… without using any variation of Syncthing.
My phone is usually on the same Wifi network as my PC, so some sort of auto-syncing via wifi would be great. Like how Immich syncs from the phone to my server, in an almost totally hands-off way.
What are the best non-Syncthing FOSS phone and PC file sync options these days?
Thanks!
ETA: Sorry, sorry, I should have explained: I no longer trust any variant of Syncthing. The wild chain of events last year left me completely questioning what was going on with that code base. I struggle with trust issues for FOSS software every so often and once I feel things have gone awry, I can’t go back again. Plus, I really want to know about what’s new and interesting right now.
Link to one conversation about Syncthing’s events, if you are out of the loop:
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/@surfhosting/115674236291033568
i put stuff on a nextcloud (a paid hosting) and sync via that eg my Joplin data etc. I don’t use Syncthing. I have nothing against Syncthing, I have just not needed it.
I also occasionally use LocalSend to transfer one off files, but KDE connect has plenty of options in that respect as well.
Syncthing is almost always the best option. You’ll have to explain what about it is unacceptable if you want the best alternative.
I’ve used SyncThing for over a year from Graphene to, well, any computer I have. But I’ve never been able to work out: is it possible to set ST so that it doesn’t take up space on a device, like how cloud storage platforms do?
Not really.
Resilio has a Selective Sync feature, where it keeps an index at each client, and you select which files to sync in the moment. Works very well, I use it to access (mostly) all my media files (but actually any file on my NAS).
I don’t replace Syncthing with it because it’s very memory intense (keeps the index in ram) and notably harder on battery than Syncthing.
But it works very well - it could replace Syncthing if you wanted.
No. For that you probably want some kind of cloud drive client like Nextcloud. Seems like it supports that scenario, but I’ve never used it and their Android app docs link is broken.
Can’t mount networked filesystem’s in android, but you can use a file browser app to emulate the same thing.
@djdarren @frongt That’s not how SyncThing is designed. It’s intended to be a full mirror.
I kind of emulate what you’re talking about with restic’s mount command. It’s a lot less intuitive than what you’d get from a cloud storage platform, but it’s Good Enough For Me. If you want to match cloud storage, you probably want nextcloud or seafile or something.
Yeah, I figured as much. I do have Nextcloud on my server, and probably should get around to shifting most of what’s in my SyncThing over to it.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters NAS Network-Attached Storage SFTP Secure File Transfer Protocol for encrypted file transfer, over SSH SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access
2 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 6 acronyms.
[Thread #272 for this comm, first seen 2nd May 2026, 20:40] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
I’ll give a dumb idea, maybe KDE Connect and an rsync cron lol
Ohwow, did not know it could do that. Been using KDE Connect for years and yes, this works.
Thanks - that’s it for me. ^^^ This idea wins, y’all.
amazing lol
what’s the problem with syncthing?
I am assuming this is referring to the recent drama around syncthing-fork, which made a lot of people question its safety.
But in the meantime another app called BasicSync jumped into that gap.
It’s a little wonky getting it set up at first, but once it’s going it’s fine.
Android file permissions are goofy.
The only problem I’ve has is when a file or folder name contained certain emoji. Some worked, some didn’t. No idea why. So I just renamed them and everything was fine.
I always have issues with syncthing. Either when I am changing devices which would be okay, but oftentimes i find out it didnt sync for a long time and i always have to open the app on the phone and web interface on the computer to start it up again. Not sure why… So I am in market for alternatives as well…
Check out Resilio.
I’ve used both for 10 years now, rarely have issues with either, and I sync (with Syncthing) hundreds of gigs between about 8 devices, with about 20 different sync jobs, every day.
You do have to configure ST exactly how you want it, and know what that means.
I’ve been able to move the config 3 times now as I’ve migrated systems - you stop the service, copy the config files (ensuring the new system has the same folder structure), then start it there. Not for the faint of heart.
I do think Resilio is a little more robust, but it’s much harder on memory/battery for mobile - so much so I don’t let it just run on my phone and only use it when I want to sync specific files over (using it’s Selective Sync feature).
What are your requirements the make Syncthing not acceptable? That will help us offer other solutions.
Two other tools you can use are FolderSync on Android - it just uses standard network protocols (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc), so it’s much harder on battery than Syncthing.
Resilio Sync is similar to Syncthing but works very differently. I use it along with Syncthing.
my solution for android file sync is always rsync with termux. i just have a shell script for my desired operation and have the shortcut on my home screen using termux widgets. it’s not automatic but i just run it periodically when i make some changes and want to sync.
Could use something like nextcloud as a ready made option, not the greatest for things where there’s frequent updates on large files though since it doesn’t send just partial updates. To some extent it depends on what your use case is exactly.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.chiller3.basicsync
There is a new fork of syncthing. It aims to be minimal with most of the heavy lifting done by the familiar web gui
I just looked into this. Am I right to guess that it still needs Syncthing on my PC to connect to?
Yes
I am currently looking into openCloud and also web dav. Disadvantage is that both are kinda like mounted drives on Android and not all apps can access that for some reason.
