Multiple issues on a 5 computer sync

Support
1

I have Syncthing running on 5 computers to sync a project folder between them. 4 of the computers are Macs, and one is a PC. I have versioning turned on one of the Macs, but it’s off on the rest. I’m having a few consistent issues that are making the sync unreliable

  • Sync conflict files are created almost constantly. The majority seem to come from one of the Macs, but they definitely show up from others as well. Almost every time a file is saved, it will make conflicts on some of the other machines
  • A few files that have otherwise been untouched have recently ended up corrupted after the big initial sync of adding the Windows machine. Specifically, a jpeg and a Premiere project became unopenable until replaced with a backed up version
  • Whenever a folder gets moved, renamed, or deleted, a copy of the original folder reappears instantly. This ghost folder will sometimes be empty, but will usually contain some or all of the sub folders that were in it originally. Usually it’s just folders and no files, but a couple of times it has brought back a file from the original folder as well. In the log it will show that computerA deleted the directory, then right after computerB modified it and made it come back. Usually deleting the ghost folder 4-5 times is enough to make it stay gone, but sometimes it will crop back up out of nowhere a little later
  • The Windows computer has a slowly growing list of filed files. The error in the log is “File modified but not rescanned – will try again later”. I’ve tried the trick where you rename a file to something different, wait, then rename it back, and this usually fixes the issue. But it often creates problems on the other machines with making new sync conflicts

Some of these feel like they could be related, but I’m not sure where to start attacking the issues. Any help would be appreciated!

2

What specific OSes?

What versions of Syncthing?

How are the Folders configured? Particularly I’d like to know how the Sharing, Ignore Patterns, and Advanced tabs are set up.

Have you checked for failing drives and data corruption? Particularly on the Windows machine.

Are the Sync Conflicts arising because the file being synced is being modified on more than one Device at a time?

3

What specific OSes?

On the Macs, 15.7.5. On Windows, I don’t have the version number in front of me, but it’s up to date on Windows 11

What versions of Syncthing?

All on v2.0.16. Macs were installed as a service via Homebrew, and Windows with SyncTrayzor

How are the Folders configured? Particularly I’d like to know how the Sharing, Ignore Patterns, and Advanced tabs are set up.

The folder is set up as a trusted share with all devices, all as Send & Receive. Staggered File Versioning on one mac, but no versioning on the others.

The Advanced settings are Watch for Changes, Refresh every 3600, File Pull Order: Random, Minimum Free Disk Space: 0GB. Sync/Send Extended Attributes is on, but everything else (Sync Ownership, Send ownership, Ignore Permissions) is unchecked.

The Ignore Patterns are set up mostly to avoid temp files that Adobe makes:

*.aac
*.md0
AEtemp-*
tmp.*
*.tmp
*.aac
*.md0
AI Temp *
*.???????????????.aep
.DS_Store
$RECYCLE.BIN

Have you checked for failing drives and data corruption? Particularly on the Windows machine.

It’s a brand new computer and clean install of everything. I haven’t checked the drives on it yet, but the sync issues were happening with the other computers before we added it to the share

Are the Sync Conflicts arising because the file being synced is being modified on more than one Device at a time?

No- all of the sub folders within the main sync are spots where only one person would be working at a time. I’ve confirmed this with everyone on the team and there hasn’t been any overlap

4

I wonder if Extended Attributes isn’t the culprit here, especially with dissimilar filesystems. The Extended Attributes are part of the file metadata, and as I understand it that can be the source of Sync Conflicts.

5

I just switched off the Extended Attributes on all machines, and it solved at least the “File modified but not rescanned” issue. I’ll keep an eye out and see if it fixes the other issues

Thanks for the suggestion!