16 ms·

If Dropbox is all you need you might be satisfied with Syncthing. I have used it for a week now, it works well and I have the warm fuzzy feeling that nobody is

If Dropbox is all you need you might be satisfied with Syncthing. I have used it for a week now, it works well and I have the warm fuzzy feeling that nobody is using my data to make a few bucks (I'm self hosting it on a home server).

jchw 3y ago
Not only that, you don't even need to "host" Syncthing. Being P2P in nature, it can just run on whatever computers you want to sync to, directly. That's pretty cool. The only thing I'd really want for Syncthing is some kind of simple interface for my desktops (all running SwayWM.) There's a GTK app that I use on my Pinephone, but it's a little janky. I mainly just want to be able to know that I'll get notifications when there's a conflict or error. (Dropbox style file emblems in file explorers, showing the state, would be nice, too...)
- brnt 3y ago
  I use an old phone (with Resilio) as such an always-on node.
- microtonal 3y ago
  You still need a node somewhere that is always available, otherwise your device cannot sync when your other devices are offline. My wife and I had such a setup for years with Resilio Sync. But life is busy enough to maintain yet another thing, so we are happy to fork over the monthly fee for Dropbox Family. Ideally I'd switch over to some other sync solution, because Dropbox is somewhat overpriced. But we've had bad experiences with Google Drive and OneDrive for local sync in the past.
  - jchw 3y ago
    Well, you need an always-online node only if you actually need it to be syncing all of the time. Not everyone needs this; often times it's enough to just sync opportunistically. This is mainly necessary for things that are mutable and active; for me, I store my Keepass XC on a Syncthing shared folder, so this is relevant to me. And for that, I use my NAS, although obviously, not everyone has a NAS. But that's the thing. Especially notable compared to NextCloud, Syncthing is not like most "self-hosted" software. Because a node is a node is a node, and because it's relatively lightweight, it literally doesn't matter what you use. You can use a Raspberry Pi, an old phone or laptop, anything you can connect sufficient disk and a network to can be a Syncthing node. And if it catches on fire, it doesn't really matter since every node is equal. You can just add another node at any time. So a lot of people think Syncthing is another thing you'll have to worry about and maintain, but it's not. It's one of the few pieces of software that I expected to have to deal with a lot of extra work to use, but then it wound up being dramatically easier and more flexible than I expected. I worry about robustness when it comes to something as complex as cross filesystem syncing, but Syncthing has never lost my data. I have backups turned on on most nodes for the important folders, but I've never consulted them before, because I've never needed to. Surely it is possible to lose data with Syncthing, or otherwise create a headache. However, from my point of view, it certainly seems to be among the most reliable and lowest effort ways to sync stuff across devices. I haven't had to spend almost any time maintaining Syncthing, and I don't have to worry about limits. I just need one device with a big enough disk, then I can create however many shared folders are needed to get the granularity I want. Syncthing also has a pretty cool encryption feature. It is considered "beta" still, so I only use it in "trusted" scenarios, but it works great. When I started using Syncthing, I only intended to share some document files between my desktop and my laptop. Now I use it to sync my Keepass database, files between some servers (think seedbox etc.,) multiple different documents folders including some for collaborative projects, and even a couple of other things. So it really wound up over-delivering for me. I'd strongly recommend people, even people who already feel like Resilio Sync wasn't a good fit, to just try to set up Syncthing before resigning to Dropbox. Comparatively, I think Syncthing is simpler to use and more robust than basically any other solution that isn't Dropbox.
    - hammyhavoc 3y ago
      If you run it on a Pi, do you run it on Portainer or anything like that?
oskapt 3y ago
Syncthing is great, and I use it at home. For a robust multi-user alternative to Dropbox (or *cloud), I can also recommend Seafile. I replaced Dropbox with a self-hosted version of Seafile and have never looked back. Also, for a fantastic mail server solution with a great webmail client, look at Axigen. Their free version is more than enough for a personal server, and you can use Amazon SES for outbound mail to avoid reputation issues. I host mine at Linode and love it. If you have a business need or are larger than the limits of the free version, their license costs are quite reasonable.
digging 3y ago
I might have been too stupid to figure it out, but I found Syncthing unusable because I couldn't set up a basic "backup" style sync. That is, anything I added to my phone folder would get synced one-way to my computer... and anything I deleted from that folder would also get synced one-way to my computer. This forced me to maintain my entire photo library on my phone, which of course is exactly what I was trying to avoid.
- jackothy 3y ago
  Would it work to set the folder type to "Send Only" on the phone and to "Receive Only" on the server? See https://docs.syncthing.net/v1.26.0/users/foldertypes https://docs.syncthing.net/v1.26.0/users/foldertypes
  - digging 3y ago
    No, the issue is that send-only sends all modifications, including file deletion. I wanted it to only send new files, but couldn't find a way to do that.
    - seszett 3y ago
      https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-ignoredelete.html https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-ignoredelete.html It works well enough in a backup system, where the issue explained on the page isn't relevant.
      - digging 3y ago
        Nice, I guess it does work. Annoying that what feels to me a basic option is hidden for power users. I don't understand what your comment is saying though?
        seszett 3y ago
        Well that option is hidden because of the very real problems it causes in "normal" syncthing use, as explained on the page. I'm saying that you can disregard the warning in the case of a backup system (as opposed to the normal use which is full sync between two devices that both modify files).

jchw 3y ago

Not only that, you don't even need to "host" Syncthing. Being P2P in nature, it can just run on whatever computers you want to sync to, directly. That's pretty cool. The only thing I'd really want for Syncthing is some kind of simple interface for my desktops (all running SwayWM.) There's a GTK app that I use on my Pinephone, but it's a little janky. I mainly just want to be able to know that I'll get notifications when there's a conflict or error. (Dropbox style file emblems in file explorers, showing the state, would be nice, too...)

brnt 3y ago
I use an old phone (with Resilio) as such an always-on node.
microtonal 3y ago
You still need a node somewhere that is always available, otherwise your device cannot sync when your other devices are offline. My wife and I had such a setup for years with Resilio Sync. But life is busy enough to maintain yet another thing, so we are happy to fork over the monthly fee for Dropbox Family. Ideally I'd switch over to some other sync solution, because Dropbox is somewhat overpriced. But we've had bad experiences with Google Drive and OneDrive for local sync in the past.
- jchw 3y ago
  Well, you need an always-online node only if you actually need it to be syncing all of the time. Not everyone needs this; often times it's enough to just sync opportunistically. This is mainly necessary for things that are mutable and active; for me, I store my Keepass XC on a Syncthing shared folder, so this is relevant to me. And for that, I use my NAS, although obviously, not everyone has a NAS. But that's the thing. Especially notable compared to NextCloud, Syncthing is not like most "self-hosted" software. Because a node is a node is a node, and because it's relatively lightweight, it literally doesn't matter what you use. You can use a Raspberry Pi, an old phone or laptop, anything you can connect sufficient disk and a network to can be a Syncthing node. And if it catches on fire, it doesn't really matter since every node is equal. You can just add another node at any time. So a lot of people think Syncthing is another thing you'll have to worry about and maintain, but it's not. It's one of the few pieces of software that I expected to have to deal with a lot of extra work to use, but then it wound up being dramatically easier and more flexible than I expected. I worry about robustness when it comes to something as complex as cross filesystem syncing, but Syncthing has never lost my data. I have backups turned on on most nodes for the important folders, but I've never consulted them before, because I've never needed to. Surely it is possible to lose data with Syncthing, or otherwise create a headache. However, from my point of view, it certainly seems to be among the most reliable and lowest effort ways to sync stuff across devices. I haven't had to spend almost any time maintaining Syncthing, and I don't have to worry about limits. I just need one device with a big enough disk, then I can create however many shared folders are needed to get the granularity I want. Syncthing also has a pretty cool encryption feature. It is considered "beta" still, so I only use it in "trusted" scenarios, but it works great. When I started using Syncthing, I only intended to share some document files between my desktop and my laptop. Now I use it to sync my Keepass database, files between some servers (think seedbox etc.,) multiple different documents folders including some for collaborative projects, and even a couple of other things. So it really wound up over-delivering for me. I'd strongly recommend people, even people who already feel like Resilio Sync wasn't a good fit, to just try to set up Syncthing before resigning to Dropbox. Comparatively, I think Syncthing is simpler to use and more robust than basically any other solution that isn't Dropbox.
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    If you run it on a Pi, do you run it on Portainer or anything like that?

oskapt 3y ago

Syncthing is great, and I use it at home. For a robust multi-user alternative to Dropbox (or *cloud), I can also recommend Seafile. I replaced Dropbox with a self-hosted version of Seafile and have never looked back. Also, for a fantastic mail server solution with a great webmail client, look at Axigen. Their free version is more than enough for a personal server, and you can use Amazon SES for outbound mail to avoid reputation issues. I host mine at Linode and love it. If you have a business need or are larger than the limits of the free version, their license costs are quite reasonable.

digging 3y ago

I might have been too stupid to figure it out, but I found Syncthing unusable because I couldn't set up a basic "backup" style sync. That is, anything I added to my phone folder would get synced one-way to my computer... and anything I deleted from that folder would also get synced one-way to my computer. This forced me to maintain my entire photo library on my phone, which of course is exactly what I was trying to avoid.

jackothy 3y ago
Would it work to set the folder type to "Send Only" on the phone and to "Receive Only" on the server? See https://docs.syncthing.net/v1.26.0/users/foldertypes https://docs.syncthing.net/v1.26.0/users/foldertypes
- digging 3y ago
  No, the issue is that send-only sends all modifications, including file deletion. I wanted it to only send new files, but couldn't find a way to do that.
  - seszett 3y ago
    https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-ignoredelete.html https://docs.syncthing.net/advanced/folder-ignoredelete.html It works well enough in a backup system, where the issue explained on the page isn't relevant.
    - digging 3y ago
      Nice, I guess it does work. Annoying that what feels to me a basic option is hidden for power users. I don't understand what your comment is saying though?
      - seszett 3y ago
        Well that option is hidden because of the very real problems it causes in "normal" syncthing use, as explained on the page. I'm saying that you can disregard the warning in the case of a backup system (as opposed to the normal use which is full sync between two devices that both modify files).