Files in conflict 3 devices with only 1 always available

[pjeremie (Jeremie Prud'homme)]

Hi,

I am trying to set up a bi-directional sync between 2 distant computers which are not on at the same time. I have a 3rd device (raspberry pi) which is always on and available.

I thought it might work with the RPI beeing a “gateway” between the 2 computers.

The schema is the following :

I set up the syncthing on both computers to send/receive with RPI and on RPI send/receive with both computers.

Files are synchronizing but I get a lot of conflict files on computer 2 (which is on the same network as the RPI. No error on Computer 1 for the moment.

Each time the file I want to keep is one that has been updated by computer 1 with a more recent datetime.

Any idea why I get this behaviour ? I don’t get it. Maybe my setting is not ok ? Any help appreciated

[calmh (Jakob Borg)]

Nothing conceptually wrong with the topology as far as I see. If you’re not causing conflicts by actual concurrent changes, then perhaps there is something else going on you’re not telling us (e.g., the Raspberry actually uses an external disk with NTFS from Linux, which doesn’t behave like a filesystem is expected to, etc).

[pjeremie (Jeremie Prud'homme)]

Indeed the raspberry is using an external disk with ntfs. Can you tell me more why it is an issue ? Which filesystem should I use ? I can change.

[imsodin (Simon)]

For me ntfs (3g, no idea about the old and new kernel drivers) on linux works fine for me since forever with syncthing without conflicts. You should enable “ignore permissions”, however I don’t think it should cause conflicts - maybe worth a shot still. Otherwise like with any conflicts, the way to figure out why it happens is to check how exactly the files differ then try to figure out where the change was introduced.

[pjeremie (Jeremie Prud'homme)]

Thanks for the reply. I verified on the PC 2 and the RPI, I did not to check the “Ignore permission”. Now I checked it.

I can not verify on the PC 1 for the moment but I think it is not checked either.

Will check it and see if it changes something.

[Mobster1106]

OMG, I have been having precisely this problem for years with an almost identical setup with @pjeremie: an RPi sharing 24/7 a folder with several local devices. On the RPi the folder is stored on an external thumbdrive with NTFS. Modifying a file in any of the other devices generated conflicts on the RPi all the time and they were then propagated to the other devices. Other Windows, Linux and Android devices did not generate conflicts and worked just fine together when RPi was paused. ‘Ignore permissions’ on the RPi seems to have solved this after years of head-scratching. Many thanks @imsodin and @pjeremie

[pjeremie (Jeremie Prud'homme)]

Good to know it solved your issues @Mobster1106 ! On my side I activated the “Ignore permission” on all devices and it is ok now too. Thanks @imsodin for the reminder (I found that activated it on the past on other syncs )