What are you non-obvious, maybe strange usecases of Syncthing?
For example syncing the media library with your friend or maybe your entire /home/user folder between your PC and laptop?
I’d love to hear your ideas!
I’ve got a couple of Raspberry Pi Zero’s that emulate a mass storage device (basically it acts like a USB drive) that I have connected to 3D printers and my wife’s embroidery machine.
Instead of using it with a network share like in the link, I share the folder with SyncThing.
It’s super convenient to not have to move a USB drive around and can just leave it connected and get the files on there seamlessly.
Syncing save games across multiple users, for games like Valhiem or Minecraft without the need for an always on server.
I use it to synchronise RetroArch save states across my devices - desktop PC, Android TV, and Android handheld.
I have a site to site VPN between my house and my mother’s house. I keep a raspberry pi at her house with a 2TB drive running syncthing. My photo library and important documents sync to her house as an offsite backup in case my house ever burned to the ground.
as far as syncing files between PC and laptop, I would think ownCloud would be better suited for that.
as far as syncing files between PC and laptop, I would think ownCloud would be better suited for that.
The main purpose of Syncthing is syncing files between two or more computers and it does an excellent job of that.
True, keeping a not-necessarily-synced repository of files is more own/nextcloud’s thing.
I’m currently building the same setup, the long-term goal being a Crashplan-type solution (back when they had a feature where you could backup to your friend’s devices).
Having a large family, there a many geographically distributed locations for us all to use.
As for OwnCloud, ST is far simpler to setup. Granted, it’s not nearly as flexible. I do use it to keep all our laptops and phones “backed up” to a desktop that runs Crashplan and Backblaze.
Edit: With ST that VPN isn’t even required. It will sync, encrypted, over most any connection.
Ok, why syncthing and not rsync? Also, duplication should not be threated as backup.
because synching runs all the time. any change that I make is nearly immediately updated offsite. and if you think that is my only backup of my photos, you would be wrong :-) This is only a “if I lost all my physical possessions” type backup, not an “oops, I am a dummy and deleted something I shouldn’t have” backup. I have multiple snapshot backups and also run incremental backups every hour. Storage is so cheap any more that I don’t hesitate to have 5 backups of the REALLY important stuff. Most of my server storage is also raid5 in case of hardware failure. I have pushover set up to check for disk failures and push alerts to my phone if one is ever detected.
Oh, okay! thanks for the clarification. What are you using for incremental backups?
Installation on phone from F-droid (Syncthing-fork) gives a 1-way share of your Camera to backup to PC whenever you get back home. That’s my top usecase… Together with syncing KeePass database since long ago too.
I have a keepass database synced between a phone, desktop and a Raspberry Pi 1. The Pi just sits as an always-on server. I don’t edit it on my phone. Here’s my problem: when I edit something on my desktop and save it I invariably get a file conflict error and have to force the Pi to accept the new ‘conflicted’ file from my desktop. Any idea why? It’s incredibly annoying!
I think you need to set up database syncronization in keepass. I had this issue for a bit until I enabled this. Basically you set a copy that’s synced with syncthing outside of your keepass folder, then another copy that keepass edits directly. Then you can set it up so that when it saves the database in keepass it will sync the edits in the one that’s mirrored y syncthing.
