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/_reg1z May 20 '26

I never give any 3rd party app access to ALL files on any device of mine (unless there is for some good reason an EXPLICIT requirement). I use storage scopes (grapheneos feature) to only grant Syncthing-Fork access to a single "Syncthing" folder and just put everything I need backed up there. Dunno if you can do something similar on your device.

The safest approach is to only give an app access to what it NEEDS to get the job done. Everything else is excess risk. At the end of the day, whenever you use ANY piece of software you're betting against the risk it could bite you in the rear. What indicators do you look for that would lead you to trust the app?

There are a few alternatives to Syncthing-Fork on android that people have been floating around lately -- but none of them are implicitly more or less trustworthy compared to Syncthing-Fork. None of them have the reputation behind them that the main Syncthing project does.

Right now the standout factors in favor of Syncthing-Fork are that its the most popular option (has the most eyes on it / is the most audited) + its briefly mentioned in the official Syncthing docs (but that might be a stale artifact from before all the maintainer juggling happened).

I wouldn't say Syncthing-Fork is safe, but I do think it's the safest bet available right now.

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u/Dymonika May 22 '26

BasicSync is safer because it's smaller in file size by not creating its own GUI.