Help getting started on macOS

Sorry but I’m having trouble with a very basic issue getting started on macOS.

I installed version 1.23.2 (using the syncthing-macos “integration”). This creates a menubar icon and I’m able to also load the web application at localhost:8384. The problem I have is that there’s a “Default Folder” indicated that I don’t understand. In the getting started section of the online documentation, it’s stated, “At this point Syncthing will also have set up a folder called Default Folder for you, in a directory called Sync in your home directory …” However, it doesn’t say what this default folder does or is used for.

  1. Is it explained in the documentation anywhere what the “default folder” is?
  2. According to the above statement the “default folder” is supposed be located at ~/Sync macOS. Of course, most users (myself included) would consider it quite offensive to have a subdirectory of their home directory created. This goes double for a folder with a generic name like “Sync”. The name “Sync” doesn’t immediately suggest to an end user what software created the folder. It could also clash with other software (that makes the equally ill-advised choice of creating a home directory subfolder with a generic name). In fact, I believe the commercial Sync.com service also creates a folder with this name.
  3. Because of the above, the first thing a user will want to do in almost all cases is relocate that directory to something more reasonable. But the documentation doesn’t seem to say how to do that.

You can just consider that folder as an ‘example’. If you click on Edit, you can choose to remove it, and then you create your own

Not explicitly I think. As far as I know it’s just more or less an ‘example’ folder, so a new user won’t start with nothing. You can remove this (including the Sync folder) if preferred without consequences (if unused obv).

This is indeed a bit curious and I have no idea why ~/Sync is being used as default. Anyways, if you go to ActionsSettingsAdjust folder defaults, you can set a path there. That path will be the base-path of any newly added folder from then on forward.

https://docs.syncthing.net/users/config.html?highlight=default%20folder#defaults-element https://docs.syncthing.net/users/config.html?highlight=default%20folder#config-option-defaults.folder

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