syncthing wont sync. kind of....defeats the purpose of a sync program when it WONT sync...

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I was having issues with this awhile ago. I tried M$ onedrive to see if it would work better…it didnt.

now I am trying to get syncthing setup and syncing again, and again I have a folder it absolutely WILL NOT SYNC.

in my previous attempt, it was suggested to delete a file to reset the database…but I could not figure out where it was, and still cant figure out where it is, so I cant even try that.

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this whole thing makes me…increadibly irate. it literally has one job, syncing files, and it wont do it. all i need is a “I dont care just force sync everyhing” or SOMETHING because nothing I have tried gets it to sync

I removed the folder from syncthing. deleted everything in the folder, copied it DIRECTLY from one of the other systems, and then readded it…and it does the same thing. it says 72 files are out of sync and absolutely refuses to do anything about it

how can i get it to sync the damn folder?

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on other one

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first it complained that the folder didnt exist, so i created it…now it wont sync because its trying to create a folder that already exists…but it already exists…why is trying to create it…

I gave everything a full reboot and…no change

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and the same error trying to set of those folders on the first system…

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I dont see how anyone would be using this for syncing if its always out of sync, so i must be doing some ind of order of operations wrong or…something, but all i see is random stuff doesnt work.

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ok, well. i got the appdata files to sync. changed the service user to system and it worked. changed it again to my user so its at least not using system, since it complains about it.

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All of that looks and sounds like permission problems – the account running Syncthing not being allowed to read/write/create files where needed.

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it’s 2 issues, i think. i fixed the one clearly about permissions ’ the one folder that is out of sync was not affected by changing the permissions. it says 72 files are out of sync but lists no files out of sync. it feels like its using old data somehow, or else something is stuck, but i cant figure out what, since it lists no files.

also, i deleted that and synced it 100% fresh and it says the exact same thing. it WILL NOT sync that folder no matter what I try even when the files are 100% the same files, it STILL says 72 files are out of date

if it told me WHICH files it thinks are out of sync I might be able to do…something, but it doesnt, and it no longer even TRIES to do anything with that folder. no errors, no sync attempts, no change to the number of files it says are out of sync. it just WONT sync it.

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I changed the owner for the whole folder. no difference. still wont sync.

I also went to each instance of the folder on the 4 systems and deleted files that are on the ignore list…also no difference, though thats expected.

its so frustrating that it just wont do anything

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After reviewing all of your screenshots, I didn’t see anything that required running Syncthing as a service user, so stick with your original approach of running Syncthing as Windows user shdt1s.

If you don’t mind starting over with a clean slate…

  1. Uninstall Syncthing.
  2. Reboot.
  3. Make sure Syncthing is really not running anymore.
  4. Use Sysinternals’ AccessEnum utility to verify the permissions on every folder and file you want to sync. Confirm that user shdt1s has permissions to read/write/create everything of interest.
  5. Download and launch Syncthing as user shdt1s.
  6. Configure Syncthing.

First-time Syncthing user tips:

  • Temporarily avoid the many Syncthing wrappers, installers, etc. because it just adds other variables during your first time around. Go with the stock official Syncthing package: Windows 64-bit v1.29.2. Download. Unzip. Launch.
  • Consider how to auto-start Syncthing after successfully syncing, not before. With only a manual launch, it avoids potentially inadvertently having multiple installations conflicting with each other.

The problem is that Windows file security can be a tangled mess after layering changes upon changes.

Sometimes it’s helpful to transfer files and folders to a FAT32 or exFAT formatted volume to “wash” it of all NTFS security bits, then transfer the files back while logged on as the user who requires full control of them.

According to one of your screenshots, with less than 400MB of files, it’d be way faster than checking, rechecking and updating permissions piecemeal.

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sigh. this is already after synctrazor was uninstalled awhile ago due it having this problem. it very much seems like this persisted through an uninstall. there are no changes. i copied this manually from one of the other machines when it didnt want to sync. everything should already be identical, and should ALL have the same permissions as it was all copied in one go, so that any sub files would have different permissions seems…unlikely

i would expect it to list a list of files it cant sync (access denied, canot change permissions, etc)

i also always check the box to ignore permissions, so it shouldnt be changing them.

I also already changed the owner of the whole folder

I used “syncthing-windows-setup” which is listed on the syncthing page. I used to use synctrayzor but that appears to be abandonded. last time I really was playing with this you had to use external, I think it was just distibuted as binaries…

I will try nuking it all and installing what you linked…

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It’s for that very reason why I think starting with the base Syncthing is the best choice for first time users. The more layers of software there are the more complicated it becomes. As the saying goes – first learn to walk, then learn to run.

The fact that there is so much written and software utilities for NTFS permissions says a lot, e.g.:

In Windows with NTFS, there can be layers upon layers of permissions.

Syncthing’s runtime log (Actions → Logs) has the info you’re looking for (https://docs.syncthing.net/users/faq.html#where-are-the-syncthing-logs).

Syncthing’s debugging facilities offers additional options for increasing the level of details.

Syncthing’s ignore permissions setting is so that a device ignores permissions sent by a peer. Local permissions are still governed by whatever is enforced by the operating system – i.e. a file that’s owned by user “Jack” on device “jackspc” won’t be owned by user “Jack” on “jillspc”, ownership will change to “Jill”.

The “owner” of a folder on a computer doesn’t have the same meaning as what we generally think of as “owning” something…

On a computer, the owner of a folder isn’t guaranteed to have full control over the folder and its contents – it is especially the case in Windows with NTFS.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using Syncthing Windows Setup. It just depends on the use case. I think it’s great for two types of users:

  • Basic users who just want to install Syncthing without thinking about how to set up auto-start.
  • Advanced users with special requirements who fully understand Windows services and permissions.

Based on what you’ve shared so far, I think you’re somewhere in between the two extremes.

At more than 10 pages, the installation guide for Syncthing Windows Setup on its GitHub project page ranks as one of most thorough that I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, it’s very likely that most users skip right past it and head straight for the downloads page.

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I am a very advanced user but I have increadibly low patience with this program…and, naieve me, I beleived the pages that say its easy to use, because that has not been my experience. it’s easy to install, and its great when it works, but when it breaks it just stays broken.

I’ve uninstalled it on the 1/4 systems where it was permanetly fubar (the other 3 are working just fine), and I’ll work through what I can find for a guide, since I can’t just use it.

sadly, it’s STILL better than onedrive…

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OK. i purged most of the directories on that device that were to be synced, removed the device from everything else, uninstalled the windows syncthing, searched for and deleted ANYthing that was related to syncthing from C, ran it from bare from the download…and it STILL showed a device, which indicated to me that the database still existed somewhere…

i found the --paths option, ran THAT, then killed syncthing, ensured all those paths were deleted, started it again…and everything just works.

this leads me to think that some part of the old install from when it wasnt working before was not removed whenever it was that I rage-uninstalled it previously, or however that went ( probably at least 2 years ago)

because I know windows file permissions are a PITA, when I say " I changed the owner" I mean I set the owner to what it needs to be AND gave it “full control”. that user had full access to do anything in the folder it was refusing to sync.

thank you for your responses. they got me thinking rather than just “Seeing red”, because I was not rational about it and, while I knew that, I couldn’t get past it.

do you have a recomendation for the autostart side? I dont really like futzing about with windows’ horrible “on start” mess and would rather just have a service. I particularly dont want syncthing to rely on user login. I would rather it run more as a daemon with the OS.

that was part of why Id chosen the syncthing-windows-setup. but I do also like having a tray icon (synctrazor was basically the only option when I first was using syncthing)

from what Iam seeing, it appears that syncthing stores all its binaries separately from its config? if so, i should be able to just install one of the options, with its own syncthing, and the config will be the same?

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Kinda funny to read the whole thing and see it come full circle.

That when you just installed the application it just worked.

Reread all the ranting you wrote. It’s kinda entertaining.

Re auto starting I would suggest the windows task scheduler. You can schedule jobs to run on startup and independent of user login. Dont want to give specific directions so I don’t become the subject of a future rant. But I think there are multiple walkthroughs of how to set such auto start things up. And you’re an advanced user. So should be easy for you.

Glad you got it working.

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Please check https://docs.syncthing.net/users/autostart and specifically https://docs.syncthing.net/users/autostart.html#autostart-windows-taskschd for how to start Syncthing automatically at system startup.

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generally, you, as an individual, would not be part of a rant. a specific action or idea could. there would have to be reason to believe you maliciously recomended something you know would be problematic or similar, because otherwise Hanlon’s Razor would apply.

I wanted it to be humorous and absurd, because that’s part of how I get that out. i dont usually get so irational so when I do I don’t really know how to cope well with it. I also assumed I must be doing SOMETHING wrong but couldn’t see it. aparently, what I was doing wrong was using the shortcuts, so I wont make that mistake again, even though I loathe the windows task scheduler and services system…

I don’t believe I have ever run into a program that I had such issues with before. (well, other than windows itself…but that’s a whole lecture series of rants)

the “Non-Sucking Service Manager” made me laugh though.

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Haha. All good. It is a funny read-back though. You have to admit.

Seriously glad all is well.

FYI I followed the instructions for the task scheduler on 5 windows machines and it works flawlessly for 2-3 years now.

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