I'm worried having a syncthing folder of the entire android sdcard will result in unnecessary cpu and battery use if the ignore is improperly configured

[rubber_gun]

I previously only used one partnership, /DCIM/Camera, to sync camera photos. Added /Download and /Pictures and more over time. I thought, why not mirror my entire android internal storage, including with ! only the directories I need? That way I can reduce the amount of partnerships whilst having a complete copy of (select) folders on my pc in case my device is lost. Thus I did so, using the following ignore:

// exclude junk folders, placed by android or by the device manufacturer’s implementation of android, I don’t know

.thumbnails

_.thumbnails

.tmfs

// include only needed folders

!/DCIM

!/Download

!/Movies

!/Music

!/Pictures

!/Record

!/WhatsApp

‎*‎ (which would exclude /Android, very heavily populated system folder), as well as the many app-placed folders and dotfolders that clutter the internal storage.

It is my understanding that a non top-level include will cause syncthing to scan the entire directory tree, imsodin says here Completely prevent syncthing from traversing a directory subtree"

In order to find all included paths, Syncthing still traverse the entire file tree, even if a parent is ignored. The only exception to this rule are “toplevel includes”, i.e starting with a path separator and not containing any path separators or double asterisks.

Since I only have toplevel includes that satisfy the above conditions, it would appear that I don’t need to worry about syncthing traversing and watching the entire sd card and likely heating up my device and draining its battery? (yes, I know syncthing can be set to run on ac power only)

But imsodin also says on the same page

Your options are to either find patterns/directory structures that only need top-level include directories or you disable watching for changes (periodic scans will still traverse your entire .local dir then).

Does this mean that while non-included folders won’t be watched, periodic scans will still traverse the entire internal storage?

That leads me to believe that having a syncthing folder of the entire android internal storage may be a bad idea (unless I increase the rescan interval or change run conditions to only run on ac power.

Can anyone offer some opinions on whether or not mirroring the internal storage the way I do is a good idea?

[Catfriend1]

Hi,

I’m using the internal storage root in syncthing but only for my data files and not Android folders and their contents nor for App’s directories.

[TKruzze]

I came across this as it’s exactly the same thought process I’m going though right now. From everything I’ve read, the ignore list you’re using should prevent the directory traversal we’re both looking to avoid.

Have you been able to confirm that it’s working as expected?

[Catfriend1]

I’m currently going with (depending on installed apps)

(?i).stversions
(?i)/.android_secure
(?i)/Android
(?i)/backups/syncthing/index-*
(?i)/browser
(?i)/DCIM/.temp
(?i)/DCIM/.thumbnails
(?i)/downloaded_rom
(?i)/Fox
(?i)/J2ME-Loader
(?i)/LOST.DIR
(?i)/MIUI/.wallpaper_history
(?i)/MIUI/.videowallpaper
(?i)/MIUI/debug_log
(?i)/MIUI/Gallery
(?i)/MIUI/Videos
(?i)/Movies/.thumbnails
(?i)/owncloud/tmp
(?i)/Pictures/.thumbnails
(?i)/ramdump
(?i)/SpeedSoftware
(?i)/Tasker/log/*
(?i)/temp
(?i)/trackworktime/log*txt
(?i)/Telegram
(?i)/TWRP
(?i)/WhatsApp/.trash
(?i)/WhatsApp/Backups
(?i)/WhatsApp/Databases
(?i)/wlan_logs
(?i)/zman
(?i)/dctp
(?i)/did
(?i)thumbs.db