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submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hi,

As the title suggests: what are alternatives to syncthing that are basically fire and forget, works on multiple device types, and just focuses on file syncing?

I've had over the months the weirdest problems with syncthing, and lately I noticed some of my photos got corrupted, which is an absolute no no for me. I use syncthing currently as a easy automatic backup of documents, photos and other files, between my PCs and my phones (they all send only to the server. Folders are not shared with other devices).

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[-] [email protected] 54 points 6 days ago

I know this is unsolicited advice, so apologies for that, but did you consider that the issue could also be your server hard drive failing? I guess not a possibility if its really only recently synced pictures. Just wanted to throw that in.

Regarding backing up photos, Immich works well for that but is also a lot more than just photo backup, so maybe not a preference for you.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 days ago

I'd echo this. Syncthing is widely used because it Just Works in so many weird situations. So if it is Not Working, swapping out Syncthing might actually make the problem harder to solve.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

That is actually a good question, in this case the HDD is totally fine. Thing is, the photos only get corrupted very rarely (probably 1 every 3000 or so, and only sometimes) and often photos that got transfered several times to the phone (usually the problem is in the phone. On the desktop never had that)

As for immich, I do know about of but seems to be a bit much for what I need (and only photos AFAIK)

[-] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

..could it be your phone's storage is failing then?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Had a pixel 8, and now a new pixel 9a. I think the problem is actually a bit messy. On my house I have several access points. There is a chance when syncthing is working, and I am going up or down, phone changes the access point. Syncthing possibly gets a ' oppsie, didn't finish that! Let's go for the next one' kind of issue. Of course, never looked into logs or anything so this is just pure speculation.

Usually the kind of corruption on the photos is the kind that beginning is always there, but at some point gets replaced with gray, hence my theory about the files.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Yea, gotta be something odd with your setup.

Currently I have one phone (of several) thats syncing en excess of 10,000 files, some only on Wifi (with 3 access points), some wifi/cell data.

ST knows the state of a file, so a disconnect should have no effect. If you're getting corrupted files, I wonder if something else is going on which may also affect another sync tool.

Try Resilio for the same folders, see if you have the same problem (disable Syncthing of course, otherwise conflicting edits will cause file corruption).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I checked their page and I have now a personal license. I am going later to try to find out how it works, so we will see

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Could be a bad AP.

I once had a switch with a failing power supply that would corrupt MP3 artwork when writing to the MP3. That was a weird one to track down.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

That sounds like a crazy story to find out what the issue was. As I stated somewhere on the thread, ram is not the issue, and the APS are quite new (Aruba stuff that is 1 and a half year old). And the only situation I get this issues is with my phones in specific. I will probably use the smb solution stated before and see how is goes. If the thing still happens, then is hunting time

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago
this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
93 points (97.0% liked)

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