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Dropbox. I've used it for a decade, but now it's slow, bloated, and takes over CPU and memory like there isn't a single other program I need to run... and I was

Dropbox. I've used it for a decade, but now it's slow, bloated, and takes over CPU and memory like there isn't a single other program I need to run... and I was paying $20 for the privilege. But a few weeks ago I switched to Syncthing[0], and it's the best software transition I've ever made. Opposite of everything Dropbox is now: fast, simple, and I don't even notice it running in the background. Seamless setup, and FREE. (So good, you're gonna want to donate anyway.) [0]: https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/

butz 6y ago
What's your plan for off-site or cloud backups?
- RMPR 6y ago
  Not OP but nothing prevents you to configure Syncthing with a VPS.
  - ajb 6y ago
    True, but syncthing does not encrypt at rest. There is an open issue about it [1], but it appears that the assumption that you want to personally control all the machines you run it on (and therefore can trust the admin of those machines) is deeply embedded in its architecture. [1] https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/109 https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/109
Yoofie 6y ago
The problem with Syncthing for me is that there is no bi-directional syncing on Android if your files are stored on an SD card. You need to resort to rooting your phone or messing with a bunch of hacks to overcome this issue. Otherwise, its great.
- spapas82 6y ago
  That ain't true: just create your sync folder in your sdcard under Syncthing's application-specific folder, e.g. /storage/014A-7323/Android/data/com.nutomic.syncthingandroid/files. It is mentioned in the faq and works great for me (two way sync). I'm using a Moto g5 plus phone with android 8.
michaelcampbell 6y ago
My problem with Dropbox is the client would silently fail and stop on my Windows boxen. As this was easiest (UI-wise) way to share docs quickly between my wife on her windows box and my various Linux/Windows boxes, this was a deal breaker. Also moved to Syncthing. And equally happy.
- rawrmaan 6y ago
  Haven’t heard the term boxen in a long time :) any chance you were part of the Distributed Computing/[H]ardOCP community?
  - michaelcampbell 6y ago
    Not in any meaningful sense other than being involved in computing when that was a thing. (eg: "I'm old".)
encom 6y ago
I hate Dropbox for different reasons, and switched to ownCloud about 4-5 years ago now, I think. Running it on Digital Ocean, and backing up to Tarsnap. Absolutely love it. I get that it's not for everyone, but it's really not that hard either.
- vin047 6y ago
  What’s the verdict between ownCloud and NextCloud?
  - encom 6y ago
    I started using ownCloud before Nextcloud was forked, and NC seems to have evolved to do much more than just file syncing. However, I don't care about any of that, so I didn't see any benefits in migrating. I actually like that OC is focused on file handling. "Do one thing well" etc.
vz8 6y ago
Dropbox may be unwieldy, but the document version history has been a lifesaver. I'd love to find something for an environment where there are many people (many uncomfortable with technology) sharing a folder full of code, documents, and media for a project -- something that acts as a robust safety net. OneDrive is ok but has failed us multiple times (failed to upload, failed to sync, filed to notify). Can Syncthing handle anything resembling an enterprise (ok, enterprise-light) setup? The last time I tried it on Android (~2 years old), it was painful, and that was just for my own personal backup, not a shared environment. Thanks
nathan_f77 6y ago
The main reason I use Dropbox is to just have a cloud backup of all my files so I don't lose anything. It doesn't look like Syncthing serves the same purpose, and syncing files to AWS S3 is also a lot more expensive than Dropbox. (2TB costs $46.99 on AWS S3, vs $11.99/mo for Dropbox.)
ajb 6y ago
I've been looking into a few of these (need to replace keybasefs before zoom kills it) - syncthing does one thing well. However you need to be your own server admin. Which is great if you are or your company will do it for you, but I don't want to do it for my personal stuff. - syncany is exactly what I want, but it didn't get out of alpha, the team apparently didn't make money and have stopped maintaining it, and it still has some scary bugs, although probably my needs are somple enough that they woulnd't be triggered. - cryptomator looks good itself, but you need something else to do the cloud storage part, which ideally supports webdav. Unfortunately the davfs2 crashes my linux box and the other alternatives don't seem to be much better. - nextcloud and owncloud again want you to be your own server admin - the guys benind tahoe-lahfs have a reputation for solid crypto and reliability, but it is complex to run. privatestorage.io were going to do a managed version, but it doesn't seem to have materialised yet. - There are solutions like internxt and ipfs where everyone stores everyone else's files. I'm not sure I trust that not to go down without warning. - proton are supposed to be coming out with a protondrive, which hopefully will have an open source client, although locked into them. - There are proprietary ones like tresorit and spideroak, which have closed clients. I may have to grit my teeth and use one of them. - A bunch of others I didn't evaluate yet. What I want is for someone else to do the server admin part (availability and backups), but without my trusting them with my keys, which I only use with open-source client code. I don't mind paying a reasonable amount, but apparently this is hard.
- calt 6y ago
  Syncing doesn't even need a server if the devices you're using are online at the same time. I just switched to it from Dropbox.
  - ajb 6y ago
    Yeah, I get your point - I'd like someone else to do the backups, though.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  What are your thoughts on box.com and rsync.net?
anotherevan 6y ago
I tried using Syncthing to backup my two kids Windows 10 laptops C:\Users\user folders to a home machine but found, it was always chewing CPU in bursts and making the fans whir. I tried adding ignores for parts we didn't care about so much and fiddling with various settings, but it was still quite problematic. Although I would prefer an open source solution, I'm looking at trying Resilio Sync next.
- offmycloud 6y ago
  Windows 10 is constantly writing to the user profile directory, including the registry hives, temp/cache folders, and telemetry. Syncing the entire user profile directory turns into an never-ending battle of excludes for files, some of which exist only for seconds. Instead, only include the folders (Documents, Music, etc.) that you need to sync, and you will be much happier.
72deluxe 6y ago
Have you tried FreeFileSync? It has an automated component that routinely syncs directories, eg. to a remote target if you map via sshfs

butz 6y ago

What's your plan for off-site or cloud backups?

RMPR 6y ago
Not OP but nothing prevents you to configure Syncthing with a VPS.
- ajb 6y ago
  True, but syncthing does not encrypt at rest. There is an open issue about it [1], but it appears that the assumption that you want to personally control all the machines you run it on (and therefore can trust the admin of those machines) is deeply embedded in its architecture. [1] https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/109 https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/109

Yoofie 6y ago

The problem with Syncthing for me is that there is no bi-directional syncing on Android if your files are stored on an SD card. You need to resort to rooting your phone or messing with a bunch of hacks to overcome this issue. Otherwise, its great.

spapas82 6y ago
That ain't true: just create your sync folder in your sdcard under Syncthing's application-specific folder, e.g. /storage/014A-7323/Android/data/com.nutomic.syncthingandroid/files. It is mentioned in the faq and works great for me (two way sync). I'm using a Moto g5 plus phone with android 8.

michaelcampbell 6y ago

My problem with Dropbox is the client would silently fail and stop on my Windows boxen. As this was easiest (UI-wise) way to share docs quickly between my wife on her windows box and my various Linux/Windows boxes, this was a deal breaker. Also moved to Syncthing. And equally happy.

rawrmaan 6y ago
Haven’t heard the term boxen in a long time :) any chance you were part of the Distributed Computing/[H]ardOCP community?
- michaelcampbell 6y ago
  Not in any meaningful sense other than being involved in computing when that was a thing. (eg: "I'm old".)

encom 6y ago

I hate Dropbox for different reasons, and switched to ownCloud about 4-5 years ago now, I think. Running it on Digital Ocean, and backing up to Tarsnap. Absolutely love it. I get that it's not for everyone, but it's really not that hard either.

vin047 6y ago
What’s the verdict between ownCloud and NextCloud?
- encom 6y ago
  I started using ownCloud before Nextcloud was forked, and NC seems to have evolved to do much more than just file syncing. However, I don't care about any of that, so I didn't see any benefits in migrating. I actually like that OC is focused on file handling. "Do one thing well" etc.

vz8 6y ago

Dropbox may be unwieldy, but the document version history has been a lifesaver. I'd love to find something for an environment where there are many people (many uncomfortable with technology) sharing a folder full of code, documents, and media for a project -- something that acts as a robust safety net. OneDrive is ok but has failed us multiple times (failed to upload, failed to sync, filed to notify). Can Syncthing handle anything resembling an enterprise (ok, enterprise-light) setup? The last time I tried it on Android (~2 years old), it was painful, and that was just for my own personal backup, not a shared environment. Thanks

nathan_f77 6y ago

The main reason I use Dropbox is to just have a cloud backup of all my files so I don't lose anything. It doesn't look like Syncthing serves the same purpose, and syncing files to AWS S3 is also a lot more expensive than Dropbox. (2TB costs $46.99 on AWS S3, vs $11.99/mo for Dropbox.)

ajb 6y ago

I've been looking into a few of these (need to replace keybasefs before zoom kills it) - syncthing does one thing well. However you need to be your own server admin. Which is great if you are or your company will do it for you, but I don't want to do it for my personal stuff. - syncany is exactly what I want, but it didn't get out of alpha, the team apparently didn't make money and have stopped maintaining it, and it still has some scary bugs, although probably my needs are somple enough that they woulnd't be triggered. - cryptomator looks good itself, but you need something else to do the cloud storage part, which ideally supports webdav. Unfortunately the davfs2 crashes my linux box and the other alternatives don't seem to be much better. - nextcloud and owncloud again want you to be your own server admin - the guys benind tahoe-lahfs have a reputation for solid crypto and reliability, but it is complex to run. privatestorage.io were going to do a managed version, but it doesn't seem to have materialised yet. - There are solutions like internxt and ipfs where everyone stores everyone else's files. I'm not sure I trust that not to go down without warning. - proton are supposed to be coming out with a protondrive, which hopefully will have an open source client, although locked into them. - There are proprietary ones like tresorit and spideroak, which have closed clients. I may have to grit my teeth and use one of them. - A bunch of others I didn't evaluate yet. What I want is for someone else to do the server admin part (availability and backups), but without my trusting them with my keys, which I only use with open-source client code. I don't mind paying a reasonable amount, but apparently this is hard.

calt 6y ago
Syncing doesn't even need a server if the devices you're using are online at the same time. I just switched to it from Dropbox.
- ajb 6y ago
  Yeah, I get your point - I'd like someone else to do the backups, though.
IgorPartola 6y ago
What are your thoughts on box.com and rsync.net?

anotherevan 6y ago

I tried using Syncthing to backup my two kids Windows 10 laptops C:\Users\user folders to a home machine but found, it was always chewing CPU in bursts and making the fans whir. I tried adding ignores for parts we didn't care about so much and fiddling with various settings, but it was still quite problematic. Although I would prefer an open source solution, I'm looking at trying Resilio Sync next.

offmycloud 6y ago
Windows 10 is constantly writing to the user profile directory, including the registry hives, temp/cache folders, and telemetry. Syncing the entire user profile directory turns into an never-ending battle of excludes for files, some of which exist only for seconds. Instead, only include the folders (Documents, Music, etc.) that you need to sync, and you will be much happier.

72deluxe 6y ago

Have you tried FreeFileSync? It has an automated component that routinely syncs directories, eg. to a remote target if you map via sshfs