this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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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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[–] [email protected] 74 points 2 months ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] candyman337 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh wow, Nextcloud is really using my battery quite a lot in the background.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There is a bug in 3.30.1 making it sync everything, in a loop. Keep an eye on your data usage! https://github.com/nextcloud/android/issues/13738

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Holy shit. Thanks for the heads up!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Where's the tailscale fork? Thats my current battery sink

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

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.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Wdym cannot be touched?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

You know, I have obtainium but often forget it exists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just as I start using it bruh

[–] BigBootyBoy 10 points 2 months ago

Daamn same here, literally just found it the other day and it's been working great

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

one has micro transactions that googles gets to skim from and the other doesn't.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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.