Synthing as a file storage and synchronization manager

Features

Syncthing is a file manager similar to Onedrive with the big difference of being decentralized. That has its advantages and disadvantages.

Decentralization

Advantages:

You can add your own logic in the management and storage of files. Let me explain:
- Example: I have a folder that I want to synchronize with three different devices (two computers and a mobile).
You can choose redundancy in storage.
- Defining redundancy as the number of times that the same file is found on different devices being exactly the same (its hash is the same).
- That is an advantage because if you lose access to one of your devices, you can continue using the service normally. And you can keep several backup copies.
The computing load is distributed between the devices, as there is no client-server architecture. Each device is “independent” and makes it less error-prone.

Disadvantages:

Greater complexity in architecture and management.
- You have to think very carefully about how you are going to organize the devices and folders to be synchronized.
- You have to correctly organize the permissions and how they are synchronized. Because some folders may be invisible to some devices.
- You can choose which devices have access to which folders in a more granular way and thus maintain less privacy for them.
  - Example: A device has partial access to a folder.

Decentralization has its advantages, but in my opinion it is much better to use compared to a more centralized approach like OneDrive uses; because it is less error-prone and you can have different types of synchronization (within the local network, on the Internet, etc.) according to your needs.

Synthing is free and open source, so you will have to provide the storage yourself (obviously).

Example use cases

Synthing is perfectly suited to almost any use case, for example:

A computer shares a folder to a home server for backup purposes.
Almost instant synchronization between computer and devices such as mobiles. Being an effective alternative to LocalSend

However I do not recommend its use in professional environments unless you know what you are doing and the end users understand the storage architecture.

Download and installation

Synthing is platform and system agnostic, meaning you can use whatever operating system you need and it adapts to your needs.

The installation is very simple, these are the Github repositories that I have used:

Configuration

The most complex part of the process. You have to choose how to store files and adapt. I recommend watching Youtube videos and trying to make simple backups (of a folder) and adding more devices and permissions from there.

You have to be very careful, many times I have gone crazy trying to debug errors caused by not having thought through the configuration of the files on a new device.

Conclusions

It is a good alternative to Onedrive, although you have to investigate and learn.

Greetings, emilio.red 😎