Where are synced files saved on Synology disks?

As a newbie (let’s say: non-command line level knowledge) I have managed to set up Syncthing and got it working on 2 synology disks up to the situation where 2 directories say that they are ‘up to date’ on both sides and of course that the remote device is ‘connected’. Great. I was proud to achieve that.

Now I expect these indicated directories to sync. Maybe they do, but I can find them on the ‘other side’ at all. I have both tried ‘master’ and ‘normal’ as directory settings, but that doesn’t seem to make any difference. I know it must be something obvious…just I don’t see it yet and it’s not described in the documentation, so I need a pointer from somebody.

Thanks for your time!

The path is displayed in the UI I think, definately visible in the edit dialog.

Hi Audrius,

Thanks for your fast reply. I can see the file location of the source file indeed, but how do I find the synced file ‘on the other side’?

Regards, Jeroen

The location of the folder is visible in the UI on both sides.

Hi Audrius,

I really appreciate your help. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help me further yet.

I’ll try to be more specific:

On both sides, I see a path for each shared folder. That is the local path. Each folder also shows status ‘up to date’ and that it is shared with the other synology disk (shared with X).

Yet, if I check ‘the other side’ there is no file to be found that is in the shared folder. Not anywhere.

Is there a default location where Syncthing saves the files it syncs? How can I find out where they are, so I can actually access the files that are synced?

Thanks a lot!

I suggest you follow the getting started guide step by step from the beginning. Make sure that folder IDs match on both sides, the folder is shared with the other device on both sides, and the devices actually have added one another.

I know: RTFM, but believe me I did several times and carefully followed all steps. The devices have added each other, show nice ‘up to date’ messages in green, just as all folders do.

I think the issue is different. All folders have a path that starts with /usr/local/syncthing/var/. Initially, I didn’t do that and just provided the path that I see in my Synology (like: /volume1/homes/Admin/testfolder), but that resulted in the folder getting the status ‘stopped’ and error messages. So I tried this (for me) very cryptic message in the UI: "The tilde character (~) can be used as a shortcut for /usr/local/syncthing/var/." And indeed, when I add that before the path “/volume1/homes/Admin/testfolder”, resulting in a total path of “/usr/local/syncthing/var/volume1/homes/Admin/testfolder” then the folder status turns green and shows ‘up to date’, with a periodic change to ‘scanning’. Also, on the ‘other side’, they show up with a request to be shared. Great!

That all seems good, except for one thing: all folders say: " Global/local state 0 items" and if I search for any filename of folder name on the synced side machine, they are clearly not present. So, I do think there’s something wrong with the folder paths, and not with the rest of my set up.

Again, I appreciate your patience!

The folder as defined by the path shown is simply empty, on both sides.

I’d say you forgot to add permissions to Syncthing user for that share folder I’d suggest to create new share folder say “test” on /volume1/test, give it full access rw, do the same on both syno machines. That should work. After that you can play with the user rights. From your configure above I’d doubt Syncthing has rights to your Admin home folder

Btw can’t see this folder via synology web interface, only if you ssh into the box.

Hi Bedosk,

Thanks, that’s the type of suggestions I was looking for. Great, I tried that right away. I’m still not there, but I think we’re a lot closer to the solution now.

I created a folder SynoSyncTest (with RW permissions for all users) with 1 file in it in the root of the Syno box. The path is /volume1/SynoSyncTest. Then I added the folder to Syncthing, but that only worked (as in: it shows as “up to date”) if I specify the path as “/usr/local/syncthing/var/volume1/SynoSyncTest” (this is what I did for all other folders as well before). But then it shows in local state that it has 0 files, so I assume this can’t be the folder I created in the root and it has, as Audrius Butkevicius suggested 0 files. Maybe there even is a newly created folder that I cannot see other than with SSH, as you suggest in your other post. So technically Syncthing might work correctly, but I don’t seem to be able to add the correct path when I create a folder. Yup, sounds like a newbie…but the docs are not really helpful here either…

If I just use “/volume1/SynoSyncTest” to create a folder in Syncthing (what I actually think the path is of the folder with 1 file) it is shown as “stopped” and I get 3 error messages:

2016-08-03 13:42:16: Loading ignores: open /volume1/SynoSyncTest/.stignore: permission denied

2016-08-03 13:42:16: Creating folder marker: open /volume1/SynoSyncTest/.stfolder: permission denied

2016-08-03 13:42:16: Stopping folder “vpyau-whgjq” - folder marker missing

From this, I assume that I still didn’t tackle the permissions thing correctly. So, I went back into the syno box and checked all boxes in the permissions tab of shared folders with RW. I discovered a ‘sub tab’ local groups, that shows ‘sc-syncthing’ as a user, and I also checked the RW box for that group (and while I was at it, for any other group as well, just to see if that would work)… but still: Syncthing indicates an error, has the status ‘stopped’ (displayed in red) and it shows error: folder marker missing.

Are we getting any closer with this? Somebody can speak the words of redemption that solves this frustrating little mystery?

/usr/local/syncthing/var/volume1/SynoSyncTest is not the same as /volume1/SynoSyncTest

Add the folder to Syncthing as /volume1/SynoSyncTest/ And check the permissions

Again - you can’t access /usr/local/ from synology web-interface so don’t use it as a path.

Also…you can check the members of the sc-Syncthing group. For start add Syncthing and Admin user and see if that helps.

Bedosk: you’re the hero!

The last step did the trick. So easy (it always is in hindsight): add permissions to the user group sc-Syncthing instead of ‘just’ to the folders in synology.

Flowers and beers to you!

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