Every file update causes a local conflict

First of all let me open with how frustrating it is to see the way issues are handled. Automatically closing issues with no resolution due to the lack of activity is a beyond hostile strategy. While looking for the solution I saw several tickets all unresolved and closed. There was no effort put into admitting that there might be an issue. No general issue was created to gather info on the matter. Users are left to their own devices. This is a sad tendency. This is the reason why projects don’t get enough user traction to grow bigger.

Here are SOME relevant tickets. (I’m limited to 2 links as a new user)

There are even issues on github where users are bullied and tickets are closed

I had the exact same issue with a chain of Windows-Linux-Android devices. The issue only appeared on Windows device.

The solution was to set the “Ignore Permissions” to true on the Windows 11 device.

With that, please reconsider your hostile treatment of the users and realize that people not responding to a ticket for 30 days is a sign of a failure on your end. They probably gave up and moved on. And there will be a new user with the same issue who will see a closed issue and won’t bother opening a new one. They’ll just move on to the next project.

https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing#getting-in-touch

The first and best point of contact is the Forum. If you’ve found something that is clearly a bug, feel free to report it in the GitHub issue tracker.

It seems sensible to separate usage problems (forum) from actual program bugs (issue tracker).

Update Sorry, I didn’t look at your links and assumed that by tickets you meant GitHub issues.

Just to set your expectations straight… Syncthing is developed by volunteers. We are not aiming for a large user base specifically, because we don’t earn anything from it. Especially personal users who get the software completely for free and are not even interested in paying for support. The developers basically grouped around the project because they have a need for this tool and ideas how to improve it. Just for the fun of it and for satisfying personal needs.

They (and lots of other friendly people) do even provide free support here on the forum, just because they like giving back and being nice to others. We’re not bullying anyone. If someone’s troubles cannot be solved or they demand features that noone likes to put development work into, then that’s fine because it’s all voluntary. If someone “moves on to the next project”, that’s perfectly fine with me, I won’t try to hold them back. I wouldn’t gain anything from having one more Syncthing user. Except maybe more support requests, which actually means more work. I like being nice to people and helping to solve their issues. And maybe sad when some issues cannot be solved. But there’s definitely no pressure to make people happy, especially when the tone of their requests is sometimes more demanding than it should be. Does all that sound like “hostile treatment” to you?

Having said that… What was your question actually? Maybe I can help.

That issue you linked is 8 years old and much has happened in Syncthing development in the meantime. The next release (IIRC) has a recent fix for unnecessary Android conflicts coming, that might be related.

2 Likes

I’m not sure what you refer to here, but Syncthing isn’t by any means very small. There are plenty of stats to be found about this :wink:

This you’ll have to guide us through as well. I see 4 topics where the user in question was helped as good as it was possible by either sharing a piece of information (that it is/was a known bug in a certain version) or by trying to obtain more information regarding the user’s system and situation to see if it’s reproducible or if it depends on a certain setup.

Don’t forget that it is quite difficult to troubleshoot and fix something if something isn’t reproducible, unless the issue is very clear. It’s also not uncommon that a bug was filed, but it ended up being something else and the issue ends up being abandoned. Cleaning those up (automatically) keeps the issue-tracker maintainable and useable.

Also, I don’t see how linking to an 8-year old issue is of any use here to support an argument of a potential hostile environment. Which falls back (argument-wise) on the automatical closure of issues on Github? Yeah, one could argue that it’s not the most welcoming greeting. On the other hand, issues are as easily being re-opened if sustainable activity occurred or someone properly requested so. Recent activities have shown that.

2 Likes

André Colomb Very Helpful Just to set your expectations straight… Syncthing is developed by volunteers. We are not aiming for a large user base specifically, because we don’t earn anything from it. Especially personal users who get the software completely for free and are not even interested in paying for support. The developers basically grouped around the project because they have a need for this tool and ideas how to improve it. Just for the fun of it and for satisfying personal needs.

I don’t expect any help or support from you or anyone else on this platform or any other. I’m merely asking to not make it unnecessarily difficult to help others and share answers. As I stated above, my problem is your policy around issues. Namely closing issues after 30 days of inactivity. Again, lack of activity is no indication of the issue losing relevance.

I created this topic/ticket/issue/thread/post whatever you like out of frustration. I have been looking for a solution for an issue I encountered on a friend’s machine. I’ve spend considerable amount of time both debugging and researching it online. Having found nothing I had to bring over my own devices with the necessary tooling to further debug this.

Having resolved my instance of the issue I decided to go back to those tickets/posts/issues/threads/topics to post my solution and I found that they were closed and no unified issue was created to track various possible solutions and reports of the same issue.

Does all that sound like “hostile treatment” to you?

Now I’m being told that: (a) I am entitled and (b) to get lost if I don’t like it.

What was your question actually? Maybe I can help.

And I see several people have issues understanding what’s the issue here, so here’s yet another attempt to explain:

When people encounter issues they search for solutions online. When there is no solution online people try to solve issues on their own. When people succeed they want to contribute their research so that others don’t have to waste enormous amount of time digging through things.

Above has been the case for a long time for countless projects. Bigger and smaller than Syncthing. With more and less manpower than Syncthing.

It is one of cornerstones of building a community: giving people a way to share info and help each other.

Also, I don’t see how linking to an 8-year old issue is of any use here to support an argument of a potential hostile environment. Which falls back (argument-wise) on the automatical closure of issues on Github? Yeah, one could argue that it’s not the most welcoming greeting. On the other hand, issues are as easily being re-opened if sustainable activity occurred or someone properly requested so. Recent activities have shown that.

It’s not just github. It’s also this forum. And no it can’t be easily reopened. That’s why I created a new one. So that someone looking for solutions for the same issue as linked above has a chance at finding this potential solution.

Perhaps I’m being overly emotional/negative over this, but it is to an extent infuriating how condescending you folks are towards the user.

Here’s how my google page looks for the query: “syncthing each file update causes a conflict”

https://imgur.com/pM30VsB

I’ll show myself out of this conversation and forum for good.

Not sure whether this used to be the case in the past, but I haven’t seen any issues closed automatically like that, at least not during the last few years. If an issue gets closed, then it’s done by a person with a reason.

Forum topics do get closed automatically after a while which can get annoying from time to time, as sometimes there are valid reasons to revive an old topic. It’s not a big deal to just create a new one with a referral link to the old one on top though.

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