Peergos has released a sync client for desktop and Android.
This allows you to bi-directionally sync any local folder with a folder in Peergos. You can choose not to sync deletes in one or both directions. On Android this doesn’t require any permissions as we use the new Storage Access Framework, which is much better for user privacy and security. This supports all files types, not just media, but PDFs, docs and any other file you have, on both desktop and Android.
To setup a sync pair, login to the desktop or Android app, then click “Add folder to sync” on the sync tab. Android will ask you to choose a local directory (or even one from a big provider like Dropbox or Google that support SAF), and then start syncing in to your chosen folder in Peergos.
Would Privacy Guides consider including us in the File sharing, and Sync sections? We meet all the minimum criteria for both categories, and all the best case criteria except an iOS app - including media sync, general file sync and android client, as well as document previews.
This is really cool! I signed up for an account because being able to sync on Android is a big deal to me.
However, I was testing it out and was confused at first because there was no Sync tab in the main menu. I didn’t realize that the option didn’t appear until you actually had created a folder.
Also, is there some sort of set time delay before a sync happens? I ask because in my testing even though I would change a file on the cloud or local drive, I wouldn’t see a change until about ten minutes later.
Either way, this is really cool. So thanks for this update!
The sync happens immediately when you set it up, and runs as a periodic task every 15 minutes. That is the most frequent android will let you run a background task, to conserve battery. We can probably make it more frequent if the app is open in the foreground.
Ahh, I see. I personally don’t have an issue with that time delay, but maybe if there was a way to manually force a sync that would be cool. Right now in my testing, I can’t seem to get consistent behavior after setting up a pair of folders to sync.
The very first time I tried it things synced right away after setting up the folder sync pair like you said. Then I tried deleting a file from the Android folder and 15 minutes later it was indeed deleted on the Peergos folder. Then I tried adding a brand new file to the local Android folder, and it was never synced to Peergos even after a long wait time.
One thing I did before adding a brand new file in my last step was I renamed the original Peergos folder I synced to something else. I thought it was ok because when I looked at my Sync tab the sync had updated with the new name of the renamed folder.
But I couldn’t get that renamed folder to ever sync again. Even when I stopped syncing the folder from the sync tab, and set-up the sync again. I wonder if there’s something weird that happens when you rename a folder. I only suspect that because I had also tested sharing a secure link from a file in that folder, and the secure link still showed the OLD name of the folder before I renamed it despite that folder now having a new name.
And then I decided to create a brand new folder in my Peergos drive, and sync it up with a new folder on my Android device. This time the sync did not happen immediately, but maybe it was about 5 minutes later when I got a notification that it was syncing.
Also there were several times I thought the app never setup my sync folder pair, because if you already have a sync folder pair the Sync tab doesn’t show it immediately. There’s about a five second delay where it only shows “Add folder to sync” and then all of a sudden the sync I had setup suddenly appears.
I know that what you guys are trying to do is very unique, so I’m willing to deal with bumps in the road along the way. Just thought I’d share my experiences. Thanks for making something really cool!
Thank you. Yep, we’re planning on adding a sync now button in the next release, and maybe adding a foreground sync if you have the app open, which can happen immediately.
Renames of the destination sync folder shouldn’t affect sync, though we haven’t tested that so we’ll look into that case. Thank you for the reports.
@Tyruke We’ve just published a new android release which includes a “sync now” button. Unlike the background sync, this will sync immediately, regardless of your battery, network or space state (unless there is already a background sync running).
It is in review with Google (1.3.1), or if you are side loading you can get it here:
Thanks! I downloaded the apk and the sync now button works just like you would think!
I did also notice that when I renamed a file within a sync folder, Peergos seemed to consider it as a new file (from the Android folder’s perspective) and so simply added it to the Android folder instead of renaming it. Then the non renamed file in the Android folder was then synced to Peergos. I would think what should happen is that both files are renamed in the local and cloud folder.
Anyways thanks again for this update. It will prove to be very useful!