Announcement by the creator: https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002
Unfortunately I don’t have good news on the state of the android app: I am retiring it. The last release on Github and F-Droid will happen with the December 2024 Syncthing version.
Reason is a combination of Google making Play publishing something between hard and impossible and no active maintenance. The app saw no significant development for a long time and without Play releases I do no longer see enough benefit and/or have enough motivation to keep up the ongoing maintenance an app requires even without doing much, if any, changes.
Thanks a lot to everyone who ever contributed to this app!
Literally set up a home Nas and syncthing last week.
What’s a good alternative for Android?
I am not the creator, funnily that is/was one of the Lemmy creators: Nutomic :)
I am a syncthing co-maintainer that kept the android app on life support since a while.I can only hope the company makes the iOS client (Möbius) decides they need syncthing to continue and decide to get behind it.
As I recall, they use Syncthing as a solution in their business, this would be a big-break for them.
It says “unlimited file sync is a $5 in-app unlock” so I’m guessing they can make money. Main problem is the apple developer fees that will eat the profit of the first 25 sales each year
I’ve always just used Folder Sync + an ssh server, if people are looking for alternatives.
Does anyone know why it was forked and the fork got all the improvements while the official app is in the exact same state of when it was launched years ago?
It was because all the proposals got rejected?
Because if he rejected all the improvements I don’t really understand why he’s saying “nobody wants to help development”
It’s all in the open, you can go dig around for reasons. As usual there wasn’t a single simple one. Neither was it some kind of complete fallout, we e.g. collaborated on translations and I have been in contact around various things with the one that forked.
Oh my goodness! Syncthing without Android leaves me screwed. My whole digital life revolves around it.
Mine too!
Oh don’t worry to much, mine too: If there wasn’t an alternative for syncthing on android, I might have kept it on lifesupport :)
This is sad. Google Play should never hold this weight the self hosted community. For Android users dedicated to open source software, F-Droid is the target.
I don’t think SyncThing users would have much issue with the app disappearing from Google. Doing away with Google is the goal.
The problem is not “Syncthing users” it is the others that we bring along with us.
I already have F-Droid on my phone, but the dozen others that I have promoted Syncthing to over the years do not. This is going to cause a bunch of problems.
This is much more important than what you portray here.
That and the shrinking ability to grant access to device storage. If that becomes an option only on rooted phones (which seems like the directly Google is heading) it will make the audience for such an app much smaller.
And yet Resilio can access a lot more than ST, even without root.
If google heads that way I’ll head somewhere else.
As much as I want to use F-Droid, my work blocks all third party app stores so it’s either have access to my work stuff on one phone (via profiles) or dual wield two phones.
I lack the patience to dual wield again. It’s very annoying.
Hoping it remains viable for a long time without updates. Syncing my KeePass database is really key for me. I need to fluidly add and read passwords from at least 3 devices.
With today’s BitWarden drama, I planned to use KeePass with SyncThing for like an hour before seeing this :(((
I use bitwarden. Are they not good anymore? Data Breach?
Here you go https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/1268531
I too use Bitwarden, self-hosted. What’s up with Bitwarden? I haven’t heard anything (other than some of the Keypass master race sometimes throwing dirt at it).
Desktop Bitwarden app is not open-source anymore.
Thanks. I guess it’s about time for me to start looking at being part of the master race crowd then. I appreciate the link.
They couldn’t take the heat in Github 🤣
Got any links to the bitwarden drama? I missed it.
Thanks for that. Looks like I’ll be keeping an eye out for replacements just in case.
Bitwarden’s last update made the iOS categorically worse and impacted the Pin unlock functionality on Linus desktop. Guess I’m migrating to Proton’s offering along with the rest of their suite. Hope they don’t go down the enshittification rabbit hole anytime soon.
That sucks. But I think this is specifically about their open source licensing.
Is webDAV not good enough for that? I use keepass via webDAV feature of the nextcloud (I know some think it is bloated) but I guess there are other lightweight webDAV solutions…
I’ve used both. NC android app doesn’t sync and one needs to host the entire platform. When using generic webDAV one still needs a dedicated sync solution.
I self host NC and still prefer SyncThing for keeping my KeePass database updated and fresh across devices.
I see, my app that I use for keepass has integrated webDAV sync where I can point it to a keepass file on the webDAV server (strongbox iOS) I just thought android keepass apps should have such feature as well.
The iOS app of NC is slow as well, and not good enough for using to sync keepass files, but the Linux app seems to be good enough.
And yea, just learned, that sync thing apparently works without a server but all P2P? That is 100% killer feature 😃👌🏻
IIRC Keepass2Android does have that feature.
This is one of the many things I use Syncthing for.
Oh No! This is terrible news. This IMHO is one of the most irreplaceable projects out there. I don’t know of another cross-platform local file syncing app that comes anywhere close to this. I hope that it can continue even if it’s not through the Play Store.
Google seems to be torpedoing open source developments with a number of decisions lately. Maybe they see F-Droid as a threat now that EU is making them open competition? Maybe they just don’t care.
OH NO, I hope the fork will continue for a bit otherwise I’m so cooked 🥶🥶🥶
Agreed. Horrible news.
Hoping Syncthing-Fork will continue.
Just got into using Syncthing for my home network, was thinking I should add it to my phone. Makes sense it dies the instant I consider it
this is your fault.
I’m a fucking albatross, I know… Or whatever that sailor’s curse bird is I forget. A crested wank.
Consider yourself lucky, I feel the pain of seeing the end of years of a loving relationship.
Lol, I was also looking at installing it last weekend.
I guess this thing is on the same connection as my stock choices.
My advice is to be less like me
It seems to be working for other people
There is an android native GUI for syncthing in fdroid that looks like its still maintained: https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android?tab=readme-ov-file
Somene opened an issue about it, maybe answers are gonna be posted here : https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android/issues/1149
@paperd @chaospatterns Yeah, this is the one I’m currently using. I have my pictures automatically synced to my laptop, and (in the other direction) an audiobooks directory on my laptop automatically synced to my phone.
Any news about the fork of it? https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android-fdroid
Somene opened an issue about it, maybe answers are gonna be posted here : https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android/issues/1149
Cool, now I have to find something else to sync my Obsidian vault to my phone. It just worked! Fuck. =____=
Check out resilio.
Same. Rip
This is going ro leave a shit-ton of people dead in the water.
The app is not going to suddenly stop working, and it’s unlikely to do so before a replacement appears.
Oh, yeah, he did mention there’s another update for December. But it’s still an issue for many people. Moving to privacy is convoluted enough, it’s even rougher when you have to forcibly change your streamlines.