Sync on Android without app open?

I would like syncthing on Android to sync files whenever the phone is on wifi, without having to open the application. Is this possible?

Presently, sync only happens when the app is open in the foreground, or when it is one of the apps visible in the application switcher (the ||| button).

I have set “run on wifi” and “start service automatically on boot.” I have unset “respect android battery saving setting.” I would have thought that the “service on boot” option would do what I want, but it seems not.

I tried to add syncthing to the “never sleep” apps list in system settings, in case app sleep was causing a problem. However, syncthing is not present in the list of apps available to add to the exclude list.

I am using syncthing 1.23.0 installed from play store, samsung xcover pro phone, android 13. My connected devices are macOS and linux computers and they behave fine among themselves.

Please keep in mind that this option requires location services to be enabled in Android settings. Otherwise, Syncthing won’t be able to know that you’re connected to Wi-Fi (and thus, it won’t run).

With this enabled, Syncthing should indeed start and keep running in the background.

What do you mean exactly? Have you excluded the app from battery optimisation in the Android settings?

You may want to try, at least for testing purposes, to disable the Samsung’s battery saving features altogether. Also, please check https://dontkillmyapp.com.

Thank you for the explanation, the problem was location services. I generally keep android location services turned off. I’ve learned that it is required not only to get the name of the wifi network, but to detect the presence of wifi at all.

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