Resynching after NAS crash

Support
1

I have a central NAS from and to which various computers and laptops sync their data. Each machine have their own sync tasks to get the files from and to the NAS. Last weekend my NAS crashed. All data was destroyed on it. I had to factory reset and reinstall all apps, including Syncthing. Since then I have been busy to get my data back. Most of it is already restored from backups. One thing which is unclear to me now it how to set up Syncthing again.

I have no backup of the Syncthing config of the NAS (stupid me). So I will have to go to each client and see what was shared with them.

Since the crash, reset and reinstall, new files have been created on the clients. What would be to best plan to get it all working again?

Compare folders on the clients and NAS and see which files are newer and copy them over manually to the NAS? Reshare the folders with the clients, but resharingwill probably cause conflicts as the ID’s will be different…

All input and insights are very welcome

2

If you don’t extract the original device ID for the NAS (pre-crash) from one of the other devices, the newly rebuilt NAS will appear as a new Syncthing device with a new device ID.

In that case, go to each device and…

  1. Remove the existing pre-crash NAS from the list of devices.
  2. Add the newly rebuilt NAS.
  3. Re-share the Syncthing folders that should sync to the rebuilt NAS.
  4. Rinse and repeat steps 1-3 for each device that needs to sync again to the rebuilt NAS.

If the restored backups on the rebuilt NAS are a subset of what’s already on the various other devices, the NAS will be brought up to date relative to the other devices.

3

Before step 1, though: Make note of the list of folders shared with the previous NAS incarnation.

4

I can find the “old” pre-crash NAS ID on one the clients. What now?

Can I modify the rebuilt NAS and give it it’s precrash ID?

5

It’s not about the device ID. You would need the certificate and key PEM files from the previous instance. Those were not backed up as I understand, so there is no way to make the NAS use the old device ID anymore.

6

Ok, So I’ll have to reshare everything. The problem I face now, as I feared, are the many conflict files I have between the rebuilt NAS and the files that were still on my devices…

7

Hmmm… It seems to me that after your NAS crashed and before you restored it from backup, you have been editing files on other devices. If I were you I would have done like this instead:

  • NOT restored from backup.
  • Shared from other devices to the NAS, populating the NAS from the other devices. Rationale: They have the most up-to-date files.
  • Then compare the backup with the NAS to see if something is missing.
8

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.