’s a pain in one’s asshole to upload Steamdeck images without going into SteamOS and annoyingly plugging in a m+KB and spend a lot of time micromanaging the uploads.
At no point did I think to put thess two together! Great idea!
Syncthing works great for syncing the screenshots and also for autobackup of emulation save files.
Best to use this with an always-on NAS. This makes file transfer generally easier to and from the console globally.
For your m+KB issue, if you put the Steam Link app on your PC,it becomes and instant virtual KVM and works great for remote access and using it desktop mode too. Great for setting up emulation, custom posters in Steam, Lutris/non-Steam games.
I hope my tip has soothed the pain in your asshole…(title of my sex tape)
and also for autobackup of emulation save files.
I thought the advuce was to not use it for save files due to the risk of trying to sync while playing the game?
This answer is FAR too complicated for the task asked for - yet I still recommend it to everyone because they are so damn handy.
Get a NAS.
You can set your own up or buy something like synology. I personally went the synology route and I adore that stupid box. Synology drive does exactly what you want across all my devices - PCs, phones, iPads, you name it. Real time sync. Keeps old copies in history. It does my photos off my phone. Every family member has their own personal space and keeps their stuff separate and private. My daughter uses my NAS as her personal OneDrive/dropbox/icloud. In your example drive would be installed on both the laptop and the steam deck. Both point to a location on the NAS and sync to and from there. EZ
Seriously, NASs are amazing. Get one and solve 100 little annoyances in one go.
Now that all said, for the question without a NAS. I would imagine just about any backup flatpak could handle backing up / synchronizing a folder. The trick is what’s the destination? If it’s the laptop folder, that’s fine - but that means the laptop needs to be on and connected to the network to work. I’d start there. Ideally it’d be smart enough to detect the destination folder coming online and immediately start the backup/sync.
Word of caution: an entire NAS may be a bit of overkill if it’s JUST to get pictures from one device to another. Also consider that, if you get a small, cheap one, you may be tempted to tinker around with what else it can do - which will quickly become frustrating (“If only I had invested a LITTLE more, look at all the shiny fancy things I could do with it!”). Yes, I speak from experience (Synology DS 720+).
I use SyncThing for syncing things, and LocalSend for just sending things.
