From the (current) final comment at <a href="https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android/issues/2064">https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing-android/issues/2064</a><p>> Nothing came of the discussions with google. Demands by Google for changes to get the permission granted were vague, which makes it both arduous to figure out how to address them and very unclear if whatever I do will actually lead to success. Then more unrelated work to stay on play came up (dev. verification, target API level), which among other influences finally made me realize I don't have the motivation or time anymore to play this game.
I used to develop Android professionally (at Dropbox in the 2010s, so I have some familiarity with older Android filesystem APIs) and made a very conscious decision to switch to devx and backend work and get out of Android (as did most of my former Android colleagues). The unending hoops you had to jump through and API changes to keep your app working were too much of a pain.<p>As a fun anecdote, in 2014 when the "secure" Storage Access Framework was new, I found a trivial directory traversal vuln that allowed writing to any app's private directory by just passing a "../../" file name to the system [0, 1]. It was so trivial I noticed it while just browsing AOSP source to understand SAF better...<p>Android also used to grant world execute bits to app folders for the longest time, allowing malicious apps to create hard links to other apps' files by name, which could then be handed back to that app for a confused-deputy attack to gain access to the file contents.<p>All that to say - I'm glad Android has been working on security, but it was built upon such a loose foundation that tons of apps used and abused that it's going to drive developers out of the ecosystem as they have to keep adapting to a continuous stream of major breaking changes as things are locked down.<p>[0] Bug 18512473 fixed in <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/0cce535%5E!/" rel="nofollow">https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/...</a><p>[1] Proof of concept video: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8dpd8visrttqbfo/poc.mp4?dl=0" rel="nofollow">https://www.dropbox.com/s/8dpd8visrttqbfo/poc.mp4?dl=0</a>
There is an Android Syncthing fork [1] which is active and 1.3K stars (for whatever that's worth).<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android">https://github.com/Catfriend1/syncthing-android</a>
Looking at the underlying thread[1], the author mentions that it's very hard to publish on Google Play<p>> Reason is a combination of Google making Play publishing something between hard and impossible<p>Can someone expand on what's going on here?<p>[1]: <a href="https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-android/23002" rel="nofollow">https://forum.syncthing.net/t/discontinuing-syncthing-androi...</a>
I would think that a user competent to use and want sync thing, is perfectly capable of depending on f droid as a source for the apk.
Can that not be enough of a distribution channel.
Well, I'll be putting the APK in a safe place, along with my Turbo Pascal floppies. ;-) Syncthing for Android has been vital to managing my sheet music collection.
That's a bummer! Can anyone suggest an alternative way I can get files from my macOS laptop to my Android phone? I "just" want to put my folder of music files and m3us there so I can play them (with PowerAmp).
This is one the reasons I root my phone and just run an ssh server on it, I can rsync anything anywhere, and do full efficient filesystem backups.<p>If you don't have root, it's not your phone.
I've been considering making a new Android app for a while. A simple one to interact with a couple of my web services with some on-device storage, nothing complicated. More than anything, the thing that's stopping me is that I _know_ if I make it, a few Android versions later, it either won't work or won't be allowed on Play. I can't predict what random piece of the Android API/policy will change, but I know something will. And I'll have to waste my time fixing something that worked fine until Google arbitrarily broke it.<p>I built one app before for JellyBean. I haven't been able to install it for years and I can't compile it for a new version because of a cascade of errors and required changes that I'm unwilling to do. JellyBean hadn't even reached 10 years old before my app broke, it's pathetic that app support crumbled and rotted away that quickly. It'll happen again, so I've been turned off of Android development.<p>I totally understand the discontentment. It makes you feel powerless.
For everyone using Android and fearing not to be able to use Syncthing anymore: fear not. This is only affecting the Google Play Store version of Syncthing. You can get Syncthing-Fork here on F-Droid <a href="http://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingandroid/" rel="nofollow">http://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthinga...</a>
If the Catfriend fork goes, I'll have no use for Syncthing at all, and it will be a very sad day in open source. I'll probably move to some proprietary app, since I'm definitely not interested in self hosting anything, and there's not really any FOSS equivalents other than Syncthing itself.<p>Android really needs to just allow direct file access to any file which is under a user selected folder.
This is disappointing. SyncThing is one of my reasons for picking Android over iPhone. I hope the author reconsidered. Would any GoFundMe-style donation goal make the hassle worthwhile?
I'm in the same boats, I have an app on play store but that dev verification thing will cost me around 90 euros where its not making me money even though its commercially driven still, I just can't be bothered to spend extra money for Google for their company verification requirements<p>(ps: I tried to get support about it and was willing to provide the company info just to keep getting on the platform, but the only answers that I got were "you must use this (non free) system to have your company verified" and then I tacitly said "screw this")
The Google Play Store is a massive pain in the ass lately. For whatever reason Google wants me to continuously update my Android apps to use whatever the latest APIs are despite such apps being mostly glorified webpages.<p>The Apple App Store is a massive pain in the ass lately. For whatever reason Apple wants me to continuously update my iOS apps to use whatever the latest APIs are despite such apps being mostly glorified webpages.
I'm a big fan of Syncthing, and use it on Android as well as pc. But it seems they are relying MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission and I can't see a good reason for Google to go on permitting that in 2024. It gives an app too much power.<p>Android has had scoped storage for a decade now. Time to get with the program and start using the SAF.<p>It does feel very odd to be actually agreeing with the Goog on something...
I am developing and supporting game engines for over a dozen years. It works pretty much on any device which can run games.<p>Supporting it for Android is the worst experience ever. This is by far the least reliable OS in terms of compatibility or changes they make. It gets more convoluted and crapier with every exec bonus and 'feature' google invents.
Thank you google for killing yet another great app. There should be special category for apps that are "Done, Complete, Perfect as is", as with decent backwards compatibility on Android there should be no issues with them. I bet apk compiled for Android 1 still runs perfectly on Android 15.
What the heck, I literally come from upvoting another submission's comment about combining LocalSend with Syncthing [1], because the idea seemed great...<p>That's gone very fast from "oh yeah!" to "oh no!"<p>[1]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41891983">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41891983</a>
Joining the IA Writer club on Android:
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41658023">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41658023</a>
Once again, Im also in the niche of avoiding pay-for dozens of small services and just getting my simple stuff synced. Bam, another blowback. Im eager to ready what alternatives HN crowd might come up with....
Url changed from <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/1g7zpvm/syncthing_android_app_discontinued/" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/1g7zpvm/syncthin...</a>, which points to this.<p>Submitters: "<i>Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter.</i>" - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a>
...Does the author not understand that the Google Play Store is not the only distribution mechanism for apps? Why not just continue to distribute APKs for users to install manually?
I used Syncthing for a while between various Linux distros, and I used Syncthing-Fork on my Android tablet, and it was okay when it worked, but it often borked up, and there were so many arcane settings and weird failure modes. I realized that the only reason I was using Syncthing was because it appealed to the vestigial, ultra-paranoid crypto-fascist BOFH in me, and I had grown out of those attitudes.<p>So today I just use Google Drive and MS OneDrive like a normal person. They work great. I love 'em. They don't fail like Syncthing. They're way more secure, and fully supported. Come join me! The water's fine!