I would suggest a prompted upgrade, like Syncthing itself does. I think at this point it’s not really a question of “don’t fix it when it aint broken”, Syncthing v1 is broken in a whole bunch of respects, hence the v2.
Yeah… none of them popped up with excitement to that change though, so I doubt it’ll happen.
Fair point
I sincerely appreciate the work you’ve done, and do, on this project but we are now well past the point at which the sanctioned MacOS version should be keeping pace with the other platforms. I respectfully hope you can understand that you aren’t just making this decision for yourself - you’re making it for all MacOS syncthing users who use your distribution, which is the distribution that Syncthing advertises on its landing page.
I don’t think anyone is asking for the MacOS version to remain on 1.x, but we’re certainly asking for it to move to 2.x. I understand that life events can make these volunteer efforts challenging. If that’s what’s causing us to stay on the 1.x train, then please ask for help. You’ve now heard for a few months from @calmh and others that their guidance is to move forward. It’s time.
Syncthing for macOS is still at v2.0.3+1
It seems, it does not get updates anymore?
Would you recommend to switch to the basic version?
I just like the macOS bundle, but I have the feeling that it got stuck.
Maybe even the older v1 macOS version would be better?
Or really drop this and use the basic version.
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Reducing v2 DB context and footprint - yes or now
Correct that ths is offtopic.
Please start a separate discussion on this. This thread needs to remain dedicated to the discussion of the MacOS wrapper in case @xor-gate decides to work on it further and has questions or information.
The release version of syncthing-macos bundles syncthing 1.30.0-1. There’s a v2 branch, which may be what you’re referring to, that bundles 2.0.11-1.
These are very good questions and I’m hoping @calmh might have an opinion. I appreciate that syncthing is a federation of volunteers developers and that there is no “mandate” on what syncthing-macos should do, but it’s a confusing thing that the “official” macOS bundle isn’t tracking the major update.
The release version of syncthing-macos bundles syncthing 1.30.0-1. There’s a v2 branch, which may be what you’re referring to, that bundles 2.0.11-1.
That is only true for the basic version, not for the macOS bundle!
This is still at v2.0.3+1 not 2.0.11-1
And yes, I am only talking about v2
I would be happy to see that I am wrong!
Imho Syncthing-macOS should be all 2.0 by now.
Yes, the macOS bundle has a version 2.0.3+1 - nothing newer:
That’s why I asked if I should go back to the v1 version of the bundle, or drop this bundle version and use the official version instead…
I was under the impression that the macOS bundle let Syncthing auto upgrade, so it isn’t enormously critical what is bundled with the initial install. Is that incorrect?
It used to “auto-update” (this is only is semi-automatic, as you need to click) but that only worked for the v1.x versions!
The v2 version does not offer auto-update.
Also this is irrelevant, as there simply is no newer version than 2.0.3+1
And that leaves me with a bad feeling.
I would either go back to the last v1.x of the bundle or drop it’s convenience and use your official version instead…
You’re right, it disables auto upgrades. I didn’t think that was the case.
@xor-gate Honestly there’s really only two tracks here I think, either the wrapper needs to allow Syncthing to auto upgrade, or needs to adopt a release cadence similar to the main program – roughly monthly. Shipping an un-updatable 2.0.3 at this point is not really acceptable.
Additionally, the 2.0 track should be the one linked as the latest release, not 1.30.0…
I saw this but didn’t look beyond. The v2 branch is a pre-release and I’m not sure how much it matters what version it’s on.
You may be misunderstanding the state of things and possibly how the macos-syncthing bundle works.
The Syncthing downloads page ( Syncthing | Downloads ) points users to this: Syncthing | Downloads
That’s what the majority of users run. If you go that path, you’re at 1.30.0-1. Up until August 2025, that bundle was roughly tracking Syncthing releases though each update is a manual exercise by the maintainer. I’m only very topically familiar with the project but it looks like a little bit of work for updates to insure that the wrapper is keeping in sync with (at least) Syncthing’s version of Go.
There is a v2 branch. The only people using this are advanced testers who found and manually installed it. You can see from my screenshot above that the code references v2.0.11 but @syncthem sees it using, in practice, an earlier version.
In my opinion, it’s currently academic what version the v2 branch uses. Maybe your “two paths” model is correct, though. Maybe the paths are:
or
My strong preference is for #1. I support a small-ish group of fairly non-technical Mac-based users. The bundle has been an outstanding solution for years but unless it continues to move forward, I actually think I can’t keep them on Syncthing which is lousy because there is no other comparable alternative. I imagine I’m not alone in this but there’s less outcry on the forum than I would have expected.
While I was happy with the bundle at v1, I have instances at v2 - for performance, security and features.
I cannot currently get updates for v2 from the bundle version for macOS.
That just makes me nervous.
Maybe I should simply drop the convenience of the bundle and switch to the basic version from MacPorts to get the latest updates.
But I love to see the Application, and have it sitting in the menu bar, be able to start and stop it, having it start at login without needing a service.
You can use the macos bundle/integration with a separate syncthing binary that’s up-to-date/auto-updating, it’s just not fully supported (“power-users only”): GitHub - syncthing/syncthing-macos: Official frugal and native macOS Syncthing application bundle
Regarding releases though what matters is what’s available officially and easily installable on the release page for download. I recently introduced somebody to syncthing which is a typical “pc should just work and get out of my way” type of person, where installing a dmg is fine but jumping through such (admittedly minor) hoops not really. I decided to let them install the 2.0.3 as it’s imo still better than 1.x for a new install, but also doesn’t feel good to miss all the improvements/fixes since.
Looks like someone may need to step up and pull-request the required updates on syncthing-macos. I still think the number of type of users makes it reasonable to just auto-upgrade 1.30.0 to 2.0.x at this point, so we just need a new release of the bundle on the same appcast (sparkle update bundle) as the previous one.
That could be as simple as merging v2 into main, running update-release to pick up the latest Syncthing, and push to release. I haven’t fully investigated.
Now that’s an interesting information!
I will try to use the version from McPorts, it is at 2.0.12
Yes, it worked with /opt/local/bin/syncthing 
You are my saviour!
Hi all, this is getting a heated discussion which I appreciate as syncthing-macos main-author. I have created a new topic (mostly for myself to have it public) and is located here: https://forum.syncthing.net/t/syncthing-for-macos-the-road-to-v2-official-application
If I forgot about something, feel free to comment in the other topic. Sorry for the delays, i try to catch up one life. Syncthing is still my main project I work on in my reduced spare time unfortunatly.
Greetings from Holland/EU
See also new topic which I created as the main author for the official Syncthing for macOS bundle. https://forum.syncthing.net/t/syncthing-for-macos-the-road-to-v2-official-application
