Backing up images from iOS to other ST nodes is a major topic for my use case. Here a few thoughts:
Background syncing
It would be nice to have some kind of background syncing, but I doubt that iOS lets you do this. And if it does, there should be an option in the app to deactivate it (battery life, etc)
Option to enable sync only in WLAN
This is an obvious one, since doing the sync constantly could ruin you, if it would run with mobile data.
General workflow:
Starting the app
If image backup is enabled: ST connects to the nodes where the images should be saved
Images get synced (read only: If an image on one of the nodes is deleted, it must not have an influence on the images that are still stored on the iOS device. On the other hand: If an image gets deleted on the phone, the corresponding file on the backup nodes must not be deleted - otherwise it would hardly be a backup)
Open question
Assume the iOS device and the nodes are in sync.
On the iOS device, a specific image gets deleted (say IMG_1000.jpg) As said above, this file must not be deleted from the other ST nodes, since they serve as backup storages
A new image is taken, or an image with the same name (IMG_1000.jpg in this example) is saved to the camera roll from a different source (say from an iMessage from a different user).
What would happen in this case? ST would just sync it, deleting/relocating the backed up version. This is not the prefered behaviour, since deleting from a backup is not a good thing and relocating images introduces the need for manual interaction.
As a resume what you want is an “Archive” scenario, i.e. it goes in one direction “up to a server” rather than a “dynamic” sync between multiple devices.
Hi - I have a client with about 10 iPhones and would really prefer to use syncthing for syncing. Is your app available in the AppStore already for purchase - or can we beta test?
Yes, the app is available in the AppStore for purchase but I’d recommend to provide me at least 1-2 emails so I can open a beta access - this way you can test app before buying it as for mobile it’s a bit different from how syncthing works, i.e. it syncs file metadata and you can load files (with caching) on demand but it never fully syncs all the files to reduce traffic/battery.
Thank you Valerii. I’m actually more interested in the other direction - I’d like to use syncthing to copy photos from the iPhone (from the camera roll) to our server - and the photos to be removed from the phone when we remove them from the server. Would that scenario work with your app?
I apologize - I’ve somehow missed this message and got it just now accidentally.
Yes, that’s the limitation of iOS. Right now it’s possible to open documents from syncthing in other applications, but not the opposite - i.e. it is impossible to store a document from other apps to syncthing. That limitation is work in progress and I hope to fix it soon.