Syncany

Important: Please be aware that this is still ALPHA code! Do not use it for important files.

Syncany is an open-source cloud storage and filesharing application. It allows users to backup and share certain folders of their workstations using any kind of storage, e.g. FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and Samba.

While the basic idea is similar to Dropbox, Syncany is open-source and additionally provides data encryption and more flexibility in terms of storage type and provider:

• Data encryption: Syncany encrypts the files locally, so that any online storage can be used even for sensitive data.
• Any storage: Syncany uses a plug-in based storage system. It can be used with any type of remote storage.

Directly jump to ...

• Download and install Syncany
• Sample usage: Try Syncany
• Build and development instructions
• Buy us a coffee
• Licensing, website and contact

Download and install Syncany

You can download the current binary packages and installers from the releases page, or from the Syncany download site. Please be aware that this is still ALPHA code! Do not use it for important files.

Latest release:
Syncany 0.1.7-alpha, 28 July 2014

Downloads:

• Windows: Installer (.exe)
• Debian/Ubuntu: Package (.deb), or via Launchpad PPA
• Arch Linux: Package (AUR)
• other operating systems: ZIP archive, or Tarball (tar.gz)

You can also check out the snapshot releases, the PPA for snapshots, and the snapshot AUR package.

Quick install and usage instructions can be found in the wiki.
If you like it a bit more detailed, there's lots more you can explore.

Sample usage: Try Syncany

Usage is pretty similar to a version control system. If you have used Git or SVN, it should feel a lot alike.

1. Choose and install a storage plugin
First choose the storage backend you'd like to use by doing sy plugin list and then sy plugin install. As of today, we've implemented plugins for FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 and Samba. For this example, we'll install the FTP plugin:

$ sy plugin install ftp

2. Initialize a local directory

$ sy init
Choose a storage plugin. Available plugins are: ftp, local, webdav, s3, sftp
Plugin: ftp

Connection details for FTP connection:
- Hostname: example.com
- Username: ftpuser
- Password (not displayed): 
- Path: repo-folder
- Port (optional, default is 21): 

Password (min. 10 chars): (user enters repo password)
Confirm: (user repeats repo password)

Repository created, and local folder initialized. To share the same repository
with others, you can share this link: syncany://storage/1/csbxyS6AA+bSK7OxbOxYQXyeouMeoU...

This sets up a new repository on the given remote storage and initializes the local folder. You can now use sy connect to connect to this repository from other clients.

3. Add files and synchronize

To let Syncany do everything automatically, simple use the sy watch command. This command will synchronize your local files.

$ sy watch 

You can also manually trigger the upload of your local files or the download of remote changes:

$ sy up
$ sy down

4. Connect other clients
To connect new clients to an existing repository, use the sy connect command. This will set up your local folder to sync with the chosen remote repository.

$ sy connect syncany://storage/1/csbxyS6AA+bSK7OxbOxYQXyeouMeoU...

Password: (user enters repo password)

Repository connected, and local folder initialized.
You can now use the 'syncany' command to sync your files.

For a detailed demo, please refer to a screencast.

Build and development instructions

Excited? Want to help? Or just build it yourself? For information about building, development, documentation, screencasts, diagrams and contributions, please check out the Syncany wiki page. It'll hopefully give you all the information you need!

Buy us a coffee

If you like what you see and you want to support us, you can buy us a coffee or a beer. There are maaanny ways to do so.

Break some hashes for us by donating some Bitcoins (also via tip4commit); or be a charmer and flattr us. If that's not for you, why not give us some change with PayPal? Any contributions are much appreciated!

Licensing, website and contact

Syncany is licensed under the GPLv3 open source license. It is actively developed by Philipp C. Heckel and many others. We are always looking for people to join or help out. Feel free to contact us:

• Syncany website, still with screenshots of the old interface
• Syncany wiki page, most important resource, and always updated
• Mailing list, still on Launchpad (active!)
• IRC channel #syncany on Freenode (my nick is binwiederhier)
• @syncany on Twitter, somewhat quiet there, though ...