Discontinuing syncthing-android

DebianGuy@lemmy.ml to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 410 points – Discontinuing syncthing-android
forum.syncthing.net

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.

Sad to see it go. There is a fork but seems not so great considering they are looking for active maintainer. Still better than nothing. Need to check it out as it has some enhancements.

Planning to close my Google Play Developer Account. Please say hi if you are interested in obtaining the latest gplay release files from me to help in publishing this app

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I've been using the fdroid syncthing-fork version for a long time now and haven't had any issues at all... Doesn't mean it'll last forever but it's been getting the job done for me even in its current state.

... And can't remember my original reason to use the fork instead lol

Battery management

Yes, the core version was unusable because of the battery drain

THAT'S WHATS DRAINING MY BATTERY! I've been trying to figure it out, I knew it was draining quicker because of that but never really our two and two together

Android shows which apps consume the most energy since the last charge.

It's great, I've used it a lot.

Specially with relatives. It also lists 'Display', and shows how much your screen use was draining that new phone. I had to explain this to a friend recently, with their new phone. They thought it might be defective. It wasn't.

I was not even aware of this fork let alone a long timeline of existence. I am adding this onto my weekend project list. Thanks for the recommendation.

I switched to the fork as soon as I read this news. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes:

  • Just install it in parallel with the mainline app,
  • export your existing configuration to the default storage location,
  • import it in syncthing-fork (it'll detect the export file automatically),
  • and you're done. Uninstall the official app so they don't compete for the daemon and port.

Sadly it's unusable on Android 15. All of the interactable functions are crammed up into the status bar and cannot be touched.

Yeah I Have the same problem and wondered why no one switching to the fork mentions that :D But I guess android 15 is not very widespread jet.

Sounds like a bug and the dev hasn't caught up to the new version?

Yes, there seems to be an open issue for this bug, but actually the developers response doesn't inflict confidence in the fork 😅 He seems to have updated the app to target Android 15 without testing in it in the emulator.

Welp my phone updated to 15 today...guess I can join the bugged syncthing-fork club.

Looks like it is fixed in the latest release, just have to wait until it gets pushes to fdroid.

If you want to speed up that process you could install Obtainium. Did that and with the newest release the app is usable again 👍

OK, I switched to that one now, thanks for pointing it out and explaining it.

Let's hope that it doesn't rely on the official release

Syncing with my phone was my main use for syncthing. :(

Aww, too bad

I see a comment inbox but can't see here. I'm pasting it here

I switched to the fork as soon as I read this news. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes:
Just install it in parallel with the mainline app,
export your existing configuration to the default storage location, import it in syncthing-fork (it'll detect the export file automatically),
and you're done. Uninstall the official app so they don't compete for the daemon and port.

On f-droid the fork seems to be behind the original, but I expect I will if it continues updating.

The fork is much better anyway.

It moves the sync options into each sync folder/job. Lots more flexible. Now my photos sync on any network and any charge state, while less important things (downloads, etc) only sync when on WiFi and charging.

Syncing with my phone was is my main use for syncthing. :( :)

We shall persevere! It doesn't seem like it's really needed any updates anyway...

Only updates it should need are for weird changes Google decides to make to Android.

Hell, at this point if someone forked the fork, and charged a small fee for the Relay Server hosting, I'd happily pay.

Syncthing is such a wonderful project. RIP. But for us already being spoiled by syncthing, it might be a good time to self host services to handle, sync and serve our own data like photos, contacts and more.

This is just about the android app version. The desktop version still works and continues to live.

Damn this is some rough news... as other commenters have said though can't blame the guy. I'll cross my fingers for some random "Sinkboi for Syncthing" or something dumb like that to pop up down the road.

I've let my google developer account expire quite a while ago after they kept asking for more and more stupid stuff. Nowadays if you don't get paid a lot for it you must be either a masochist or a bit stupid if you upload to google play.

I installed from fdroid, I expect it to be still available as far as it will work...

And I guess somebody will build and keep publishing it just not on google play, which is anyway a cesspool nowadays, so no big deal.

Apparently publishing malware and the likes is quite easy, but publishing well-established foss software isn't.

the fork version works fine. if that dies, i'm hopeful some new fork will emerge. syncthing is well known and used by many, so i think as long as the original software is alive, there'll be a way to use it on your phone. heck, there's ways to run syncthing on a pocketbook e-reader, lol

Anyone have any good readings or discussions on what Google Play policies are being cited here as the major obstacle? Just curious to learn more.

Edit: 20 testers policy? Sounds onerous.