Android stops syncing, requires phone restart to fix.

[Pak Kriss]

Same here, no SD cards involved.

We actively remove everything from Resilio Sync (where did the nested folders get lost?)

I look back with a crying eye.

[Andyjbm]

Hi @Maniac but did you keep the SD card in the phone? Try removing the SD card from the phone just to eliminate it completely. If sync still hangs then we know for sure its NOT the SD card.

Andy

[Maniac]

I did not, but I'm not able/willing to remove my SD card for that. I'd have to wait a day or two and I have stuff on there I use.

[Andyjbm]

Update as promised,

aaaand....

Back to square one. Didn't last a week. So new SD Card made no difference.

Symptoms:

1. Notice that some files on another client haven't synced when they've had a day or so to do so.

2. Go to phone and see that sync has no peers for any sync folders when clearly there should be.

3. Go to settings> exit. Sync displays shutdown spinning wheel (forever. Tested 24hrs at least) until the app is force closed or the phone is restarted.

As you were,

Andy.

[wenrao]

If its not actually syncing outside of the UI (as in not a UI update problem)... it could even be the device killing the app and the way RS handles it doesn't cope or maybe an internal app problem.

Suppose, you or RS devs really need to look through Android debug log and really see why its not working. You might be able to do it without doing that but you might not after spending a lot of time trying.

I don't really recommend relying on RS Android. I used it for backups to Android and RS was a total fail for that. Its disappointing to me as it would be a nice way to have encrypted backups at all times. I so really want auto backups to mobile device.

[Maniac]

So I realized I can reproduce this on demand, as I was trying to get something to sync this morning. My work's wifi blocks resilio sync's data. If I connect to it, syncing obviously stops working; but when I disconnect it never starts working again. I have to force stop the app and restart it to get it to find peers and sync data again.

[xrg]

How is it that this common problem has been going on for years with no line of sight on a resolution from Resilio?

Adopted Resilio as a reliable file sync solution, however the Android experience is a complete fail!!

I've got a late model phone (S10), client has all the privileges it requires, no external cards and freezes every day. No way to recover without restarting the phone.

RESILIO... WHERE ARE YOU ON THIS ISSUE?!?!

[Andy+]

I had the same problem. I stop the Resilio APP on Android and use the APP from Syncthing, which works very fine. Therefore I have on my devices a mixed situation Resilio and Syncthing and use for all peers special Ignore Pattern. This works very good.

[Maniac]

Interesting, wasn't aware of Syncthing. I'll probably try it out if this doesn't pan out:
https://forum.resilio.com/topic/71250-is-resilio-sync-dead/?do=findComment&comment=153575

[jabv]

Alright, well there hasn't been any help from developers on fixing this issue, but I've found a temporary remedy. The app no longer freezes on Android so I don't have to force stop the app or restart anymore, but it will still lose connection after a certain amount of time and have to Exit the app and restart to get it to sync again.

What I did was Force Stop the app (Phone Settings -> Apps -> Sync), then Clear Cache and Clear Data (Phone Settings -> Apps -> Sync -> Storage). This clears all your settings so it's like starting from a fresh install of the app.

Before you link the device, use your file explorer on android to rename your shared folders (e.g. "Folder" to "Folder.BAK").

Then link the device and connect the folders, but keep Selective Sync turned on. Wait for the folders to stop Indexing. Then Exit Sync (either from the notification bar or in the app press "Exit"), and using your file explorer, cut & paste your files from the old Folder.BAK to the new shared Folder (if you have a lot of files, you need to cut & paste a few files at a time or Sync will crash when trying to index).

Then start Sync again and wait for it to finish Indexing with the files added. When it's finished Indexing, you can turn off Selective Sync.

One last thing (this is for Android 9), go to Phone Settings -> Apps, click the three dots in the upper right and choose Special Access -> Optimize Battery Usage, then select All Apps. Scroll to Sync and switch it off.

The app doesn't crash anymore, but I still have to Exit and Startup again to get it to connect to my other devices after some time.

If Resilio doesn't fix this, Syncthing as recommended earlier is a good alternative, though it's really confusing to use at first and there's no Selective Sync. You can use the ignore file, but that's not very practical nor convenient for most people's selective sync needs.

[Andy+]

36 minutes ago, jabv said:

The app doesn't crash anymore, but I still have to Exit and Startup again to get it to connect to my other devices after some time.

Same on my Smartphones. Mainly Sync runs, but cant shutdown for restarting, this freeze the App. I must restart the whole Smartphone. This is no good condition, so Syncthing runs for all instead.

[Andy+]

I think, this APP is not used by Resilio Connect, so is not in the focus,

[Andy+]

Since I couldn't really understand the circumstances around the Resilio APP for Android, I deleted it from all Android devices and reinstalled it.

Effect 1: With none of the Android devices I could establish a device connection to other clients or servers via the identity. So no advance folders are available. Good thing there is a QR code to connect.

Effect 2: The Android APP runs without this identity connection as it should. I can only explain that the exchange of certificates no longer works and therefore the APP freezes or the entire device has to be restarted etc.

Without this convenience of the payment version, it can now be use again. However, the goal should be that the APP works completely. The autostart also works again after the reboot, which previously did not work either. For me this means that the exchange of the identity no longer worked.

[Andy+]

I have now given all devices new identities and linked them again with the "master". Since then, the whole system of Synology servers, Windows clients and Smartphones has been running smoothly again. The Resilio APP on the smartphones can now be ended, started again, the autostart works again after the reboot. And so far, the APP has not frozen.

Let's see. All this now only through new identities - interesting.

[Maniac]

FWIW, none of my phone are syncing via linked identities, I have always used codes to share folders.

I still have this issue, so it's unrelated to identities, IMO.

[Andy+]

Doe you try a delete and new installation of the APP?

[Maniac]

Not recently, but I installed the app on a new phone a couple months ago and it has this issue.

[Andyjbm]

Hello once more folks,

So being stuck in lockdown my phone has been stuck with me also on the same wifi network for pretty much a week. And resilio has been behaving. No freezes or force closing required.

Having read the threads about dropped connections I have a theory (no evidence to present I'm afraid) that resilio gets broken when the phone connects to wifi that requires a signin on a landing page.

On my route to work and around that area there are a lot of chains (eg McDonalds, Premier Inn etc etc) with wpa encrypted public wifi access points that then require a login on a landing page. I have a hunch that herin lies the problem.

1) Because these wifi connections are encrypted and password protected the phone will connect to them when they are in range without asking. Once you've signed up to the Wifi in one of these outlets you've pretty much signed up to the wifi in every store in the UK at least.

2) The landing page. This works by intercepting DNS on a http connection and redirecting the request. On https this does not work for a host of security reasons (URL cert not matching server, Landing page DNS intercepting the resolution request and returning the wrong IP so DNSSEC invalid at best. etc etc etc)

So the flakey theory is that if the wifi connects then resilio sync believes it to have access to the internet but gets part of its connectivity blocked by a wifi AP landing page it then breaks in a way it can't recover from and basically baulks until it is force closed.

 

I'm still waiting to be advised on how to go about collecting logs that may help to troubleshoot this issue.

C'mon resilio, I've got nothing else to do for another three weeks.

 

Andy.

 

[Andyjbm]

And as a PS to those suggesting syncthing,

 

 Yes syncthing is great. I love it. I'd have gone there and this thread would not have been started BUT...

 

Google in their wisdom created the GO platform on which syncthing is written. The GO platform prevents syncthing from being able to create folders on SDCards set up as external storage under Android.

syncthing blames Google, google says GO is reeeeally secure... etc.etc. This will probably never be fixed without rooting your phone.

If the SD Card is set up as internal then yes I believe it works (not tried) but that means your SDCard is encrypted and unable to be read from another device in the event of a phone disaster. Your data on the SDCard dies with your phone.

Shame.

Andy.

[Andy+]

In my case I had the problems also internally, outside I need some Tests.

[Maniac]

@Andyjbm yes, any network which blocks resilio's data will cause this problem. I can reproduce this at will by simply connecting to my office's network (which I am away from for the past 4 weeks too). I presume also, losses in network connectivity at the "wrong time".

 

See my post from 2/11:
 

On 2/11/2020 at 7:27 AM, Maniac said:

So I realized I can reproduce this on demand, as I was trying to get something to sync this morning. My work's wifi blocks resilio sync's data. If I connect to it, syncing obviously stops working; but when I disconnect it never starts working again. I have to force stop the app and restart it to get it to find peers and sync data again.

[Andy+]

Its a problem of Resilio that is not so flexible with restrictive networks. For such cases I use Syncthing in parallel, because the relay servers of Syncthing also work with purely http and https ports, it means port 80 and 443. If you doesnt know Syncthing, its basically the same as Resilio, more flexibel in Features, also in this case, but not so fast.

Since some month for me is Syncthing as good as Resilio, if you search for a serious alternative software

[d-chall]

I've consistently suffered similar problems over the past 3-4 years using the Sync app on Android, would love a reliable solution. A possibly connected or separate issue is that it seems every 6 months or so the camera backup connection breaks completely and the only way to fix it is to unlink and setup the backup again from scratch. Anyone else with same problem or solutions?

[Peet]

I'm having many similar issues with the app.  I was using SyncTrayzor for a while but I liked the idea of selective sync and went ahead and paid for the license for Resilio Sync.

I even tried using the in app Support link to send feedback.  It offered to send my device logs as well and it got stuck on 0% trying to upload the logs. 😂🙄

Has anyone gotten a refund since "Link all your devices" is part of the advertised package for buying a license?

[knwpsk]

On 4/16/2020 at 6:11 AM, Andyjbm said:

...

On my route to work and around that area there are a lot of chains (eg McDonalds, Premier Inn etc etc) with wpa encrypted public wifi access points that then require a login on a landing page. I have a hunch that herin lies the problem.

...

 

 

On 4/16/2020 at 6:55 AM, Maniac said:

@Andyjbm yes, any network which blocks resilio's data will cause this problem. I can reproduce this at will by simply connecting to my office's network (which I am away from for the past 4 weeks too). I presume also, losses in network connectivity at the "wrong time".

.

Upvote. Agree.  This describes my experience, too.