Thank you for linking this!

It is on F-Droid

It helps to take a step back and think about Syncthing as a file sharing utility in general.

Syncthing allows you to share any number of folders with any number of other devices with any type of sharing structure you want (2 way file sync = filesharing, 1 way file sync = backing up). You can also set up file versioning on files within a Syncthing folder’s settings.

Note: Syncthing is not intended to be a true file backup utility, and some people will get quite upset if you portray it that way, which I get, but also it just works… and you just need to be reasonable about how you do things, just remember it is a general filesharing tool that you are USING to backup files.

You are the cloud with Syncthing, but unlike something like Nextcloud there is no special central file server nonsense, there are just Syncthing devices sharing folders to other Syncthing devices so you can do it however you want. You do need two devices of course, your phone you want to backup and the device you are backing up onto (which could be a computer with usb drive attached), but from there you can add new devices and share the same folder/folders to them and leapfrog important files without needing to sit there and think out some complicated system or architecture ahead of time.

Syncthing is very “organic” because it is so simple, but it is also very powerful, I have relied on it for years in a variety of contexts and have never really been let down.

One tip, if you want your own personal cloud, a raspberry pi type device, or an old phone plugged into the wall can serve as your server that is always listening for file edits/updates from devices in a folder share. Otherwise you have to make sure Syncthing devices are on the internet at the same time to sync files, though there is actually a quite nice GUI interface for resolving file conflicts if they do happen (I have used it quite a few times and resolved issues).

If your files are smallish, just setting the “file versioning” setting under a Syncthing folder’s settings to a number like 5-10 versions can provide even more confidence you won’t lose something but I digress…

I love Syncthing!

edit you can also do weird little hacks if you need to by doing things like setting up a Syncthing folder share on a Dropbox folder to sync files in ways you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, it isn’t a recommended practice but shrugs I have also done this many times too and haven’t had any serious issues.

You don’t need a full backup of your phone, you need a backup of all the relevant data! What do you need to backup other than contacts and media in your home folder? (documents, downloads, music, podcasts, DCIM etc…)

If there is relevant data “locked up” in your apps can you export it in some form to somewhere like your downloads folder and sync that folder?

Yeah but you can also set it to copy your DCIM photos folder or whatever (if you want to backup files, make it a one way folder sync in the folder options in Syncthing), if Syncthing is limited it is because of Android’s filesystem limitations not Syncthing.

Also consider an option that uses termux if Syncthing doesn’t work such as this one that uses rsync and termux.

https://howtos.davidsebek.com/android-rsync-termux.html

^the above tutorial may look intimidating at first, but each step is explained very clearly

You can also use termux to install Syncthing and then take advantage of termux’s ability to work around Android file system limitations.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/

Use syncthing and just sync all your important folders!

On F-Droid app store use Syncthing-forked

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.catfriend1.syncthingfork/

There are probably other more wholistic and specific ways to do this with apps specifically designed for it, but Syncthing you can use for pretty much anything and any other internet connected device you have you can use Syncthing to share/backup files too.

You don’t even need internet to use Syncthing, it will work entirely over your local network if both devices are on the same network.

Yeah I was going to recommend the film too, of course it is narrativized in many ways in the way big budget movies like this are, but I also think it does a better job than The Wolf Of Wallstreet at NOT making the villains unironically look cool at the end even though the takeaway is supposed to be that the villains are bad.

This is also a decent list of stuff to check out.

https://www.nypl.org/blog/2021/02/04/facebook-booklist

No Zuckerberg made it to browse through all of the hot women at his school with other men more efficiently.

Facebook was conceived as a way to browse a web store of “female objects” easier.

Boys using toys for exactly what Men made them for…

ughhhhhh

I mean why did Zuckeberg make Facebook in the first place? The throughline here is direct.

No, that is the healthiest/least draining thing to do, the militant and most effective thing to do is relentlessly shit on corporate social media with your old corpo account while moving the rest of your social identity to the fediverse.

Obnoxiously link to the fediverse, talk about it unprompted, strip mine the relevance of your posts to the algorithm before you leave.

I am not saying everyone has to do this, I am not even necessarily recommending it as a general suggestion but this is clearly the best way to hate on billionaire social media and fight back against it. If you have the energy, don’t throw away the value of your social connections to the corpo algorithm without first converting as much as possible of it to awareness of the fediverse and how shitty corpo social media is, if your objective is to fight as hard as possible.

edit corporate social media is toxic as hell, I make this point not as a judgement of people who just log out and never log back in to corporate social media, take care of yourself, this strategy is for if you have the mental headspace to do it.

Do Both

Yes but part of the selling point a lot of the time does perversely come back to US-centric companies providing the leaders of Governments and Corporations a Backdoor-As-A-Service product to force upon those lower down in the pecking order.

Oh yeah, I am livid about that ughh.

I hate Android with a bloodcurdling passion but yes.

Apple has the most condescending design philosophy I know of and I will never tolerate the degree of suffocation Apple imposes on devices you have purchased and own.

Also Android has F-Droid which makes Android categorically superior to iOS.

https://f-droid.org/en/

Get all of your core basic apps like flashlight apps, image gallery apps, file browser apps etc… from F-Droid.

Samsung? I hate samsung and yet I have an older used flagship samsung phone and ultimately that is what I recommend doing with Android, always buy near top of the line phones (samsung or otherwise), just go used and older until you hit a price point you are comfortable with. This reduces the headaches you will run into with Android a lot since you are always getting the experience Android was meant to give and that designers focused on especially when it comes to the hardware and camera + camera app.

I recommend Swappa for buying used electronics/phones since the website is dedicated to only those kinds of sales and provides a lot of confidence and comfort vs. buying off a random ebay seller.

https://swappa.com/

edit ALSO on Android you can change your launcher/homescreen, the idea that you can’t do this on iOS blows my mind even though it doesn’t surprise me…

DINO

Where I draw the line for whether it is ethical to light things on fire is when they start destroying rare knowledge and books as fast as possible for no other reason than to hoard and obscure knowledge for private benefit.

It is one thing to fund the creation of knowledge and then hoard it, it is entirely another to begin actively attacking and destroying pre-existing publicly shared resources of knowledge in the pursuit of monetizing access to that very knowledge behind a gargantuan profit motivated entity.

and I mean it is a job that gets blood on your hands, homie.

If they don’t want that baggage, they can deploy their golden parachute and go head another company/organization.

Stop carrying water for these people.

You can’t just pretend having some arbitrary connection to Kevin Bacon is the same as being all the way at the top of the power structure of one of the most powerful entities on earth that is actively seeking profit from an ongoing Genocide.

Hi, supersquirrel here, are you tired of people scamming you out of money with emails tantalizingly asking you to help start a realllllly profitable business in a foreign country?

Well, I have a solution for you! Pay me lots of money and I will tell you EXACTLY what you want to hear about those scammers/business opportunities!

Whoever has that job also very likely has blood on their hands from being involved in facilitating (or remaining silent about) the Palestinian Genocide with Microslop products like Azure and other computing services, so FUCK them, pile the misery on to them until they crumble into dust as a person for all I care.