this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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153
Where did the dust settle on Syncthing Fork? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 day ago by psycotica0@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hey folks! I know a while back there was a kerfuffle because syncthing-fork for Android went dark, and then a new person showed up and claimed everything was cool and they'd been privately given the keys or something, and people were concerned. I pinned my fdroid version to the at-that-time-current release until we got clarity.

Well, it's been a while and I just noticed I'm still on that old release. So... how'd it turn out? Do we like the new person yet? Is there a promising fork y'all are using? Or is the project dead? I'm sure I could just go look at the repo, but I'm also sure the repo would tell me "yeah, we're all cool" no matter what, so I'm curious what the community feelings are. Have there even been any useful new releases since then?

Thanks!

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[–] IanTwenty@piefed.social 109 points 1 day ago (4 children)

F-droid themselves gave an update in April:

https://f-droid.org/en/2026/04/03/twif.html

If you’ve been holding off updating Syncthing-Fork we have two pieces of news for you. First, the original dev continues to collaborate still, we know this was a pain point back then. Second, we’ve just added BasicSync, A simple app for running Syncthing, which just controls Syncthing’s running behaviour as hands off as possible, while the original service hums in the background.

So it seems since the handover things have settled but there is also a new fork which takes a more bare-bones approach.

[–] black_flag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

This is amazing. So what you're saying is that the answer is that there are now three separate syncthing apps, which are all similarly functional and in collaboration with each other?

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 13 points 19 hours ago

Two built for Android, Syncthing-fork and BasicSync, and the latter is meant to be less featured and simpler (or basic! Wow, it's in the name!)

And the third is the desktop service for Linux, Windows, etc. Technically, you can install the Linux one with Termux or similar on Android, but it's a little jankey. It is possible though, as somebody else has already mentioned!

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 6 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

3?

[–] black_flag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I was thinking there was a syncthing in addition to syncthing-fork

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 3 points 14 hours ago

I see. Yeah, that was discontinued. The maintainers didn't have time for it.

[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 9 points 21 hours ago (5 children)

Man, the BasicSync app has a long list of permissions...

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.chiller3.basicsync/

Why does it need to know my Location?

[–] Star@sopuli.xyz 16 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I'm using BasicSync since a few weeks, the location permission is completely optional. This is what the app says:

Location permissions are optional and are only needed when restricting allowed Wi-Fi networks. Even if the permissions are granted, they will not be used unless there are allowed Wi-Fi networks configured.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

What a bs permission to have been invented.
It should be it's own special network permission or something but what the hell does that have to do with the general meaning of "location"?.
Just allow the app to see what SSID I am connected to if I want to allow that

Sry for having to endure my rant

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

It's actually a bit informative. I believe Android approximates location using the SSID/WiFi information, so it's not just network that it's used for.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Hm...Still so.
It should be its fully own permission to allow even if it belongs both to location and networking.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

I think the idea is that it is not something separately securable? I don't disagree, I'd like to be able to disallow any app not explicitly granted permission to use any method to determine my location. Unfortunately if Google can scan WiFi and figure out your location, anything with access to WiFi can too maybe?

I don't know. I love technology but this fucking surveillance state situation is really getting to me. Routers using WiFi signal passing through your body to identify and locate you regardless of whether or not you are carrying any tech and all the other shit I don't know about... ugh.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Location is such a weird permission...
For example the permission is also needed to find local devices via bluetooth (eyeroll)...
And even then, local device finding is a sub-permission of location...

[–] timochka@lemmy.zip 5 points 15 hours ago

I think that's more about telling users though that if they let an apl find local devices, that can be used to deduce your location.

[–] tinsuke@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

https://github.com/chenxiaolong/BasicSync#permissions

ACCESS_WIFI_STATE, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION

Optionally used for stopping Syncthing unless connected to specific Wi-Fi networks.

And location isn't a permission granted by default on install (unlike Internet access), the user has to approve of it explicitly.

[–] dan@upvote.au 3 points 20 hours ago

At least it's open source so anyone can look at the code and figure out why it asks for the permissions.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 21 hours ago

To know if you are on your home network and use direct lan etc, rather than finding a sync relay in the cloud...something like that.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like I'll have to setup BasicSync. I still don't trust Syncthing-Fork. The way things went down don't give me any confidence it could happen again but worse e.g the dev introduces something like a "fuck zionists" patch that wipes everything if you're on an isralean IP. Then I'd be putting myself in danger for using a VPN or TOR exit node in Israel. Not taking that risk.

Thanks for the writeup.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Source for that?
I don't like that a software with access to my files has logic for this behavior.
I use syncthing as a backup-tool so it would be, let's say bad if it should happen.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That commenter was using an example of something very bad that could happen if the fork got handed off to someone else again but worse, not something that actually happened

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Whoops. Thanks for pointing it out. Read it as a fact not as an example.

[–] passenger@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

This should be top comment

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 11 points 19 hours ago

I switched from Bitwarden to keepassxc (pc) and keepassdx (android) and installed syncthing (pc) and syncthing-fork (android) to sync the db file a couple of weeks ago - all works fine, no dramas.

[–] essell@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago

I'm currently running the latest version from F-droid, it's doing what it should do. No red flags I can see.

I know the current owner as much as the previous one so no difference for me.

[–] krcr@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

I ended up installing Syncthing using Termux following these instructions: https://www.stephenjianu.com/syncthing-android/

[–] AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

New one seems fine to me, haven't had any issues with it, haven't been privy to any malicious behavior or past actions that the developers might have done, so personally I find it pretty trustworthy.

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I kinda held on to the old version for a while too TBH, syncthing-fork had a problem where I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted it, so I'd gone back to syncthing, then with all the kerfuffle, I just stayed there.

Some time earlier this year I tentatively upgraded 1 phone and a tablet (it's used as slideshow screensaver...) and it all seems to work ok.

The GUI isn't quite as good as the native webUI, but it's still accessible, so all's good.

There was a change in the syncthing "DB" a while ago, so it might take a while to rescan things if you have a lot of small files, but feel confident to change.