Feedback to Android app

[gorpo]

I've been testing with the new new Android app (I'm using the version published in the Play Store yesterday) and wanted to give some feedback.

There are a couple of confusing elements in the UI:

1. What's the difference between the "Sync" tab and the "Backup" tab?

2. When setting up a sync folder, there's an option to "Automatic sync". I guess it means that remote files are downloaded automatically, but the option isn't really self-explanatory.

The ability to send files is great, but it's a bit difficult to use - you have to open the app on both sender and receiver and browse for the specific file.

It'd be great if you could make at least the sender's life easier by making BtSync a share target, so it appears in the share menu when you want to share data from any app (like Dropbox, or Gmail do).

On that note, it'd also be nice if you could share a file directly to one of your existing shared folders (say, to send the file to your PC).

Otherwise it's looking great, and better yet - working great!

[Disappointed Cat]

1. Backup shares are for backing up directories on the phone. You can restore them with a few touches.

The connected peers to this share will all be read-only except for the phone.

2. Auto sync downloads everything while selective sync requires you to tap the files you want synced.

[Swisstengu]

Great app indeed - just one thing is missing for me (already told to the Team): possibility to add known_hosts to the shares. As I'm not wanting to use the tracker, I have to define the known_hosts, at least with my own server.

Can't wait for this feature to come, as, without it, my smartphone cannot sync anything .

For the rest, it's really well-thought, being able to bypass the QRCode stuff is a very good point (working most of the time on headless servers… no QR can be generated ).

[TheJoe]

Thank you soo much for this app. It is the first one that "truly" syncs complete directories to the sd card and actually works!!!

I have waited so long for this.

The app even surpassed my hopes and imagination.

Thank you again.

Plz keep up the great work.

[JohnAStebbins]

I just installed the Android App. F-N awsome! I can't thank you enough.

[JohnAStebbins]

Hmm, am I missing something or is there no way to add a sync folder if the device has no camera?

[Swisstengu]

Hmm, am I missing something or is there no way to add a sync folder if the device has no camera?

You can enter the secret - there's a (not well shown) field just around the button "scan qrcode".

[smrtg]

I hadn't found any bugs yet. So I have some feature request, that'd be great if there were autorun option.

[JohnAStebbins]

You can enter the secret - there's a (not well shown) field just around the button "scan qrcode".

Heh, there it is. I took that low intensity line for a divider decoration

thanks!

[ravage2k]

Would be nice to be able to cancel a started download.

[DaxtonD]

Battery Drain!!

The battery usage of the Android app is extremely heavy. Prior to installing, I could get an entire day of phone usage on a single charge.

While using Bittorrent Sync, my phone sometimes runs out of charge by noon.

Looking at the battery information, I've seen Bittorrent Sync use as much as 44%.

This really needs to be addressed.

Lastly, BubbleUPnP will not run while Bittorrent Sync is running.

[JimmyTheSaint]

The battery usage of the Android app is extremely heavy. Prior to installing, I could get an entire day of phone usage on a single charge. While using Bittorrent Sync, my phone sometimes runs out of charge by noon. Looking at the battery information, I've seen Bittorrent Sync use as much as 44%.

I don't have this problem. How much stuff are you syncing? My phone syncs 600MB in 400 files.

[deadbrain]

Hi. I'm using the android app version 1.1.23.

I tried to sync a folder with my NAS, but without success. So I deleted the folder from the phone.

Still, it continued to be shown in the app.

Later on I figured the correct setup of my NAS installation and successfully synced a new folder on my phone with it.

But the older folder is STILL listed in the android list of syncs.

Is there a way to "subtract" a folder from the list? IE if I don't want to share the folder anymore?

Why the folder is listed even if I deleted it from the phone?

Thank you

[JimmyTheSaint]

Is there a way to "subtract" a folder from the list? IE if I don't want to share the folder anymore? Why the folder is listed even if I deleted it from the phone?

When you press the bottom right of the sync folder in the Android app to bring up the menu and choose "Delete," what happens?

[deadbrain]

When you press the bottom right of the sync folder in the Android app to bring up the menu and choose "Delete," what happens?

Thank you, it worked. I wonder why it did'nt update itself when I phisically deleted that folder.

Furthermore, when it ask for deletion approval, it warns that the folder will be deleted. But what if I still wants the contents of the folder but I only want to stop the syncing?

[JimmyTheSaint]

Furthermore, when it ask for deletion approval, it warns that the folder will be deleted. But what if I still wants the contents of the folder but I only want to stop the syncing?

It will only stop syncing; it won't delete the contents from your SD card. The dialog box that comes up does say that, but I wish they'd add "The folder's contents won't be deleted from your SD card."

[ChrisH]

Is there any way to show the sync status / progress on Android? Even a "sync finished" message like the desktop client has would be an improvement.

[Swisstengu]

Heh, there it is. I took that low intensity line for a divider decoration

thanks!

same for me at first sight - but then, I tried and Voilà .

[Swisstengu]

Battery Drain!!

The battery usage of the Android app is extremely heavy. Prior to installing, I could get an entire day of phone usage on a single charge.

While using Bittorrent Sync, my phone sometimes runs out of charge by noon.

Looking at the battery information, I've seen Bittorrent Sync use as much as 44%.

This really needs to be addressed.

Lastly, BubbleUPnP will not run while Bittorrent Sync is running.

same problem on a nexus4, stock android. 3 folders, about 1.9Mo. Phone's heating, and the battery life has lowered in a very bad way (could last for about 2 days, now about 12 hours…)

[JimmyTheSaint]

With 1.1.27 on both my deviced, sync stops completing once I've deleted and re-added some folders when working in my large folder. I haven't tested to see precisely how much file manager manipulation is required before sync stops. The app continues to reflect the correct state of things since the unsynced files don't appear on the "DEVICE" side (their enclosing folders appear, but are empty), and the files show as not yet synced on the "REMOTE" side. So the error is basically that sync becomes manual-only in folders I've been working on.

[mattmoss]

Same issue with battery drain. Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 4.0.4, I'm not a heavy user (not even on a data plan at the moment), so my battery usually lasts easily a day, and maybe two. Now it's barely getting through one day.

Looking at Battery settings, BitTorrent Sync used 79% of last period (charge cycle?); far beyond the next contender, Google Maps at 11%. 8.5h on that charge.

Looking at details for BitTorrent Sync, v1.1.27: CPU total is 3h 47m, data sent 810bytes, received 1.49KB. I only started testing this app, so I'm syncing only one folder containing one very short text file. I had automatic sync on; I'll turn it off for a while and see if battery life improves.

EDIT: I'll add one additional note. The folder on the phone that BTSync is watching is on an external SD card.

[mattmoss]

Also: I turned off Automatic Sync for the folder. But after a short while, if I return to the app, that checkbox is once again enabled. So it would seem… I can't turn autosync off.

[rusl]

Same issue with battery drain. Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 4.0.4, I'm not a heavy user (not even on a data plan at the moment), so my battery usually lasts easily a day, and maybe two. Now it's barely getting through one day.

For the people having battery issues: are you leaving BTSync running continuously the whole day? That would be like leaving a continuously refreshing webpage open all day. Of course it will use up the battery and probably a reasonable amount of data too.

I open the app if there is something I want to move such as a photo or some music. I then exit the app when it is finished.

I would be amazed if anyone needs to leave it running continuously all day. What are you people doing with your phones? I must be doing it wrong.

[JimmyTheSaint]

For the people having battery issues: are you leaving BTSync running continuously the whole day? That would be like leaving a continuously refreshing webpage open all day. Of course it will use up the battery and probably a reasonable amount of data too.

I open the app if there is something I want to move such as a photo or some music. I then exit the app when it is finished.

I would be amazed if anyone needs to leave it running continuously all day. What are you people doing with your phones? I must be doing it wrong.

You're exactly right: I want to leave it on continuously 24/7 so that my phones stay in sync with my stuff. That way, I can always grab one and go and be confident that all my stuff is already at my fingertips and that I'm not about to create a bunch of conflicts. The point is to not have to hover over my sync app and constantly nurse it. It just works, and also serves as yet another backup of my data. Several backups are desirable because I don't have some large corporation serving as my rock-stable repository of last resort, such as Dropbox. Dropbox works great, but I want to replace it for financial and privacy reasons. Dropbox runs continuously without devouring the battery.

[Guest idef1x]

I agree...battery usage is too high on an Android for being usefull. On my Nexus 4 the battery holds now for a day or so instead of 2. My girlfriends galaxy Ace lasts maybe 6-8 hours ..I think I will go back to foldersync for them until this is improved. Might be an idea to have an option on android to only run/sync when the charger is attached...