syncthing app consumption

Support Android
1

Hello,

I started using syncthing since yesterday.

I have one folder synchronized.

Folder content don’t move today and I discover that syncthing is top app that use battery: 319mah between 3:00am and 7:00am To compare in the same interval other app use between 20 and 6 mah. (Google play service, android system, phone, etc…) Phone is not used (I slept:-) )

Why syncthing use so much battery whereas the is nothing to synchronize? (Option is set to detect modification)

Is this option so much time consuming ? Pooling is done on folders ? It is not using ‘interrupt mode’?

Syncthing use battery during night, day… (Not only this night)

2

This one shouldn’t be the main factor here, although no-one has probably done any specific benchmarking with Syncthing regarding how much exactly of an impact on battery it’s got. Normally, the file watcher should be more battery-friendly than periodic scanning (unless you set the latter to a high value, but then changes will end up being detected late). What value is your periodic scanner set to actually? The setting is per folder, and if it’s the default of 3600, then I’d suggest to increase it, e.g. to 86400 (i.e. once per day).

How many devices have you got connected? For me, the main factor when it comes to battery drain is the fact that Syncthing needs to keep all connections alive, and with many devices this may require a lot of work, especially if those aren’t static but rather keep disconnecting and reconnecting often (which is normal with mobile devices, e.g. laptops, tablets, phones, etc.). I’ve got many devices, but when it comes to Syncthing on Android, I only connect it with a few important ones.

Also, is the phone connected and synchronised through Wi-Fi or mobile data?

3

Thanks.

For my test is have choosen the data connection. I don’t find the configuration of the period of check because I have configured the check everytime a modif is done (I thought that there is no periodic check in this case).

About periodic check, is it a check only on my phone to detect change or is it a check also on Nas to detect if there is new stuff to download ? If yes, 4g connection will be up very often…

I choose 4g connection instead of wifi because my wifi seems to be shut of by android when my screen is off. I thought it was not a big deal because for me, when there is no change on folder on both side, there is no connection, no consomption (or very small)

4

There is still a periodic scan even with the file watcher enabled, but it’s set to 1 hour instead of 1 minute by default. I personally like to set it to 1 day. You will be able to find all the settings if you use the Web GUI instead of the app interface. You can access the Web GUI from the left slide-out menu. It uses the same interface as the desktop version, just scaled down to small screens.

The check is done only on the phone. Syncthing, however, still tries to always maintain the connection regardless of whether there’re any changes or not (or even when there’re no folders shared between the two devices). This may have impact on the battery drain.

I’d suggest to try with Wi-Fi and see whether there’s any difference. You should normally be able to set Wi-Fi to stay always on even when screen is off in the Android settings. Wi-Fi is usually more battery friendly than mobile data (unless the connection is very weak or unstable).

5

Thanks. There is no such setting in miui 13 for my phone nor in android 12.

I can configure data behavior when phone is off. But not the wifi. To be honest I’m note sure it is cut off but this is the behavior of another synchro app that use wifi that gives me the indication. I have the feeling I’m not the only user of miui that have this problem with wifi.

Is it needed to configure android to not optimize syncthing app for battery saving ? (I did this)

With luck maybe android can optimize syncthing of there is no synchro (then no more connection but it is not a problem) and maybe by luck android don’t optimize syncthing in background if there is a synchronization?

6

Without it, Syncthing will not be able to run in background (or, to be specific, when Android enters doze mode, which happens after some time when the device is idle), so Syncthing may miss any file changes that happen during that time. The periodic scanner will still pick up those later though. The results may vary, so you may want to experiment with the setting.

7

Thanks. Just to be sure, if there is modification on the Nas, and if the connection is possible between the phone and the Nas, will it trigger the synchronization between Nas and phone ? Or the only way to start a synchronization is the manual start and the periodic check (if there is modif on the phone folders)

8

All changes done on the NAS will be pushed to the phone immediately as long there is a connection between the two. The folder settings on the phone regarding file watching and scanning don’t matter in this case.

9

Thanks for details.

In fact there is two usecase

small sync (new photo taken during the day) that are never a problem even with my previous synology drive app.

Big synchro (the first one, 2000 files or after holidays when a lot of photo video need to be sync) and this synchro was a problem with synology drive because the synchro was cut off during the dozen mode of the phone even if app is not optimized (because of wifi interruption I guess).

I will try if wifi connection is still a problem for this app during the lock screen state.

10

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