Duplicate folders Linux-Mac

Support
1

Hi, I’m a newby!

TL;DR Linux works fine, but I get duplicated folders on my Mac…

Setup: A- Linux desktop B- Linux laptop C- MacBook

A <-> B works fine. I set up the following folders to sync:

  • Desktop
  • Documents
  • Downloads
  • Sync (default Syncthing folder)
  • etc. Works fine; this way my Linux desktop and laptop stay identical.

But when I try to do this with my MacBook (A <-> C);

  • Sync-folder works fine offcourse…
  • Downloads-folder works fine too
  • Documents- and Desktop-folder create duplicate folders with the exact same name… I didn’t know that that was possible… I looked carefully for typo’s, but couldn’t see any difference…

Then I started searching the net, but couldn’t find anything similair. So I removed all the shared folders and connected devices, set it up again… same problem…

I solved this by making new folders on my Mac called:

  • A-Desktop
  • A-Documents etc… Works, but it looks silly and hurts my ego…

Who recognizes this? Or has a suggestion?

2

If possible, could you post screenshots from the Syncthing Web GUI with the problematic folder paths shown?

I’ve got little idea how MacOS works, but it seems it uses localised folder names similarly to Windows (see https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/FileSystemAdvancedPT/LocalizingtheNameofaDirectory/LocalizingtheNameofaDirectory.html). If that’s the case, the actual folder path may be different than the name displayed on the screen. Can you verify that your Documents and Desktop folders are actually located in the paths you’ve used in Syncthing?

3

Yeah… You’re typing in English here, but are you running macOS in another language and trying to sync the names it shows? Because as Tomasz says, the folder on disk is probably called Documents even if macOS is set to another language and shows it as Dokument or whatever in the GUI.

The terminal should show the truth. (And the file picker / completion thing in Syncthing.)

4

Fixed!

Yep, you were both right; it was a ‘localizing’ problem. That also explains why ‘Downloads’ did work; that’s the same in my language. Works like a charm now. I guessed the real folder names would be the English names, but used the Terminal to check.

I’m used to Linux, and didn’t know MacOS had localizing of folders. First I accidentally deleted the .localize file during sync, which turned off the localizing. But luckily I had version management turned on, so copied the .localize file back. And put it on the ignore list… together with .DS_Store

Thanx for your help!

1 Like
5

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.