Can I set up a share before connecting the new machine?

Support
1

I’m visiting the aged relatives, and they just don’t do backup. So I wanted to get a permanent backup running on the documents and images directories

But I won’t be home for a few weeks, and syncthing is not yet installed on my home machine. So I don’t have a device ID to which to share. And I don’t think they are up to doing the necessary manipulations on their own

Is there an answer?

Thanks

2

You can install Syncthing on their computer and set up one or more folders, but:

  1. You cannot add your device to it, since that requires the I’d of YOUR not yet installed Syncthing instance.
  2. You cannot start sharing their folder(s) because of 1.
3

Hopefully you already have, or will have, a dedicated backup tool on your home machine to cover the scenario where files are inadvertently deleted on your relatives’ computer.

One option is to set up Syncthing twice – first time is to create the device ID you’ll eventually use on your home machine, second time for your relatives’ computer.

On your relatives’ computer:

  1. Launch Syncthing and let it do its first start initialization.
  2. Shut down Syncthing.
  3. Move Syncthing’s configuration files to a USB drive, cloud storage, etc.

Once that’s done…

  1. Confirm that Syncthing’s home directory is empty.
  2. Launch Syncthing and let it do its first start initialization.
  3. Click the [Add Remote Device] button.
  4. Copy and paste the device ID from the config.xml that was created during the first run.
  5. Configure and share the Syncthing folders.
  6. Copy the device ID from the second run.

Then when you’re home again, use the configuration from the first run on your home machine, add your relatives’ device id, etc. etc.

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4

Thanks for the advice Believe me I’m a backup fanatic, since in 1980 watching 2 red hot 1st class Cambridge degree computer whizzes spend months stitching together files by looking at block headers in paper printouts

The existing backup is a usb key that is lost. And now a new copy on my laptop

That looks doable, many thanks

5

Oh, my machine is win11, aged parents machine is Linux Mint, will the configuration files work?

6

Yup, same format, just a different base directory.

1 Like