Hey, are there any optimizations I can do with Syncthing to have it work better with Dropbox?
I am syncing my ~/Dropbox folder with ~65k files in it on Linux. I notice that if Syncthing scans the folder at the same time as Dropbox’s client does, eg upon startup, they both eat 100% IO for several hours.
If I only run one (either ST or Dropbox), the scanning typically completes within 5 minutes (mentioning this so it’s not just “you have a lot of files so high IO is normal when scanning”) I am also using normal Syncthing (with no iowatch mods), with it scanning just once every 24 hours, if this matters. I also make sure that things like .dropbox.cache is stignored.
PS: it could also be a bug with Dropbox’s client; their client churns the disk for a long time after Syncthing does a scan, even if it’s been running a long time. Example: I start the computer with just Dropbox, Dropbox is done scanning, Syncthing does scan, and then Dropbox starts to churn a bit afterwards. So it’s a bit confusing for me, so if anyone has some insight regarding this, or if Dropbox is just pretty bad. Thanks!
To me it seems like Dropbox detect some syncthing work and start some checks on the folder after it, thus if syncthing scans when Dropbox is scanning the two things sum up so Dropbox either scan and does the checks after each Syncthing access… The only thing I don’t understand is what Dropbox is doing and how it detects Syncthing activity
If Syncthing is not just scanning but receiving files, the problem is likely because of temporary files. Syncthing writes incoming files to such temp-files and renames then once completed. Dropbox might pick them up and then later remove them. So if dropbox has any way to ignore files, ignoring Syncthing’s temp files would probably be a good idea.
There are valid cases for using both. Ideally you would exclude each program’s temp files from the other; I don’t know what Dropbox’ temp files are called, and I don’t think you can do that kind of exclusion in Dropbox.
Syncthing’s scan is entirely “passive” and shouldn’t interfere with Dropbox though. And presumably vice versa.
I am also using normal Syncthing (with no iowatch mods), with it scanning just once every 24 hours, if this matters. I also make sure that things like