Hello
Currently I have syncthing installed on my debian 11 system from the official debian repositories. Since those version are quite old and I read here in the forum that the version of the syncthing repositories are recommended, I want to change it. And of course, I want to keep my settings, data, etc. 
My question is: Can I just uninstall my current syncthing package, add the syncthing apt repository and install syncthing package again?
Thanks for your help and kind regards Michael
I believe the config locations are the same, so yes this should be possible. The only thing I can imagine may cause trouble is the systemd service, because of path changes and other strangeness. I would disable it first and then re-enable afterwards.
What is the advantage of using a repository instead of just installing manually where it auto-updates?
The repo package bundles systemd unit files so systemctl --user start syncthing.service works out-of-the-box for auto-starting at system boot time. For distros that don’t use systemd, the distro maintainers likely include init, OpenRC or other suitable options. There’s also tighter integration with a desktop environment (application shortcuts, etc.).
If none of the above is important, then manually installing is perfectly fine.
Thanks for your replies. For those who might have the same issue: It worked as described: Stop/Disable syncthing, remove the package, add syncthing repo, install package, start/enable synchting.
Everything fine, no issues until now. Thanks for your help!
ah, yes, the systemctl/service management.
I didn’t find anything workable for FreeBSD (maybe I didn’t look far enough?) so I just wrote my own rc scripts and use auto-update. That works well, except that I don’t choose when to update unless I turn off auto-update.
The auto-update and single executable is one aspect of Syncthing that I really like. The way the GUI override works is pretty sweet too!