JimmyTheSaint

Why not just use an Android file manager to copy and paste the photos from the hidden sync archive to folder that holds the phones photos, which is Internal Card/DCIM/Camera/ on my phone.

I just noticed that, when not syncing, 1.3.109 is consuming 5.7-9.2% CPU on my Linux NAS. As reported in other threads, all the previous versions stayed right around the 13% mark. It's still more than ten times the next closest idling process, but a big improvement if it continues to stay in that range.

I'm not an expert with the meaning of log entries, but in my DS213+'s log, I don't see nearly that frequent an occurrence of lines that include the "SYNO.core" string. Sometimes minutes apart, often hours. Also, all mine say: entry.cgi_SYNO.Core.Upgrade.Server[1].check[11630]: smallupdate.cpp:413 small fix can't downgrade, org_version[2], new_version[2] I have no file /usr/local/etc/services.d/btsync.sc I've never worried about sleeping, particularly because I have enough disk-related stuff going on 24/7 that I suspect my NAS will never sleep in any case, and that's just the cost of doing business. As discussed in other threads, my btsync process uses 13% CPU during the time between syncs. It would be nice to know why it costs so much CPU, but the devs have said they will be addressing this issue for the next version.

Interestingly, I deselected the relay server option, and without restarting, the problem hasn't recurred.

I couldn't figure out how to do that, so I ended up removing the directory from sync and then resyncing as new. It was my smallest 4MB sync folder, so that was easy. I'm just glad my other sync folders haven't had this problem. The option says "use relay server when required," but I'm not even sure of its benefits or when it's required.

See also the unofficial troubleshooting FAQ pinned at the top of this forum. Under the heading "Why can't I sync to my external SD card?" there are links to discussions of current workarounds.

Hmm, that's interesting. I don't know SDfix because my ROMs have always permitted writing to the external card and have worked fine with BitTorrent Sync. As you suggest, I would at least try wiping the app's data, uninstalling, then reinstalling. You might also look at the unofficial FAQ under the heading "Why can't I sync to my external SD card?" I don't remember seeing your specific situation at those threads, but it might be there.

OK, I sent the log. As I said, both of my NAS's have been idling at 13% for almost a year. All other processes idle at <0.4%.

We discussed CPU usage for the idling btsync process about 10 months ago in this thread: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/21884-is-20-45-linux-nas-cpu-usage-too-high/ At that time, it had come down to 11-13% on my Linux NAS, which I gathered was accepted as normal. I've observed the same range of CPU usage since then. I also asked about this level of CPU usage at Synology's support forum here: http://forum.synology.com/enu/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=71788 No one has ever responded, so for the past year I've accepted 13% CPU usage for the btsync process as non-harmful, or at least acceptable wear-and-tear. I've been using btsync as long as anyone, and I've never seen a 3% idling CPU usage when syncing my full complement of 23,000 files, but that would be nice.

So I guess what you and GreatMarko are discussing above is the ability to have a device act as nothing but a buffer or relay of sync changes without having to actually store the full content on that device. And the only reason would be because the phone is on 24/7, so you want to give the other devices an opportunity to sleep without losing anything? I don't see much utility in that, either, because it's cheap and easy to set up some kind of little workhorse server or NAS instead of using a phone. I have the NAS (and the second NAS as backup) so that I never have to think about if my laptops and phones are online or not. As it turns out, though, everything but one of my laptops is 24/7, but that's just me.

I don't know why this happens, but I've learned to anticipate it and brace myself. On my Linux boxes (but, so far, not Windows or Android) if the btsync process exits in an ungraceful or unexpected way (such as a power outage), but also when I do "kill" on the process to do a system upgrade and reboot, that device will (sometimes? every time?--not sure) return to clobber any changes made while it was down. My biggest nightmare is when I forget to manually restart btsync so that the device goes days without re-syncing so that many files are involved. I've learned to stop forgetting due to the negative reinforcement. The clobbering will occur several minutes after restarting btsync, so I always sit and monitor the history window for the bad news. But I first make copies of the stuff I know has changed, sometimes rather large folders, and when I see that a few files got hit, I just delete entire folders, wait for the deletion to sync, and then restore from the copies. Otherwise, I'm in for a painful restore session. For me, the key is paranoia: once I realize something unseemly has occurred, I stop doing everything, make copies, restart, then watch the history window like it's the Game of Thrones finale. When I do system upgrades, I make sure everything's synced first and then touch no files on any device until the upgrade's complete and everything's in sync again--this preventive measure has always been 100% effective. Yes, it's work, but the software is still considered beta, so we really can't complain that it's not yet down to a no-brainer. For me, it's been strictly a Linux issue; Windows updates have never been a problem, and I flash ROM upgrades on my phones every day from CM's nightlies.

My S4 is always on, but then I "only" sync 16GB. I also have an unlimited data plan. Even with one of the new 128GB micro-SD's, phones can't go above 200GB; 1.5TB is surely years away, but I would think it's strictly a storage space issue rather than any other limitation of the Android app. On the other hand, my Note 2 has sync problems that the devs suspected was related to putting sync folders on the external SD, a problem that my S4 doesn't have. So I reduced the Note 2 to one 300MB sync folder on the internal SD, and there hasn't been a problem since. I gave up on the underlying problem because it wasn't worth the time on that little-used device. But the lesson is that phones' sync performance can be more touchy (e.g. when Google or Samsung spring surprises on us, like the exernal SD access issue) and also harder for the user to troubleshoot than Linux, Windows, or OSX. I would not yet be comfortable with relying on a phone as my 24/7 middle man, and all but one of my devices syncs 24/7.

still would like to be able to expand the list of connected devices instead of interacting with them modally. In my case, expanding them all would only take 24 lines, so I'd like all my connected devices to be visible at one time.

I've had the same problem for a while. I have four sync folders, but one of them--and never any of the others--shows 28 devices when it should only show 6. The only difference is that that sync folder also syncs with my Note 2, but the Note 2 doesn't sync any other folder. Most of the 28 devices are redundant Note 2's, but some are not the Note 2, which is weird. My Note 2 has exhibited unexplainable sync problems in the past, so I've reduced it to just that one sync folder on its internal SD card. Since taking the Note 2's external SD card out of the loop at a dev's suggestion, there have been no other problems except this redundant listing of devices. By the way, my S4 syncs folders on both its internal and external SD cards, no problem.

On the unofficial troubleshooting FAQ at http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/28637-bittorrent-sync-troubleshooting-faq-unofficial/, look under the heading "Android-specific Troubleshooting."

In the past (but not recently), I've tried turning my phone's WiFi off and leaving it on mobile data 24/7. I continued to have the same "auto sleeps through sync" problem, so that was my way of ruling out changing networks as itself a factor.

It's hard to really test this thoroughly, but I believe that sleep stops syncing for me only when I'm on mobile data. When I leave the phone on home LAN, I don't think I've ever seen it go much past the sleep period without syncing. Perhaps switching between networks is itself a factor, but it's hard to determine that. In any case, when not on the home LAN, it's almost exclusively on mobile data rather than any other WiFi network.

FYI: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/28275-android-442-doesnt-have-permission-to-write-to-this-folder/ http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/29448-how-to-make-it-save-on-sd-card-in-44/ http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/26567-btsync-can-no-longer-sync-to-ext-sd-card-on-note-3-after-update-android-442/ It's also in the "BitTorrent Sync Troubleshooting FAQ" at: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/28637-bittorrent-sync-troubleshooting-faq-unofficial/ but my personal favorite is: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/23944-unable-to-navigate-to-external-sd-card/

It sounds like you're adapting the SynoCommunity installation to your needs, but I wouldn't be comfortable with that because I could never be sure of all the things it's done to install itself, which makes troubleshooting a pain. I did a clean install, and it's a poor man's guide because it just provides a way of doing it without necessarily fully comprehending everything. If your installation doesn't work, all I'm able to suggest is wiping it and doing a clean install, which I do suggest. For the file permissions, you use the "chmod" command. Your directories with permissions "d---------" are completely unpermitted, which doesn't sound good, but who knows. A quick and dirty thing to try from the btsync user's root directory to fix all the permissions at one go is: > chmod -R 755 * I wouldn't think there'd be any side effects if it doesn't work, but if there are, then, again, feel free to sue me. I assume you know how to start and stop the btsync process when making any changes to its files. note: you can create txt files on your computer, upload them via the web interface, and then edit them with vi if necessary rather than create something from scratch with vi.

Logging into your Synology via ssh is the best way to go because you'll have full and direct control over everything, such as file owner. But you'll need to learn some basic file system commands, as well as "top" and "kill". I mostly use the web file browser too, but be prepared to use basic vi commands at some point. I've accumulated a self-help file as a reference to remind me of Synology 213+ installation details. I'm linking to it here as a poor man's guide to Synology installation. It even includes a survival list of vi commands. I won't make any disclaimers, so feel free to sue me if you break something: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25817978/JimmysPoorMansGuide-Synology.txt Oh, and always do "ls -al" when listing a directory, lest you forget about btsync's hidden directories.

I presume double-checking the permissions includes double-checking the owner, so all I can think of to suggest is ditching the SynoCommunity installation for a manual installation. If that doesn't actually fix the problem, maybe it'll be easier to troubleshoot than the community package, and you'll be able to stay completely up to date in any case.

Two kinds of users, obviously: those whose peers can all show their sync folders on one web page, and those who overflow. In my case, with 4 sync folders and 6 peers, the present webui consolidates way too much and I have a mile long of blank space.

I understand how Faustarting it must be--if I couldn't access my external SD for syncing, I'd also be pretty Faustarted. Why don't you try asking at the CM forum: http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/index.php? Or maybe xda's forum for your device?

I don't recall doing anything special in CM to allow writing to the external SD as I please. I'm pretty sure I formatted the card as exFAT, but I can't find an easy way to confirm that right now. Relevant directories are: /storage (perms = 751, owner = sdcard_r) /storage/sdcard1 (777, sdcard_rw) /storage/sdcard1/BitTorrentSync (775, sdcard_rw) My sync directories are inside storage/sdcard1/BitTorrentSync and they're all 775, sdcard_rw. If you're saying that the file transfers for 4 minutes, then barfs, I assume you mean that it's only buffering, and nothing at all ever actually gets written to the external SD. I mean, if it's writing something, then it appears to have access. In any case, I don't really know enough to troubleshoot Android much further than this. If your problem is narrowed down to the Kit Kat exernal storage issue, then I really think this is a job for xda.

Click on the blue link that says "m of n Devices," then click on the "Devices" tab.