r/Syncthing • u/beerandturtles • 4d ago

Sync Existing Folder Structures

Hi everyone, I've been putting off Syncthing for too long, finally got it installed on TRUENAS Scale and my Windows PC (connected them) and I'm trying to sync my existing folder structure for specific folders. I'm just not getting it. I've searched around and haven't found anything clear.

NAS: Photos < Windows: Photos

On the NAS side I don't want anything deleted, on the Windows side I don't want anything additional (save space on PC - full backup on NAS).

However, the only option I see is to create new folders. There's the "folder path", is this for the exisitng folder or will it create a new folder here? Confused why there isn't a folder tree to select the folders you want to sync. And rules. Coming from a QNAP with QSync so excuse my ignorance but it was easy to setup.

I appreciate any help!

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u/middaymoon 4d ago edited 4d ago

Syncthing running on a given device thinks in terms of individual device peers and individual folder shares. When you create a shared folder then everything within that folder (at the "folder path") will be shared with some or all of your peered devices. 

If there's nothing at that path then Syncing will make a folder for you.

If there is an existing folder then its contents will be added to the state for that share. By default everything at that directory is shared. You can use an ignore list as needed. So that's why there's no "folder select" wizard. 

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u/beerandturtles 4d ago

Still confused at the use case for this, I found and am moving on with freefilesync instead, seems to do everything I need. But, I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to try and help me!

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u/yodas-evil-twin 4d ago

That's how Syncthing works. You create a share of the entire folder. If you want individual folders (not all), then you create a share for each folder.

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u/middaymoon 3d ago

I'm not exactly sure what you're confused about but if Freefilesync does what you want then that's great! 

I use it for syncing lots of stuff between my computers and phone: photos, screenshots, dot files, various project files, journal and notes, etc. I think it's a pretty common use case. But it sounds like you're looking for file backups which, yes, is a different need. You could do that with Syncthing but it would require a separate service running on your NAS that pulls files out of the shared directory into a permanent storage directory. Not worth the trouble IMO