Hi. I am a new to both Synthing and these forums. First of all, I wanted to thank the people working in this great application (desktop and android).
I am currently using Dropbox for my synchronisation needs (I know, boo!) but for quite some time I have been thinking about using another solution that is not dependent on a propietary vendor and that does not require for me to setup a VPS (like NextCloud or Seafile). I think the time has come for me to change, specially now that Dropbox is phasing out non-ext4 FS support on Linux (I am a very satisfied XFS user since 2005).
My needs are very simple:
I have a desktop PC (running Arch) that is on almost all the time.
I have a netbook (quite old) that I use from time to time, mainly from inside my LAN.
Both computers share one ‘Dropbox’ folder that contains mostly text files (arch customs build files), some pdfs and some other document formats. No media files. It also contains a keepasxc database.
I have also an android phone which is rather old (it’s on version 6).
The android phone currently syncs the same folder, but I only need it to synchronize the keepassxc database.
For what I gather, Syncthing is perfect for both the destktop PC and the netbook. But I’ve got some doubts regarding the android sync: for what I’ve read the application has a tendency to consume the battery (battery time is already not perfect on my phone).
What I would to know about the android app resumes to the following:
a) I just want to synchronize the one directory containing the keepassxc database (which is nested inside the ‘Dropbox’ folder. Can it be done?
b) Can synchronization be made manually?
b) Or better, can I make the database to synchronize only when keepass2android is launched (as this application already does with Dropbox).
Syncthing syncs automatically upon starting, or always in the background.
It supports tasker intents so perhaps it’s possible to do something about it starting when applications start.
It’s due to add a receive only folder type in the next release, but local modifications have to be manually reverted (which means it works one-way’ish as long as you don’t touch your local copies of the files you are receiving).
IME this is no longer the case and if you’re syncing a single small file then Syncthing will consume only a very small amount of power. I think this battery problem was caused by one or more Syncthing crash bugs that caused it to constantly crash and re-start.
To do a) and 5., you can use ignore patterns on the Android device. In this case, you’d simply set the ignore patterns on the Android to specifically include the KeePass database and exclude everything else.
I have installed and configured Syncthing in all three devices: desktop, netbook and android. I followed Adam’s suggestion and ignored everything except for my keepassxc database. Everything seems OK so far.
For the time being, I left the option to sync in background but only on wifi, as I disabled global discovery, nat traversal and relaying on three devices. I think that syncing in my LAN is OK for my use case.
I will probably change de synchronization folder to “receive only” when the feature will become available on android.
I think, syncing just the sub directory with the KeePass db uses less power, as the ignore is done locally, so every change to any file on your desktop or laptop is send to the phone (the info about the change, not the file itself ) when syncing the whole folder and using ignores to just get the KeePass db.
) when syncing the whole folder and using ignores to just get the KeePass db.