Discontinuing syncthing-android
forum.syncthing.net
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 ...

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!

  • xodoh74984@lemmy.worldEnglish
    682·
    8 days ago

    This is sad. Google Play should never hold this much weight in 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.

  • el_abuelo@programming.devEnglish
    44·
    9 days ago

    I just installed syncthing-fork from f-droid and it worked flawlessly as far as I can tell:

    1. “Export” in syncthing
    2. Uninstall syncthing
    3. Install syncthing-fork from f-droid
    4. Import in syncthing-fork
  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    10 days ago

    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.

  • NeuronautML@lemmy.mlEnglish
    23·
    9 days ago

    Fyi the syncthing-fork guy (catfriend1) who’s still updating has a donating button on F-droid via Liberapay. It’s up to you if your financial situation allows you to donate, but the more of us help the remaining developers for their time, in particular those of us that rely so much on their work, the better off we’ll be. Let’s give them a little motivation to keep working on this.

    FYI2 syncthing-fork (as written and confirmed in this thread) has an import button for your folders from syncthing Android.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    10 days ago

    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

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    10 days ago

    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.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.worldEnglish
    172·
    10 days ago

    Phones are becoming less and less interesting by the day.

    Once they get to the point were all of the options that don’t require incredibly inconvenient sacrifices in functionality to maintain the interesting stuff like a video game console then that will kill interest in the market for me.

    If I can’t do anything besides basic smart phone crap I might as well just buy whatever has a good camera once every half decade or so and be done with it. So whatever top end thing Samsung or Apple are putting out.

    I’m not sure Google has fully thought through what it means to just be a worse version of what Apple puts out, but with more ads.

    • proton_lynx@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      I’m almost going full circle now, I’m buying a camera and a Music player to use as separate devices from my phone. Not only smartphones are getting expensive as hell, but the usability is actually getting worse IMHO.

      And why is it so fucking awful to setup an automated pipeline to deploy smartphone apps (Android and iOS)?

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      9 days ago

      Smartphone design is mostly a solved problem. Take today’s screens and processors and throw in a few features from the past (removable storage, IR blaster, and headphone jack) and you have a 10-year phone.

      I used to get a new phone every year because phone got way better each generation.

      My phone is top-tier from 2021 (Z Fold 3), and I have had zero temptation from the newer versions. All they really have is faster processing, but since all apps are designed to run well on budget phones from 5 years ago, there’s no reason to upgrade.

  • SolidGrue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    10 days ago

    For the F-droid enabled users, it seems there’s a Syncthing app in the Termux repos:

    ~ $ apt show syncthing
Package: syncthing
Version: 1.28.0
Maintainer: @termux
Installed-Size: 26.4 MB
Homepage: https://syncthing.net/
Download-Size: 7857 kB
APT-Sources: https://packages.termux.dev/apt/termux-main stable/main aarch64 Packages
Description: Decentralized file synchronization
  • MrMcGasion@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    10 days ago

    I’ve been using Syncthing-Fork (on F-Droid) for the extra features it has. I wonder if that developer will be able to continue.

  • TrippyHippyDan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    10 days ago

    oof. All I can do is thank you for the hard work that anybody’s put into this, and I’m sad to see it go because I’ve been using this with my keypass for probably about a year now.

    Really hoping the Graphene OS lawsuit allows for some Options to open up again!

  • AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    10 days ago

    Well that’s a shame. I’m sort of half-assedly using syncthing to backup my photos from my phone to my server, but mostly I rely on immich. I never really got the hang of using syncthing with my phone.

  • MSids@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    10 days ago

    I used it on an Android DAP to sync my music collection from my NAS after giving up on Folder sync due to its issues with new file detection breaking after a daylight savings time change. Synching was definitely more reliable but it takes ages to do the scan.