How to use the internal Syncthing without running the original first?

[marsch1975]

Hi,

I was thinking after a reinstall of Win 11 I could just use Syncthing Tray and its inbuild version of Syncthing alone to set up a new Syncing...

But when I let SyncthingTray start automatically and set up to start the internal Synthing version it's not working...

I had to start the original Syncthing one time before I could start the internal...

Why is it so?

Thanks for your help
Markus

[Martchus]

This shouldn't be the case and if most likely a bug you've discovered. It definitely worked at some point, though. It must be a recent regression actually. Most likely something is missing now after rebaseing against a newer version of Syncthing itself.

[Martchus]

I re-visited the code of my automated tests and must say that this case is actually explicitly covered. I also tested this manually by specifying non-existing config/data directories. The internal Syncthing was in both cases able to set itself up. So I'm wondering why it doesn't work in your case. I tested under GNU/Linux so maybe it is a Windows thing. I'll have to test that later. (It definitely worked under Windows before at some point, though.)

What was not working in your case? Was an error showing up in the logs? Was the internal version of Syncthing stuck (and if yes, where)?

[marsch1975]

I copied SyncthingTray into the folder User/Markus/Syncthing Tray 1.6.4/ where it was before the win 11 reinstallation...
Then I double cicked the EXE and SyncthingTray was running...
I entered the Settings and the "Auto-Start" tab and clicked "Auto Start Tray with Win"...
Went to the tab "Syncthing-Starter" and clicked "Start Syncthing with Tray" and "use internal Syncthing"...
I restarted the PC...
Tray started automatically but no Syncthing was running... Couldn't start it from Tray and couldn't reach it with 127.0.0.1:8384...

Then I copied an original Syncthing into Users/Markus/Syncthing 1.28.1/, started it (is was working) and told Tray to use that one, then I restarted the PC and it was still running...
Then I renamed the original Syncthing folder and told Tray to use the internal version, restarted the PC and now it was working with Tray and the internal version...

[Martchus]

Use the latest version of Syncthing Tray. I don't support older releases.

[marsch1975]

I have to reinstall 2 more Win 11, so I coud test thing you will suggest...

[Martchus]

Share the Syncthing logs at startup which are visible in the launcher settings. Maybe it also just takes a little bit until Syncthing becomes available.

I meanwhile tested it under Windows 11 with a non-existing config and data directory and couldn't reproduce the issue.

[marsch1975]

OK, I made a mistake... I didn't use the wizard for configuration, instead I did it manually, choose that Tray starts up with Windows, that Tray starts the internal Syncthing and I klicked that both should automatically conncet themselfs...
That's why the config folder entry was missing and no URL and API was created...

One last question, when I want to backup my actual settings for Tray and the internal Syncthing version, do I have to backup the following both things?

c:\Users\Markus\AppData\Roaming\syncthingtray.ini AND
c:\Users\Markus\AppData\Local\Syncthing\

thanks for your help!

[Martchus]

Yes, configuring this manually is not the best experience. You have to configure the launcher first, wait for Syncthing to become available and then you have to configure the connection settings. That's basically why I created the wizard which automates this.

You'll have to backup both as syncthingtray.ini only contains settings for Syncthing Tray but not Syncthing itself. Of course the Syncthing config/data/home path depends on what you configured in the launcher settings. The concrete path being used by Syncthing itself should be logged somewhere at startup. There's also a README section about config paths which also links to the documentation of Syncthing itself.

[marsch1975]

I have a folder called "index-v0.14.0.db" in the Syncthing folder which doesn't let itself copy for backup...
I think because it is in use...
I use PersonalBackp for automated backups...
Is this folder very important? Is it the indexing of all files in all folders which I use in Syncthing?

[Martchus]

This folder contains Syncthing's database. I'll be different in Syncthing v2 so be prepared in case you add any special handling for it in your backup solution.

And yes, Syncthing shouldn't run while backing this file up. Otherwise the backed up version of the files might be inconsistent.

Without database everything needs to be rescanned from scratch and knowledge of deletions is lost. Not sure what else would be lost. You should probably ask the Syncthing devs if you really want to know.

I normally don't backup the database. When recovering/reinstalling a machine I usually start over with empty Syncthing folders and let Syncthing to the "recovery work".

[marsch1975]

So you choose to have a new API (like it is a new PC) and copy all data again from PC to PC?
It would be too much for me, I have films and everything which is a huge amount of data...

[ienwb]

Robocopy are good enough for auto backup, you only need to start it at first, then sync it with an external hard disk, there are also rsync as alt to syncthing, it is slow, but better than nothing.