Syncthing on iOS

[necrevistonnezr]

For those who want to use Syncthing on iOS (up- / download of files, manual syncing of folders):

As you know, there's no iOS client. Inspired by this Reddit thread, I successfully configured the free iOS Documents App to access the Synthing main pool. You can probably use any App that allows SFTP connections.

• Precondition: VPN Access from the iOS device to your Cloudron instance (in my case, since Cloudron sits on a server at home, I establish a VPN connection to my router - but it should work with the Cloudron OpenVPN App as well(?)
• Open Documents, add a new SFTP connection with the following parameters (see screenshot in German below)
  • Name: Anything you want (e.g. "Syncthing")
  • Host: local IP of your Clourdon, e.g. 192.168.1.27
  • Login: SSH username
  • Password: SSH password or use "Private Key" section - Documents allows to use a private SSH key
  • Encryption: left unchanged
  • Port: SSH Port (e.g. 202)
  • Login Path: the path to your Syncthing main pool, which should be /home/yellowtent/appsdata/[APP-ID]/data/folders; you'll find the APP-ID in the "Resources" tab of your Synthing config on Cloudron

Voilá, you should see all folders you manage in Syncthing. Documents allows to mark such folders for syncing, these are then accessible in the "Sync Folders" tab and can be synced manually any time. Upload and download of files from / to Syncthing works and such changes are reflected on all machines. Downloaded files can be opened / viewed / shared within the Documents App.

[yusf]

Incredibly useful, thanks for sharing!

[girish]

Thanks for the write up @necrevistonnezr , excellent information . I learnt some german along the way as well

[marcusquinn]

Very interesting - thank you for sharing @necrevistonnezr !

Good option to cut the cord on iCloud/Dropbox/GDrive etc.

Without trying, I wonder if my.server.com would work for the Host when working with a hosted VPS?

@girish I wonder it it's worth having support for a shorter symlink path for this use-case to make easier to remember/type?

[necrevistonnezr]

@marcusquinn said in Syncthing on iOS:

Without trying, I wonder if my.server.com would work for the Host when working with a hosted VPS?

If your SSH server is reachable externally via a domain, that should work, too. My SSH sever is only reachable locally, that’s why I had to set it up this way.
Now if one could set up per-app-VPN easily in iOS, this could be really smooth, but one can’t.