Safest way to move a synced folder to a external drive?

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Hi! I synced a folder on my home directory, now I’m running out of low disk space. I’m willing to move the synced folder to a bigger drive (external one). Now the question is, how to do it safely? I do not want to mess the other machines copy :smiley: I will appreciate i you guide me step by step cause I’m new on syncthing. Thanks!!!

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The safe way is simple:

  1. Make sure the folder is up to date with the remote.
  2. Remove the existing folder (write down the folder ID).
  3. Copy the folder to the external drive (e.g. using rsync).
  4. Add a folder with the same folder ID as you removed before.
  5. Wait for scanning and initial sync (exchanging and comparing metadata to be sure the contents are the same as on remote) to finish.
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I would dare being a bit bolder, this is how I did move folders on my own server:

  1. Make sure the folder is up to date with the remote. (probably not strictly necessary)
  2. Stop Syncthing (Pausing the folder could be enough)
  3. Copy the folder to the external drive (e.g. using rsync or equivalent).
  4. Edit the path in syncthing config file (config.xml)
  5. Restart syncthing
  6. Wait for scanning and initial sync (exchanging and comparing metadata to be sure the contents are the same as on remote) to finish.
  7. if everything works ok, delete the original folder

I don’t think the drive being external has any impact on syncthing unless presence is unreliable.

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Thank you @mneiger! it all was fairly good. rsync did it fast and easy with no errors. I left syncthing launching at startup as usual and the drive plugged in. The only error showed by st is something about permissions on the synced folder but solved restarting the daemon. Thanks again

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