this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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Syncthing

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Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes.

Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it's transmitted over the internet.

Visit https://syncthing.net/ for more information, downloads and donations

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Folder size difference between Windows and Android. (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 weeks ago by hunt4peas@lemmy.ml to c/syncthing@lemmy.ml
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Hi there. I used Synchthing to transfer a 308 GB folder to my Android phone but the size in phone is around 331 GB. Why is this so?

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[–] treesoid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It looks to me like a difference between GB (1000^3 B) and GiB (1024^3 B)

[–] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Seems like you're right. Why is that so?

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's 308 GiB vs 331 GB. Windows misleadingly labels GiB as GB, which causes the issue. In general, there are three patterns:

  1. 1 GB = 10^9^ B. This is how drive vendors and MacOS use it. When they say 2TB, they really mean 2 terabytes.

  2. 1 GB = 10^9^ B and 1 GiB = 2^30^ B with the option to pick which one to display. This is how most Linux distros handle it.

  3. 1 GB = 2^30^ B. This is how Windows handles it.

I guess the file manager installed on your Android is using GB as an actual GB, not Windows's mislabeling GiB as GB.

[–] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for the detailed explanation. How do I make Windows to show actual GB and not GiB?

[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Probably through some third-party window manager instead of explorer.exe because a cursory search shows that it's impossible to do it even with regedit. I have no idea about third-party window managers for Windows outside of them existing.

[–] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for letting me know.