Is there any way to log which files have been deleted or copied & from which client is it removed or to which client is it copied? In the UI this is only mentioned very limited when you hover over a specific directory & I also don’t see this information in the default log-file. The reason I like to have this log-file is to see what is happening in the background, is everything working correctly, no accidental removals of files etc.
Second, in the help-page is written that syncthing is not a good backup application. At the moment I run it to keep my laptop and desktop data in sync. However, this is also making sure I have the files on both devices which I see as a backup as well. Is this not a trustworthy solution for having a backup? If not, why not?
What happens if you delete a file by mistake? It gets deleted on both systems and you can’t restore it. Similarly if you modify a file and want to restore to the previous version you can’t do that either.
In SyncTrayzor windows syncthing wrapper, this functionality was partially implemented some time ago. It provides a simple CSV table with file modifications that took place on the client it’s running on.
Regarding “syncthing as a backup” it is somewhat may be simulated by having “vesrioning” enabled, it effectively will keep files on the machine after delete/modification.
I’m not an expert, but I think that syncthing “is not a proper backup solution” basically because it’s not a core idea behind it’s design. It’s main purpose is to keep repositories in sync, and versioning stuff is more of a “extra”. Backup solutions are designed with the reverse prioritizing in mind.
And as chrisisbd mentioned, there is no “restore” functionality in place, even if you do enable versioning. You’ll have to take care of it manually.
Hence it shouldn’t be viewed as “proper backup solution”, because it isn’t really. Backup here is more of an side-effect you can achieve with certain config.
BTW, I certainly DO recommend having at least some kind of versioning enabled, several times it helped me to avoid data losses due to various sync issues.
And as for a backup solution, have a look at UrBackup. It is a decent FOSS backup solution, not too fancy/pretty (though pretty v2.0 overhaul is in the works) but it does the job nicely. You can have both side by side.
