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There is an Android version, but Android is becoming a toxic environment for it. The reason is because of the way syncthing works. It expects broad access to th

There is an Android version, but Android is becoming a toxic environment for it. The reason is because of the way syncthing works. It expects broad access to the filesystem, to add and remove files/directories according to its algorithm. This is perfectly reasonable, but GOOG is killing the ability to do so. EDIT: Re Google Drive on Android: it works by not downloading most files, ie you have to be connected. You can pin files locally, but they go into a special directory controlled by the app. You can't access the files from other apps. For things like syncing a music library this is useless. They have workarounds specific for sharing media files between apps, but why all the complexity? Give me control over where I want to store my files.

criddell 6y ago
Do you think Dropbox is going to stop working on Android?
- anderspitman 6y ago
  Well I don't use it so I'm not sure what functionality it currently has. It depends on if it stores any files outside its app directory, and if it needs files to be accessible from other apps. I would suspect though that apps like Dropbox won't have much trouble getting "All files access" approval, so they should be fine in any case.
  - criddell 6y ago
    Is "all files access" actually something that an app can be granted? Seems dangerous.
    - anderspitman 6y ago
      GOOG agrees with you, and so do I for the most part. That's the way Android worked until recently. Any app (with storage permissions) could store anything in shared locations (except SD cards; those have always had these issues), and could mess with other apps' data in these locations. I'm not saying this isn't a security concern. I'm saying they've thrown the user control baby out with the security concern bath water. Why not have a designated area where apps can share whatever they want, and warn the user that information there can be seen by any app?
      - jlokier 6y ago
        > Why not have a designated area where apps can share whatever they want, and warn the user that information there can be seen by any app? That would rather defeat the point of something like SyncThing wouldn't it? If someone wants to sync their files in MusicAppX which MusicAppX itself doesn't put in the designated shared area, the person needs their sync software to be able to look into MusicAppX's private files area. This reminds me of a friend who used CAD software on their iPad. Eventually they ran out of cash to keep paying the licence for the CAD. And then discovered there was no way to access their own design files they had created themselves. Because they exist inside a private folder, and the iPad does not (maybe did not, I'm not sure if it's changed) allow people to freely browse and read their own files with a generic file browser or other apps.
        anderspitman 6y ago
        Apps would be designed to use the shared space, or provide the option to the user whether to or not. Not all apps would have to provide this options but I suspect most open source apps would.

criddell 6y ago

Do you think Dropbox is going to stop working on Android?

anderspitman 6y ago
Well I don't use it so I'm not sure what functionality it currently has. It depends on if it stores any files outside its app directory, and if it needs files to be accessible from other apps. I would suspect though that apps like Dropbox won't have much trouble getting "All files access" approval, so they should be fine in any case.
- criddell 6y ago
  Is "all files access" actually something that an app can be granted? Seems dangerous.
  - anderspitman 6y ago
    GOOG agrees with you, and so do I for the most part. That's the way Android worked until recently. Any app (with storage permissions) could store anything in shared locations (except SD cards; those have always had these issues), and could mess with other apps' data in these locations. I'm not saying this isn't a security concern. I'm saying they've thrown the user control baby out with the security concern bath water. Why not have a designated area where apps can share whatever they want, and warn the user that information there can be seen by any app?
    - jlokier 6y ago
      > Why not have a designated area where apps can share whatever they want, and warn the user that information there can be seen by any app? That would rather defeat the point of something like SyncThing wouldn't it? If someone wants to sync their files in MusicAppX which MusicAppX itself doesn't put in the designated shared area, the person needs their sync software to be able to look into MusicAppX's private files area. This reminds me of a friend who used CAD software on their iPad. Eventually they ran out of cash to keep paying the licence for the CAD. And then discovered there was no way to access their own design files they had created themselves. Because they exist inside a private folder, and the iPad does not (maybe did not, I'm not sure if it's changed) allow people to freely browse and read their own files with a generic file browser or other apps.
      - anderspitman 6y ago
        Apps would be designed to use the shared space, or provide the option to the user whether to or not. Not all apps would have to provide this options but I suspect most open source apps would.