I chcked Trayzor and it’s not an option – it requires MS netframe 4.7.2 which does not support my edition of Windows 10. Moreover, I really don’t want to deal with even more software, certainly not with the other more complicated option.
So I’ll have to make to with ST only via browser. I will try to translate your procedure into direct ST use and I will post it here for you to confirm it’s OK.
Because your procedure is based on Trayzor and I dk what Trayzor does when you start and pause it, I could not translate your procedure to work without Trayzor. So you will have to tell me exactlt what to do it with just ST and the browser.
That’s unfortunate, because SyncTrayzor is in fact one of the easiest ways of controlling Syncthing on Windows. You could look for Syncthing-GTK instead, but it’s not a very active project anymore. Or check out the other available GUI wrappers: Community Contributions — Syncthing documentation
Another idea, if you’re comfortable with the command line, would be the STC project. I personally have no experience with it, but since all you’re after regularly is checking status and pausing / stopping, that might be a good fit.
Since your biggest obstacle is syncing browser profiles while using the browser for the Web GUI, how about just using Edge just for this purpose?
My sketched instructions were actually generic, since SyncTrayzor also uses the Web GUI. The main point is that you don’t need many of the manual steps you’ve been doing. Minimize those to also reduce the potential for errors. Any concrete point that was not clear?
Just a side note, not really related to Syncthing in any way, but when it comes to backing up Brave (or any other Chromium-based browser’s) profile, I hope you’ve disabled profile encryption beforehand (see the two switches at https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/fafd6ea77d9b90ba7662687e33074023ba95da27/components/constants/brave_switches.h#L34-L40, which aren’t even documented outside of the code itself, and if you don’t use them when creating a new profile for the very first time, the backup will likely be worthless). For the record, this is specific to Chromium browsers only in Windows.
Also, just to clarify, SyncTrayzor v2 requires .NET 10, which indeed may not support older versions of Windows (although according to MS at https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/10.0/supported-os.md#windows, it should work even in Windows 10 1607, so if your W10 version is older than that, then that’s a problem in itself…).
I don’t know where you got this from. The old, abandoned SyncTrayzor uses .NET Framework, but SyncTrayzor v2 does not use .NET Framework at all.
(Also, .NET Framework will run on virtually every Windows you can get your hands on, but that’s another thing)
SyncTrayzor v2’s hard ABI target is Windows build 17763, which is the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. That’s pretty much the oldest SDK you can still get from Microsoft.
Just FYI: my edition of w10 is the first stable (1511) and I stopped letting MS touch it since then. Cleaned of all MS bloatware, including IE and all the MS apps. Since then while everybody has been messing with the WU abomination I was running and doing my work – never a problem, including security. So no, never Edge.
Since Trayzor is not an option, I gotta use ST as is. I am really comfortable with the interface I use – but apparently I have some block understanding how ST works that does not let me set the correct step sequence. Can we try to figure out the right sequence that is equivalent to that with Trayzor you described for my interface?
If that’s not possible I will have to use robocopy to copy the folders from the local to the remote at regular intervals, which I am not excited about.
My research indicates no encryption – only the pws are and my pws are in the pw manager not in browsers.
When I try to download v2, either zip or exe, both send me to the Net 4.7.2 to download in case I don’t have it installed.
“No, you cannot install .NET Framework 4.7.2 on Windows 10 version 1511. The maximum supported .NET version for Windows 10 1511 is .NET Framework 4.6.2.”
So I need to choose between Trayzor 1.1.24 w. Net 4.5.2, or without Trayzor. If you can help me without Trayzor, I’ll prefer that. But if you require Trayzor, I’ll consider that.
At least bookmarks, cookies, extensions, and parts of the browser settings are also encrypted when it comes to Chromium. If you restore the backup in the same installation of Windows under the same user account, it will work. However, if you try to restore the profile in a different Windows installation or a different user account, the browser will show an error and all of the encrypted parts will get reset to the default values (e.g. all previously installed extensions will be gone).
SyncTrayzor v1 works with Syncthing v1 only. Syncthing v2 requires SyncTrayzor v2.
Well, I have 2 installations on 2 computers but the remote is a clone of the local – that may be the reason encryption is not an issue.
OK, then Trayzor is not an option.
I will try to work out a sequence that is equivalent to the one with Trayzor that you recommended.
I will ask you to review it and confirm if it will work, or suggest fixes.
If we don’t manage a sequence that works, robocopy it is.
SyncTrayzor is not a prerequisite, just would give you a more convenient experience to check status and control stopping / starting.
In general, I really have to mention that running such an old software stack is putting your system in danger for a security compromise. Not a smart idea if these machines are connected to the Internet. But that’s your choice of course. If you’re not a fan of Microsoft’s ways, maybe consider switching to a free (FLOSS) alternative? I’ve never regretted switching to Ubuntu Linux personally - just a thought.
Actually for your use case, robocopy or rsync sounds like a good fit, as you don’t really need the flexibility and features of Syncthing, and since you already do a lot of manual steps, those alternatives may even be easier in the end.
As for the steps you could take:
If anything goes wrong in between, show us screenshots to better diagnose the actual situation. Don’t base further decisions on gut feelings that something needs resetting or whatever.
There is a tradeoff: I avoid all the crappola of MS and W11. To mitigate the risk I keep a clone computer which is not connected to the Net. If anything happens to my working computer I switch to the clone. Since W10 1511-- years–I experienced no problem, yet I constantly hear about the mess and the spying and ads and AI of MS/W11. It’s a monstruosity. I won’t touch it with 10 feet pole.
I understand the logic of pause unpause on the local. The problem is that sync is split into (1) 3 folders via Firefox and (1) one folder via Brave. So I got to pause first the 1 folder and second the 3 folders. In your scheme, if I do this from the local is that OK?
As to Out of sync, Failed items, I did try to understand what happened and I could not – that’s why I am here.
Looks like robocopy it is.
Yes, as I tried to make clear in the procedure, do that only on the side I wrote. Really no need to break all links on a chain - one is enough to stop the sync between both ends.
OK, here is the procedure, I checked it several times I think will work. If it does, the only problem remaining is the mismatches.
REMOTE: off
LOCAL: Start ST/Brave Pause Brave folder
REMOTE: Boot Start ST/Brave Wait for Up to Date
LOCAL: Pause all
REMOTE: Stop ST/Brave
LOCAL: Stop Brave Start Firefox Unpause Brave folder Pause Firefox folder
REMOTE: Stop Brave Start ST/Firefox Wait for up to date
LOCAL: Pause all Stop ST
REMOTE: Stop ST/Firefox Shutdown
You’re really overcomplicating things. And sorry, your steps partly don’t make sense.
Now if this whole dance revolves around syncing browser profiles while needing exactly that browser to look at the Syncthing GUI, then you should ask yourself whether you are working on the right solution or just need an independent way of checking Syncthing status. Hence the recommendation for SyncTrayzor or other mentioned frontends. Another solution would be to start one browser with a different profile just to access Syncthing, which is itself not synced. All those problems will disappear then.
REMOTE: off
LOCAL: Start ST/Brave Pause Brave folder
All folders (or at least the ones related to browser profiles) should already be paused at start-up, that should be your ground zero state. So nothing to pause at this step.
REMOTE: Boot Start ST/Brave Wait for Up to Date
No need to open a browser here at all. And starting the same browser on two machines simultaneously with a profile that should later be in sync between them, that’s a guaranteed recipe for destruction.
To track sync progress, looking at the LOCAL GUI is enough, because it tells you the state of the other device. If you absolutely must watch both GUIs during synchronization, open up the REMOTE GUI port so you can access it from the same running browser instance on LOCAL, just in a new tab.
LOCAL: Pause all
Everything should have been paused, then you paused one more. What would be left to pause now?
REMOTE: Stop ST/Brave
Why stop Syncthing when you’re not done yet? The Brave browser should not be running there at all, ever (at least with the synced profile).
LOCAL: Stop Brave Start Firefox Unpause Brave folder Pause Firefox folder
Again, no need to pause anything at this point - it already is.
REMOTE: Stop Brave Start ST/Firefox Wait for up to date
Nothing to do on REMOTE during the whole procedure, really. Just start Syncthing (automatically) when it powers up. Shut down Windows on it when everything is done. Touch nothing in between.
LOCAL: Pause all Stop ST
Good, that’s the starting point for the next run that we want.
REMOTE: Stop ST/Firefox Shutdown
Just shut down, ST will stop gracefully as well. Firefox never needs to be open here.
This has helped unblocking my understanding of how ST works (I think). If so, then I’ll have to figure out the mismatches.
So let’s see if I’m right. Here is my simplified procedure:
REMOTE: off
LOCAL: Start ST/Brave, unpause Firefox,2,3 folders
REMOTE: Boot, Start ST, Wait for Up to Date
LOCAL: Pause Firefox,2,3 folders, unpause Brave folder
REMOTE: Wait for up to date
LOCAL: Pause all Stop ST
REMOTE: Stop ST/Firefox Shutdown
Nope, tried it and it did not work.
I’ll try and study it a bit more and if I don’t get it right I’ll go the robocopy way.
There are a few thing I still do not understand:
As you can see I still don’t see exactly how this works.
- Should the remote folders be paused or unpaused after I boot and start ST?
Nothing needs to be touched or changed on that end. So keep them unpaused.
- You say the local GUI tells you the state of the remote device, but it does not tell you the state of the remote folders after the sync – it only has a list of them. To see their state you gotta look at the remote GUI.
The folder state tells you how far the instance you are looking at has caught up with the combined “global state”. For a send-only folder, that happens instantly, as any local changes are immediately taken into account once scanned, and it doesn’t accept any other changes from remote.
The device state is based on what the remote reports as having available. So if all changes from all folders have been pulled by the remote and its index now matches what the local instance has, then the remote is marked as “Up To Date” (if connected of course). That’s why you don’t need to look at the remote GUI at all.
- When the local folders say Up to Date after the scan does it mean (1) they are up to date and thus no change or (2) they were brought up to date? If so, that’s why the remote ones are not changed. In any case, the remote folders are not, and THEY are supposed to be up to date.
Up To Date means that they currently are, no matter what the history was. Syncthing is not modeled around individual synchronization runs, but targets keeping in sync continuously. That’s why only the latest determined state is shown.
You still haven’t shown screenshots or specific error details, so I can’t say much more about the conditions why it hasn’t reached a consistent state.
Your biggest issue is still trying to sync a browser profile that is still in active use at the time, according to your detailed steps. Much worse, you may be using the same (synchronized) profile on both ends simultaneously. Stop doing that. It’s absolutely certain to cause trouble. Use a separate profile, one per laptop that’s not synced at all (even added to ignore patterns, really). Or some other means of checking state, as mentioned numerous times.
AC>The folder state tells you how far the instance you are looking at has caught up with the combined “global state”. For a send-only folder, that happens instantly, as any local changes are immediately taken into account once scanned, and it doesn’t accept any other changes from remote.
But the local has changed due to my work, while the remote has not. So if the local shows me that the local folders are up to date – to me it looks as if the local has been matched to the remote. So maybe I do not understand what up to date means.
AC>The device state is based on what the remote reports as having available. So if all changes from all folders have been pulled by the remote and its index now matches what the local instance has, then the remote is marked as “Up To Date” (if connected of course). That’s why you don’t need to look at the remote GUI at all.
But when I compare the actual folders, the dates of the files on the remote are still different than those on the local. Perhaps I am wrongly assuming that up to date means that the dates of the files in the folders on the remote should be the same as the files in the corresponding folders on the local, but what it actually means is that the CONTENT matches, not the dates – maybe this is my mistake?
AC>Up To Date means that they currently are, no matter what the history was. Syncthing is not modeled around individual synchronization runs, but targets keeping in sync continuously. That’s why only the latest determined state is shown.
If I am in error about file dates and content, it might explain my block.
AC>You still haven’t shown screenshots or specific error details, so I can’t say much more about the conditions why it hasn’t reached a consistent state.
Let’s suppose that I do the syncing and all folders show up to date on the local. At this point there should not be any errors on the remote (although I cannot confirm that except by looking at the folders on the remote), so I should just rely on the up to date on the local that there is a match. Is this correct?
AC>Your biggest issue is still trying to sync a browser profile that is still in active use at the time, according to your detailed steps. Much worse, you may be using the same (synchronized) profile on both ends simultaneously. Stop doing that. It’s absolutely certain to cause trouble. Use a separate profile, one per laptop that’s not synced at all (even added to ignore patterns, really). Or some other means of checking state, as mentioned numerous times.
No, this is precisely why I use two browsers with ST. When I sync the Brave profile, I use ST via Firefox; when I sync the Firefox profile I use ST via Brave. By doing this I avoid syncing the profile of the browser in use!!!
Switching browsers during the procedure is why there is no avoiding touching the remote.