ERR Failed to acquire lock

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1

Hi there,

I’m on Ubuntu 24 and get the following error when starting syncthing

$ syncthing
2025-12-02 10:29:52 INF syncthing v2.0.11 "Hafnium Hornet" (go1.25.3 linux-amd64) debian@github.syncthing.net 2025-10-27 03:59:48 UTC [noupgrade] (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:52 ERR Failed to acquire lock: is another Syncthing instance already running? (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:52 INF Syncthing exited (error="exit status 1" log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:53 INF syncthing v2.0.11 "Hafnium Hornet" (go1.25.3 linux-amd64) debian@github.syncthing.net 2025-10-27 03:59:48 UTC [noupgrade] (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:53 ERR Failed to acquire lock: is another Syncthing instance already running? (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:53 INF Syncthing exited (error="exit status 1" log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:54 INF syncthing v2.0.11 "Hafnium Hornet" (go1.25.3 linux-amd64) debian@github.syncthing.net 2025-10-27 03:59:48 UTC [noupgrade] (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:54 ERR Failed to acquire lock: is another Syncthing instance already running? (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:54 INF Syncthing exited (error="exit status 1" log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:55 INF syncthing v2.0.11 "Hafnium Hornet" (go1.25.3 linux-amd64) debian@github.syncthing.net 2025-10-27 03:59:48 UTC [noupgrade] (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:55 ERR Failed to acquire lock: is another Syncthing instance already running? (log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:55 INF Syncthing exited (error="exit status 1" log.pkg=main)
2025-12-02 10:29:56 ERR Too many restarts; not retrying further (count=4 interval=4.094124526s log.pkg=main)

I’ve checked for other running instances and not found any:

$ systemctl status syncthing@chrisdc
○ syncthing@chrisdc.service - Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization for chrisdc
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/syncthing@.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:syncthing(1)


$ systemctl status syncthing@syncthing
○ syncthing@syncthing.service - Syncthing - Open Source Continuous File Synchronization for syncthing
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/syncthing@.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: man:syncthing(1)


$ ps aux | grep syncthing
chrisdc    20086  0.0  0.0   6680  2016 pts/0    S+   10:32   0:00 grep --color=auto syncthing

Any advice on next steps?

Thanks

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