Recover keys?

[marktuna]

It's really easy to click the little '-' button accidentally in the BitTorrent Sync interface which immediately deletes the shared folder. How can I recover the keys that I used for that folder? I have distributed the read-only key but not the read-write key, so I don't have a copy of it.

Feature request: confirmation dialog before deleting a folder from Sync.

[GreatMarko]

If you're quick, you can recover lost keys from the backup "sync.dat.old" file (found in %AppData%\BitTorrent Sync on Windows)

If you open this file in a standard text editor, whilst it will look very messy, search for the phrase "secret32:" - each folder you were sharing will have it's key within this following context:

....<folder path will be here>6:secret32:<folder secret will be here>15:...

...this will only work if you're quick though and do this immediately after you inadvertently remove a folder from Sync, as the "sync.dat.old" file is an automated backup of the main "sync.dat" file, and is therefore updated at regular intervals!

I agree with you though, there should really be a confirmation dialog before you remove a folder from Sync!

[marktuna]

Thank you, I'll try that.

[19feet]

You can get the key (secret) from the other sync device you used before for sharing the same folder. When there is no other sync device you don't need the old key (secret) and you can create a new one.

[LazyWolf]

I had an issue while testing out a newer version of btsync and had forgotten to backup the config files beforehand, then when I went back to the version my other devices were using it would not start up. I saw that I could recover the secrets and paths from sync.dat.old so I copied it and wrote a quick little python script to help me.

If anyone uses a unix type os I hope this script will save you some time, it is made to search /home/username/.sync and your current directory first.

#!/usr/bin/python
"""
This is a quick little script I made to parse out the key and path pairs from BTSync's config.
"""

# Imports
from sys import exit
from os import getenv
from os.path import exists,abspath

# G Vars
pwd = abspath('.')+"/" # sets the current directroy
defaultDirs = ((getenv("HOME")+"/.sync/sync.dat", getenv("HOME")+"/.sync/sync.dat.old"),
			   (pwd + "sync.dat", pwd + "sync.dat.old"))
#\
sync = ""    # Dont touch!
syncOld = "" # Dont touch!
bigData = [] # Dont touch!

# Fns
def __sortData():
  global bigData
  f0 = open(sync, "r")
  data = f0.read().split(":")
  f0.close()
  del f0
  f1 = open(syncOld, "r")
  tmp = f1.read().split(":")
  f1.close()
  del f1
  tmpLen = len(tmp)
  for i in range(0, tmpLen):  data.append(tmp[i])
  del tmp, tmpLen
  dataLen = len(data)
  for i in range(0, dataLen):
    curLine = data[i]
#    if curLine.find("path") != -1 and data[i+3][-2:] == '15':  bigData.append({'path':data[i+1][:-1],'secret':data[i+3][:-2]})
    if curLine.find("path") != -1 and data[i+3][-1:] == '7':  bigData.append({'path':data[i+1][:-1],'secret':data[i+3][:-1]})
    elif curLine.find("path") != -1 and data[i+3][-2:] == '15':  bigData.append({'path':data[i+1][:-1],'secret':data[i+3][:-2]})
  del data, dataLen, curLine
  return 0
  # end of sortData

def __setPaths():
  global sync, syncOld
  for i in range(0, len(defaultDirs)):
    if exists(defaultDirs[i][0]) and exists(defaultDirs[i][1]):
	  sync = defaultDirs[i][0]
	  syncOld = defaultDirs[i][1]
	  break
  if sync == '' or syncOld == "":  return None
  else:  return 0
  # end of setPath fn

def __printData():
  print "------"
  input = bigData
  inputLen = len(input)
  if inputLen == 0:  return None
  for i in range(0, inputLen):
    print "Secret: " + input[i]['secret']
    print "  Path: " + input[i]['path']
    if i != (inputLen-1):  print "---"
  print "------"
  del input, inputLen
  # end of printData dn

# Main
def main():
  # Look for sync.dat and sync.day.old file
  if __setPaths() == None:
    print "There was an error finding the sync.dat files!"
    exit(1)
  # Read both files and put them together
  if __sortData() == None:
    print "There was an error sorting the data!"
    exit(1)
  # print data to screen
  __printData()
  # end of main fn
if __name__ == "__main__":
  main()

Edit 1: -=:Updated 07/04/13 - to work with 1.1.27:=-

Edit 2: -=:Updated 07/22/13 - to work with 1.1.42:=-