# com.apple.provenance **URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262 **Category:** Support **Created:** [November 5, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262 "2022-11-05T21:20:53Z") **Posts on this page:** 20 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 5, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/1 "2022-11-05T21:20:53Z")
Since upgrading one of my Macs to Ventura 13.0, my folder will no longer sync (getting stuck on a piece of undocumented metadata called `com.apple.provenance` I have tried removing the xattr with `sudo xattr -d com.apple.provenance /path/to/file` but that isn’t working either. Google has nothing about this really… anyone else running into this? Using syncthing-macos 1.22.0-1 > _related posts: [AskDifferent](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/450118/what-is-the-com-apple-provenance-xattr-extended-attribute-and-how-can-i-dele) and [syncthing-macos](https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-macos/issues/184)_ ---
### Author: ![xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/xor-gate/32/2934_2.png) [@xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/xor-gate) #### Post date: [November 5, 2022, 9:33pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/2 "2022-11-05T21:33:02Z")
@calmh not sure yet this is caused by the application bundle or the golang daemon. If there is no documentation then we have to wait till google or stackoverflows has a working solution. ---
### Author: ![imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/imsodin/32/3317_2.png) [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin) #### Post date: [November 5, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/3 "2022-11-05T21:41:02Z")
> [@luckman212](#): > > […] (getting stuck on a piece of undocumented metadata called `com.apple.provenance` What does that mean concretely? What do you see when “it gets stuck” - is that part of an error message, and if so: where is that error message displayed and what does it say in full? ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 5, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/4 "2022-11-05T22:01:12Z")
What I mean by _“it gets stuck”_ is that the folder never completes syncing, it just continues looping over the same set of files and says **Out of Sync** in the GUI. I think what it’s trying to do is write the `com.apple.provenance` metadata to the macOS 12.6 computer which seems to not recognize it (think it was added in Ventura). Here’s a little snippet from the log file: ```nohighlight Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:46 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/7a/05770eb8ce93f0358ffc52054fd4ae0a82e355"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/7a/05770eb8ce93f0358ffc52054fd4ae0a82e355: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:46 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/80/22c63e3a07a7e8af11fdd17b8b027eb7934db0"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/80/22c63e3a07a7e8af11fdd17b8b027eb7934db0: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:46 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/88/1c396f37a853b386178f02b1b959efb357c6f4"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/88/1c396f37a853b386178f02b1b959efb357c6f4: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:46 "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx): Failed to sync 6 items 2022-11-05 17:56:46 Folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx) isn't making sync progress - retrying in 1m0s. 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/d1/5fe2dd523e430d1063e670aad71d1ec85c8ea6"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/d1/5fe2dd523e430d1063e670aad71d1ec85c8ea6: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/da/f4478ff5aa46f587566ae9bfcc409d67d5ff24"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/da/f4478ff5aa46f587566ae9bfcc409d67d5ff24: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/7a/05770eb8ce93f0358ffc52054fd4ae0a82e355"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/7a/05770eb8ce93f0358ffc52054fd4ae0a82e355: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/80/22c63e3a07a7e8af11fdd17b8b027eb7934db0"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/80/22c63e3a07a7e8af11fdd17b8b027eb7934db0: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/wgfix/.git/objects/88/1c396f37a853b386178f02b1b959efb357c6f4"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/wgfix/.git/objects/88/1c396f37a853b386178f02b1b959efb357c6f4: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Puller (folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx), item "Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/0d/abf678d9990da367c3f4c76c73347577675beb"): syncing: shortcut file (setting xattrs): set xattrs /Users/luke/Sync/Development/obsidian-plugin-downloader/.git/objects/0d/abf678d9990da367c3f4c76c73347577675beb: Setxattr "com.apple.provenance": permission denied 2022-11-05 17:56:55 "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx): Failed to sync 6 items 2022-11-05 17:56:55 Folder "Sync" (xxxxx-xxxxx) isn't making sync progress - retrying in 1m0s. ``` ---
### Author: ![imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/imsodin/32/3317_2.png) [@imsodin](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/imsodin) #### Post date: [November 5, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/5 "2022-11-05T23:23:22Z")
So you have enabled syncing xattrs, right? So apparently the user syncthing is run as (yours on macos I think) doesn’t have permissions to sync those attributes. ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/6 "2022-11-06T01:23:40Z")
Yes @imsodin I have enabled syncing xattr’s. It’s been working well (for other attributes). There’s something “special” about `com.apple.provenance` apparently. It would be nice if, at least as a workaround, this particular xattr could be ignored by Syncthing. ---
### Author: ![xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/xor-gate/32/2934_2.png) [@xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/xor-gate) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 4:32am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/7 "2022-11-06T04:32:52Z")
I think we are in the right direction, the new `com.apple.provenance` xattr should could be simply ignored. If this xattr is undocumented then don’t know what we are doing, but at least from a Syncthing perspective the files must sync and not fail. A possible solution could be if syncthing detects this xattr in a sync between two macOS devices a (\>=13.0) and b (\<13.0). It gives a popup that the device is in a special mode and the user agrees this particular xattr is not synced and attached to the device. In addition to the xattr sync flags. But not sure how this works internaly. ---
### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/8 "2022-11-06T07:05:37Z")
You can ignore that attribute, you just can’t do it from the GUI config editor at the moment. Add entries to the xattr filter for that folder in the config.xml: ```nohighlight ... ``` ---
### Author: ![xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/xor-gate/32/2934_2.png) [@xor-gate](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/xor-gate) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 8:53am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/9 "2022-11-06T08:53:11Z")
Thanks to you all for resolving this I have reopened this to add to the documentation. See [macOS Ventura 13.0 sync fails due to com.apple.provenance metadata · Issue #185 · syncthing/syncthing-macos · GitHub](https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-macos/issues/185) ---
### Author: ![AudriusButkevicius](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/audriusbutkevicius/32/277_2.png) [@AudriusButkevicius](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/AudriusButkevicius) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/10 "2022-11-06T12:17:16Z")
Totally off topic, but every time I see people syncing git repos, I want to scream at them. You’ll get it corrupted. ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 6, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/11 "2022-11-06T15:52:17Z")
Thanks @calmh - didn’t know about this and that’s a great solution. I expect we’ll learn a little more about this mysterious attribute as time rolls on. And thanks @AudriusButkevicius for the warning about syncing git repos. It’s not something I do with much intention, just happens to be that a few git repos are sitting in my larger “Sync” folder. I’ve never had any problems before, but I’ll look into adding these to my ignorelist and maybe automating some `git pull`s to keep them synced. ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/12 "2022-11-07T14:02:12Z")
Just noting here that after editing the config.xml by hand and inserting that section, it seems that ST changes it slightly (adding `` closing tags). My config looks like this now: ```xml 0 0 ``` Problem is, I still can’t get the Sync to complete. It just keeps alternating between “Up to date”, “Preparing to Sync”, “Scanning (NN%)”, “Out of sync” and back again. The Out of sync items appear to be random, and range from 1 to a few hundred. My global state appears to match (# of items, size) on both Macs. I have also tried a full database reset on both sides using [this method](https://docs.syncthing.net/rest/system-reset-post.html), and letting it re-sync overnight. No luck. I never had any sync issues before, and been using ST3 for years. Here’s a screenshot ![screen](https://forum-uploads.syncthingcdn.net/original/2X/7/7a64d87ef0080f2e4f8d30d66e355891c330800b.png) ---
### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh) #### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/13 "2022-11-07T14:05:07Z")
Looking at logs and in the gui, why are they out of sync and why doesn’t it sync? ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/14 "2022-11-07T14:24:27Z")
There isn’t much in the logs, here’s a section: ```nohighlight 2022-11-07 09:13:09 My ID: XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX 2022-11-07 09:13:10 Single thread SHA256 performance is 978 MB/s using minio/sha256-simd (977 MB/s using crypto/sha256). 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Hashing performance is 405.34 MB/s 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Overall send rate is unlimited, receive rate is unlimited 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Using discovery mechanism: global discovery server https://discovery.syncthing.net/v2/?noannounce&id=XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Using discovery mechanism: global discovery server https://discovery-v4.syncthing.net/v2/?nolookup&id=XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Using discovery mechanism: global discovery server https://discovery-v6.syncthing.net/v2/?nolookup&id=XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Using discovery mechanism: IPv4 local broadcast discovery on port 21027 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Using discovery mechanism: IPv6 local multicast discovery on address [ff12::8384]:21027 2022-11-07 09:13:11 TCP listener ([::]:22000) starting 2022-11-07 09:13:11 ... 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Relay listener (dynamic+https://relays.syncthing.net/endpoint) starting 2022-11-07 09:13:11 QUIC listener ([::]:22000) starting 2022-11-07 09:13:11 GUI and API listening on 127.0.0.1:8384 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Access the GUI via the following URL: http://127.0.0.1:8384/ 2022-11-07 09:13:11 My name is "mini.ldh.me" 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Device XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX is "air" at [dynamic] 2022-11-07 09:13:11 Ready to synchronize "Sync" (XXXXX-XXXXX) (sendreceive) 2022-11-07 09:13:20 quic://0.0.0.0:22000 detected NAT type: Symmetric NAT 2022-11-07 09:13:21 Detected 0 NAT services 2022-11-07 09:13:26 Established secure connection to XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX at 192.168.20.40:22000-192.168.20.42:22000/tcp-server/TLS1.3-TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 2022-11-07 09:13:26 Device XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX client is "syncthing v1.22.1" named "air" at 192.168.20.40:22000-192.168.20.42:22000/tcp-server/TLS1.3-TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 2022-11-07 09:13:26 Connection from XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX at [2600:4041:xxxx:590]:22000 (tcp-server) rejected: already connected to this device 2022-11-07 09:13:58 Joined relay relay://204.144.201.226:22067 2022-11-07 09:14:31 Completed initial scan of sendreceive folder "Sync" (XXXXX-XXXXX) 2022-11-07 09:14:53 Folder "Sync" (XXXXX-XXXXX) isn't making sync progress - retrying in 1m22s. ``` The only interesting bit I see there is `isn't making sync progress - retrying in 1m22s.` — Do I need to enable some of the **Debugging Facilities** options? ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 7, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/15 "2022-11-07T18:10:21Z")
I changed the `xattrFilter` in my config slightly, since I figured there were a few other attributes that I did not want or care about syncing, and that might be causing problems. Here’s what I’ve got now: ```nohighlight 0 0 ``` Still no luck getting the Sync loop to quiesce. I was having trouble following the log stream since the macOS bundle doesn’t make running with custom CLI options easy. I created [this small helper script](https://gist.github.com/luckman212/e2470df9c555995e5779d3acff4002d9) that streams from the REST API. When running this, I note now that the same set of 40-50 **folders** keep detecting “changes”. When I inspect these, the modification dates are not recent at all, they are months or years old, so not sure what’s causing this detection. I think I need some extra debug logging… ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/16 "2022-11-08T11:44:13Z")
@calmh Any other logs or debug options I can check to help get to the root of this? ---
### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh) #### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 11:53am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/17 "2022-11-08T11:53:03Z")
Enable tracing for `scanner` and see what it says. A couple of passes that shows a given file changing repeatedly should be useful. ---
### Author: ![luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/luckman212/32/2951_2.png) [@luckman212](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/luckman212) #### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 1:21pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/18 "2022-11-08T13:21:20Z")
Thanks @calmh The logs were huge and rotating out too quickly so I had to first figure out how to add `--log-max-size=52428800` args to the syncthing process using the macOS bundle (solution [here](https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-macos/issues/154#issuecomment-1307221618) btw) After doing this and enabling the `scanner` debugging, I can see the following lines repeating for those out of sync dirs: ```nohighlight [27XXY] 2022/11/08 08:06:17.929607 walk.go:447: DEBUG: walker/9buzz-pod9e@0xc00077f760 checking: Directory{Name:"Settings/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/user.workflow.5E30867B-CE27-40A7-AEC6-19A351E530C2", Sequence:0, Permissions:0755, ModTime:2022-10-14 21:56:39.016903472 -0400 EDT, Version:{[{27XXY22 1667912777} {67NVZZX 1667912757}]}, VersionHash:, Deleted:false, Invalid:false, LocalFlags:0x0, NoPermissions:false, Platform:{ }, InodeChangeTime:1969-12-31 19:00:00 -0500 EST} [27XXY] 2022/11/08 08:06:17.929659 walk.go:469: DEBUG: walker/9buzz-pod9e@0xc00077f760 rescan: Directory{Name:"Settings/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/user.workflow.5E30867B-CE27-40A7-AEC6-19A351E530C2", Sequence:242422, Permissions:0755, ModTime:2022-02-17 20:36:13.978905006 -0500 EST, Version:{[{27XXY22 1667912777} {67NVZZX 1667912757}]}, VersionHash:, Deleted:false, Invalid:false, LocalFlags:0x0, NoPermissions:false, Platform:{ xattrs: }, InodeChangeTime:2022-11-08 08:05:58.918794184 -0500 EST} [27XXY] 2022/11/08 08:06:17.929720 walk.go:472: DEBUG: walker/9buzz-pod9e@0xc00077f760 dir: Settings/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/user.workflow.5E30867B-CE27-40A7-AEC6-19A351E530C2 Directory{Name:"Settings/Alfred/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/user.workflow.5E30867B-CE27-40A7-AEC6-19A351E530C2", Sequence:0, Permissions:0755, ModTime:2022-10-14 21:56:39.016903472 -0400 EDT, Version:{[{27XXY22 1667912777} {67NVZZX 1667912757}]}, VersionHash:, Deleted:false, Invalid:false, LocalFlags:0x0, NoPermissions:false, Platform:{ }, InodeChangeTime:1969-12-31 19:00:00 -0500 EST} ``` I redacted the IDs a bit but if you want the full 100MB logfile I sent you the link privately. I note the seemingly invalid time in `InodeChangeTime:1969-12-31` ---
### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh) #### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 2:37pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/19 "2022-11-08T14:37:40Z")
That part is actually fine, but there’s another suspicious part to it. I’ll look into it. ---
### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh) #### Post date: [November 8, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262/20 "2022-11-08T15:01:47Z")
> > > Syncthing \*thinks\* it should apply xattrs to directories, but it doesn't. That r…esults in the next scan picking up the absence of xattrs as a change which gets sent out. The other side "applies" that change (it doesn't, since it doesn't set xattrs), then the next scan it rediscovers the xattrs. Etc. [Next page](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/com-apple-provenance/19262.md?page=2)