Syncing 4 devices where 1 folder needs to sync 3-ways

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1

Title might be confusing, not sure how to succinctly describe it :slight_smile:

I have:

  • Desktop (Linux)
  • Laptop (Chromebook)
  • Phone (Android)
  • Raspberry Pi, acting as a homelab/server

What I want is to sync all files from my 3 devices (Desktop, Laptop & Phone) to my Raspberry. So far, no problem. I also sync the files from my phone and laptop to my desktop (into a separate folder). So basically, I have this:

  • Desktop:home/ ↔ Raspberry:desktop/
  • Desktop:phone/ ↔ Raspberry:phone/ ↔ Phone:home/
  • Desktop:laptop/ ↔ Raspberry:laptop/ ↔ laptop:home/

The problem I am having figuring out is that I have a few apps on all devices that need to sync their folders, that are in different locations but “nested” inside folders already synced.

I read that syncing twice is bad, but is it possible to do e.g.

  • Desktop:home/Documents ↔ Raspberry:desktop/Documents
  • Phone:home/Documents/ ↔ Raspberry:phone/Documents
  • Phone:home/Documents/Notes ↔ Raspberry:desktop/Documents/Notes
  • Laptop:home/Notes ↔ Raspberry:desktop/Documents/Notes

I will never use 2 devices at once. If not, what would be a better solution? (I was thinking of bind mounts on the Raspberry, but I am not well versed in them.

2

A safe solution would be to either separate the folders completely by not nesting them at all and then only share them between the relevant devices, or if you do need to keep the nested structure, to ignore the nested folder in the parent folder on all devices, and then share either both of them or just the parent or the nested one depending on your needs. The latter requires quite a lot of micro-management though.

I would personally just try to keep everything separated. I did use nested folders in the past, and it always ended up in a big mess.

1 Like
3

Okay, thanks for the heads up about the mess. It’s not ideal, but I think I can separated things.