this post was submitted on 30 May 2026

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Where did the dust settle on Syncthing Fork? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 2 hours ago by psycotica0@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey folks! I know a while back there was a kerfuffle because syncthing-fork for Android went dark, and then a new person showed up and claimed everything was cool and they'd been privately given the keys or something, and people were concerned. I pinned my fdroid version to the at-that-time-current release until we got clarity.

Well, it's been a while and I just noticed I'm still on that old release. So... how'd it turn out? Do we like the new person yet? Is there a promising fork y'all are using? Or is the project dead? I'm sure I could just go look at the repo, but I'm also sure the repo would tell me "yeah, we're all cool" no matter what, so I'm curious what the community feelings are. Have there even been any useful new releases since then?

Thanks!

top 11 comments

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[–] IanTwenty@piefed.social 12 points 50 minutes ago (1 children)

F-droid themselves gave an update in April:

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/04/03/twif.html

If you’ve been holding off updating Syncthing-Fork we have two pieces of news for you. First, the original dev continues to collaborate still, we know this was a pain point back then. Second, we’ve just added BasicSync, A simple app for running Syncthing, which just controls Syncthing’s running behaviour as hands off as possible, while the original service hums in the background.

So it seems since the handover things have settled but there is also a new fork which takes a more bare-bones approach.

[–] passenger@sopuli.xyz 1 points 41 minutes ago

This should be top comment

[–] essell@lemmy.world 17 points 2 hours ago

I'm currently running the latest version from F-droid, it's doing what it should do. No red flags I can see.

I know the current owner as much as the previous one so no difference for me.

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 1 points 55 minutes ago

Yeah, I kinda held on to the old version for a while too TBH, syncthing-fork had a problem where I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it, so I'd gone back to syncthing, then with all the kerfuffle, I just stayed there.

Some time earlier this year I tentatively upgraded 1 phone and a tablet (it's used as slideshow screensaver...) and it all seems to work ok.

The GUI isn't quite as good as the native webUI, but it's still accessible, so all's good.

There was a change in the syncthing "DB" a while ago, so it might take a while to rescan things if you have a lot of small files, but feel confident to change.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 2 points 1 hour ago

New one seems fine to me, haven't had any issues with it, haven't been privy to any malicious behavior or past actions that the developers might have done, so personally I find it pretty trustworthy.

[–] krcr@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

I ended up installing Syncthing using Termux following these instructions: https://www.stephenjianu.com/syncthing-android/

[+] snowydroopz@lemmy.world -6 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (3 children)

I use Localsend, to me it feels like what Syncthing wishes it was on some level, Localsend is limited to only sending messages to devices using the same network, however, on pure simplicity, Localsend is the goat. Maybe I'm just too stupid for Syncthing, I watched the tutorial and all, it just seemed way to overcomplicated to me on certain aspects, even when it worked it felt like I did something wrong, it was never as simple as "pick file, send file". Localsend is my go-to nowadays and does all i needed from Syncthing 10x as fast and with a much better UI.

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 53 minutes ago)

Different use cases entirely.

Localsend is like air drop on your local network.

Syncthing automatically keeps a chosen folder of files in sync on multiple devices across networks.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 8 points 1 hour ago

Localsend doesn't automatically sync files between devices does it? Afaik you can only send files as a manual thing you have to do for every file. They're intended for different things.

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

it was never as simple as “pick file, send file”.

Not really what Syncthing's for. Localsend is definitely much better suited for that. (though there is the option on the unofficial Syncthing Android app to use the Android share feature to "save to Syncthing", then pick which folder you want Syncthing to save it to before syncing it to whatever devices that folder is synced with, though again, not really made for that as a core feature, Localsend is better for that)

Syncthing is more for if you just want a folder on one device to be replicated to another device. For example, my Camera folder on my phone syncs to my PC so I always have a second copy of all my photos by default.

[–] snowydroopz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I see, that would be really helpful, and I did know that as the name suggest SYNCthing was obv for syncing, but, I just couldnt get it to work properly on my zorin and samsung together, whether the folder would never be created in the directory i inputed and so on, so as I last ditch I was like "wth, may as well use it to save stuff" then I found local send, the ease of it almost makes it as easy as syncing...almost