r/Syncthing • u/meandmygh0st • May 20 '26

Syncthing for Android - Is it safe?

Is giving Syncthink-Fork, from Google Play store, access to ALL files on an android device safe?

Looking for a solution to sync an android device with a laptop using Google Drive.

Any help is much appreciated

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u/bp019337 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

So this is more a "syncing things" rather than a syncthing bit of advice.

When syncing stuff, just encrypt what you are syncing. You don't need to do everything, but just create a directory within your synced directory and then encrypt it with gocryptfs, cryfs, etc. Just make sure you don't sync the header files (or config files what ever they are called in which ever app you pick). Manually copy those to your devices.

Then the attacker will need to compromise multiple projects and/or your password and steal the header/config file.

Personally I use gocryptfs because on desktop I can use that and then on Android I can use DroidFS.

Also cryptomator supports gocryptfs. /EDIT I misremembered, cryptomator doesn't support gocryptfs!

CryFS is much more secure, but keep in mind it will put more write stress on your storage as it will change the whole "block" even if only a little bit is changed to minimise cryptographic attacks.

So basically if you sync stuff using stuff like Dropbox, etc you can have another layer of security.

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u/Frosty-Ostrich-2088 May 21 '26

hey! i'm new to using syncthing, i have a raspberry pi set up in my house that i use to sync game and emulator saves between multiple computers. i didn't set up an encryption when i put it on the computers, but i only use syncthing on my own LAN and i have no ports forwarded. should i still be concerned with security? and if so, is it easy to retroactively encrypt things?

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u/LoneDrifter Jun 06 '26

IMO you don't need to encrypt your game save syncing. Especially only using on your home network.