Implement a document provider in Syncthing-Fork

acolomb · August 14, 2025, 11:03am

I just noticed this section in the documentation of Syncthing Tray for Android. It implements a DocumentProvider for other apps to access the files stored in the app’s private storage. One big advantage seems to be that this storage location does not suffer from performance penalties as much.

github.com/Martchus/syncthingtray

docs/android.md

master

# Using the Android app
**The Android app is still experimental.** Use it with care and create backups of your
configuration and data before trying it. No builds are provided at this point so you have to
[build it from sources](https://github.com/Martchus/cpp-utilities/blob/master/README.md#remarks-about-building-for-android).
See the section "[Caveats on Android](#caveats-on-android)" below for further limitations.

## Compatibility
The Android app requires Android 9 or later. It is mainly tested on Android 14, 15 and 16, though.

Depending on the Android version and vendor-specific limitations you might run into permission
errors and [the app being stopped by the OS](https://dontkillmyapp.com).

For me it works well enough on a three year old average Samsung device except that the foreground
service of the app is frequently killed (just to be restarted almost immediately again). I also
successfully tested it on an older Nokia device with Android 10. So it probably works on most
phones that came out around 2018 or more recently. I haven't tested the app on very low-end
devices yet.

## General remarks
If you're starting from scratch you can simply install and start the app. Otherwise, checkout

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Do you think this makes sense to add to your app as well? Are you planning to work on it?

I’m not sure how much exactly this will gain. For example, whether file managers will let you browse through the DocumentProvider’s tree? Because opening a PDF via the viewer app’s “Open” menu would be cumbersome. In case browsing is not commonly supported, maybe it would make sense to add an internal file browser to the app, as a second step?

system · September 13, 2025, 12:50pm

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