Sync files between devices with Syncthing

Android App

The basic settings for the Syncthing Android app [4] make a folder available in which the camera function of a smartphone or tablet can place photos (Figure 8). It also allows connection to other directories. The configuration is performed similarly to the PC version.

Figure 8: The basic settings in the Syncthing Android app automatically synchronize the photograph album on the smartphone with the registered devices.

Additionally, you should specify whether synchronization can proceed via WiFi or only via a cable connection. The developers still need to do some work on the energy administration of the app. When it ran continuously during testing, the smartphone used became relatively warm, and the energy consumption rose significantly. Thus, it is a good idea to set the daemon to run in the background and start Syncthing only when the app is needed.

Small Idiosyncracies

The open source software Syncthing is constantly under development. Once a week on Sunday, updates for the various platforms get released. In our series of tests of Version 0.11.21, synchronization worked perfectly.

The daemon has to be restarted after each modification to the configuration, and it takes up to one minute before all of the devices have been located again. This, however, is because of the P2P concept. If the web interface again warns of a restart after modifying the configuration, you should close the application and restart it. The data rate for synchronization is not exactly overwhelming on the Rasp Pi 2. The Syncthing developers should try to make this much better. For example, a program like BitTorrent Sync shows much better results. For now, however, it is probably not a good idea to try and use Syncthing on a first-generation Raspberry Pi.

The start instructions are helpful. They address installation and much more [5]. Additionally, the project offers additional documentation [6] and an extensive FAQ [7] as well as explanations about the network settings that need to be made on the router and the firewall [8].