Can I use different file system types on different devices?

General
1

Hello Syncthing-Experts,

I have 2 Windows PCs (internal drives using NTFS) syncing to a Raspberry Pi No.1 (connected external drive using exFAT). Now I want to include an additional Raspberry Pi No.2 to sync with the RPi No.1. The RPi No1 currently operates like a master/server to the Windows PCs.

The reason why I decided to go with exFAT for RPi No.1 was that I can read & write the external drive also on other Windows Devices.

→ Now I’m thinking about replacing the RPi No1 in his function as a master/server with the RPi No2 and format the RPi No2 external drive with ext4. (As ext4 has better support on Raspberry Pi OS)

Is this associated with any problems? Would you advise me against it?

Thank you very much :smiley:

2

Overall there are no issues with mixing different filesystem types, but you might need to adjust the modTimeWindowS setting in Syncthing if file conflicts appear without any file updates.

  • Ext4 on the RPi has higher read/write performance compared to NTFS and exFAT (the latter requires FUSE which adds some low-level overhead).
  • Ext4 is a lot better than NTFS and exFAT at avoiding file fragmentation if your external drive isn’t a SSD.
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