# "Too many symbolic links" but there aren't

**URL:** https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [July 10, 2026, 10:53am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910 "2026-07-10T10:53:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![chrisisbd](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/chrisisbd/32/4307_2.png) [@chrisisbd](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/chrisisbd)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2026, 10:53am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910/1 "2026-07-10T10:53:35Z")

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I’m getting the following errors when running Syncthing (v2.1.2) on a Debian 13 system:-

```plaintext
2026-07-10 11:39:19: Failed to load ignores (error="open /home/chris/.share/.stignore: too many levels of symbolic links" log.pkg=model)

2026-07-10 11:39:19: Failed initial scan (error="loading ignores: open /home/chris/.share/.stignore: too many levels of symbolic links" folder.label=share folder.id=js5va-zt99v folder.type=sendreceive log.pkg=model)

```

But there’s only one level of symbolic link:-

```plaintext
chris@q957$ cd /home/chris/.share
/home/chris/.share
chris@q957$ ls -l .stignore stignore
lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 8 Jul 10 11:37 .stignore -> stignore
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris chris 12 Jul 10 11:31 stignore
chris@q957$ 

```

So what’s going on? Surely .stignore can be a symbolic link can’t it? I’m sure I’ve seen this as a workaround for .stignore not being synchronized.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/calmh/32/15311_2.png) [@calmh](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/calmh)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2026, 12:30am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910/2 "2026-07-11T00:30:32Z")

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This is a side effect of a previous security fix. It should probably be fixed. Please feel free to file it on GitHub.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![chrisisbd](https://forum.syncthing.net/user_avatar/forum.syncthing.net/chrisisbd/32/4307_2.png) [@chrisisbd](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/chrisisbd)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2026, 8:18am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910/3 "2026-07-11T08:18:50Z")

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Ah, thank you! So, for a change it’s not my fault. 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://forum-uploads.syncthingcdn.net/original/2X/0/0b50e0a202b22ae6a67190759e8c868805b8ed9f.png) [@system](https://forum.syncthing.net/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 8:19am UTC](https://forum.syncthing.net/t/too-many-symbolic-links-but-there-arent/26910/4 "2026-08-10T08:19:02Z")

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