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Allow arbitrary folders to be synchronized

Open ThomasSteinbach opened this issue 9 years ago • 36 comments

Currently the nextCloud app will create a one to one folder representation of the remote server when synchronizing a directory. However it would be really helpful on a mobile device to map a device directory to a remote server directory.

A use case would be syncronizing a workspace directory of an app on the mobile device with a dedicated directory path on the remote server. For instance a directory with pictures often edited by a mobile app synchronized with a subpath of 'Photos' on the remote server. Or you want to synchronize a shared folder with music into your music library directory on your mobile device...

This would assume issue #19 to be working, such that changes on the mobile device are propagated to the remote server.


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ThomasSteinbach avatar Jun 14 '16 16:06 ThomasSteinbach

Afaik also a work in progress, by @tobiasKaminsky Branch can be found here: https://github.com/nextcloud/android/tree/extendInstantUpload

It probably isn't a 100% fit to your description but this is what we try to achieve on the branch:

This allows to choose any folder on the phone to sync in one direction to owncloud, just like the instant upload does this for images. This can fix the problem of not using the correct NEW_PHOTO Action and it can also help to "backup" important folders (like WhatsApp Images).

So this issue is probably an extension to the branch as to do the same thing but in a 2-way-sync manor.

AndyScherzinger avatar Jun 14 '16 16:06 AndyScherzinger

Would there be a persistent relationship between the 'instantly uploaded folder' on the mobile device and the target directory on the nextCloud server? Meaning that if I instatly upload the folder again, the app just consider the files that have changed since the last upload.

ThomasSteinbach avatar Jun 14 '16 23:06 ThomasSteinbach

I am not sure if the android permission system allows this. Imagine we take whatsapp folder to synchronise 2-way to server/whatsapp. If we delete files on the server this means that the files are also deleted in whatsapp folder by our app.

That is why I first wanted to extend instant upload as it is read only...

tobiasKaminsky avatar Jun 15 '16 17:06 tobiasKaminsky

It should be work. Currently I'm using the Andoird app "FolderSync" to 2-way-sync multiple directories between Android and Nextcloud. Would be awesome if this functionality would be provided by the Nextcloud app itself.

mHahnle avatar Jul 06 '16 12:07 mHahnle

I second @ThomasSteinbach's request. Along with proper 2-way sync, this is the number one feature I am waiting for.

codethief avatar Aug 09 '16 06:08 codethief

+1

spacemanspiff2007 avatar Aug 14 '16 18:08 spacemanspiff2007

@tobiasKaminsky is it included in the nextcloud beta app in f-droid store or must i compile this branch by myself?

Micha-Btz avatar Aug 25 '16 05:08 Micha-Btz

@Micha-Btz This is not implemented yet and the started implementation has to be changed too due to the Android N changes, so the mentioned implementations isn't available yet. So Yes you would have to compile the branch yourself at this moment. Sorry :(

AndyScherzinger avatar Aug 30 '16 15:08 AndyScherzinger

Although we made great progress with the latest beta, as I understand we still need a custom folder for auto upload. @AndyScherzinger this is something you have on your roadmap, right?

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 14 '17 09:02 tobiasKaminsky

Exactly,yes :)

AndyScherzinger avatar Feb 14 '17 21:02 AndyScherzinger

This would be a huge step foreward since I keep my notes already in a custom folder. In which version is the available (I still got 1.4.1 from the playstore.

spacemanspiff2007 avatar Feb 15 '17 11:02 spacemanspiff2007

This will hopefully be in 1.5.0.

On Wed, 15 Feb 2017 at 12:54, spacemanspiff2007 [email protected] wrote:

This would be a huge step foreward since I keep my notes already in a custom folder. In which version is the available (I still got 1.4.1 from the playstore.

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mario avatar Feb 15 '17 11:02 mario

@mario be careful with ETAs, we do not want to disappoint people and I do not know how much time @AndyScherzinger has is the upcoming weeks ;-)

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 15 '17 16:02 tobiasKaminsky

@tobiasKaminsky I hope he'll have the time, but if not, I'm also not completely useless :P

p.s. I'm not sure I understand this issue completely though - is it just to allow "custom" folders as part of Auto Upload @tobiasKaminsky?

mario avatar Feb 15 '17 16:02 mario

P.S.2. also, I said hopefully :D

mario avatar Feb 15 '17 16:02 mario

As I understand (and planned with Andy in #285) it should be possible to use any folder across the device with any content as source folder for auto upload, with a nice folder picker. Currently the folders are picked when they contain images or videos. But still it should only be auto upload.

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 15 '17 16:02 tobiasKaminsky

Understood - thanks for the clarification :)

mario avatar Feb 15 '17 16:02 mario

Finally "it should be possible to use any folder across the device" as target for any folder on the Nextcloud.

Example Use Case: I have a password vault file on my Nextcloud under "workspaces/<appname>/vaults/...". Now I want to be able to pair the vaults directory on Nextcloud with the corresponding working directory of my Android app on the smartphones SD card.

Another Use Case could simply be pairing a subfolder of my music library on Nextcloud with the default music directory on my Android device.

ThomasSteinbach avatar Feb 15 '17 19:02 ThomasSteinbach

This is planned for the next steps, see #285. First complete 1 way sync: device -> server After that the other steps ;-)

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 15 '17 19:02 tobiasKaminsky

Sorry for the confusion. I didn't meant sync. I replaced sync with pair in my previous comment.

I just wanted to highlight that the user might select on both sides, the server and smartphone, an arbitrary folder location for exchanging files. Or is selecting an arbitrary folder on the Nextcloud server a future feature too?

ThomasSteinbach avatar Feb 15 '17 20:02 ThomasSteinbach

As described in #285 currently there is only the way device -> server. The other way around is planned. As for the auto upload you can change the target folder on the server, e.g. in which folder on the server you want to store your uploaded images from the camera.

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 16 '17 18:02 tobiasKaminsky

@tobiasKaminsky I am really confused right now. Wasn't this issue here about picking an arbitrary folder on the device to correspond to a chosen folder on the server? I don't understand at all what auto-upload functionality has to do with this…

codethief avatar Feb 17 '17 13:02 codethief

@codethief as we do not have a real sync mechanism we can only extend auto upload (on the short term). Again, see #285 as it is described there how we want to proceed.

Maybe I am understanding it wrong, then please write it a little more in detail.

tobiasKaminsky avatar Feb 17 '17 15:02 tobiasKaminsky

+1, my number one feature request for nextcloud android client :)

leoauri avatar Jun 03 '17 10:06 leoauri

+1. I'm trying to recommend Nextcloud to Android users. Who sync their contacts and calendars. But for many, the Nextcloud app only gets used as a photo backup. And others don't use it at all.

ianp5a avatar Oct 16 '17 09:10 ianp5a

@AndyScherzinger can we now close this issue?

mario avatar Mar 19 '18 07:03 mario

Afaik yes, what do you think @tobiasKaminsky

AndyScherzinger avatar Mar 19 '18 09:03 AndyScherzinger

@tobiasKaminsky seems this question hasn't got a final conclusion. Actually its the same question a friend asked when I recommended nextcloud instead of buying a NAS,

mi-hol avatar Aug 07 '19 18:08 mi-hol

Hi,

As of now, it seems this functionality has not been implemented. That is there is no proper synchronization both ways on the Android Nextcloud app. Or am I wrong?

It should be something like Metactrl apps do for Dropbox, Google Drive, Mega, etc.: if there are file or folder changes on the server, the app implements them on the Android storage, and vise-versa.

glow12121 avatar May 20 '21 19:05 glow12121

You are right with both statements: the app doesn't implement this yet and there are other apps out there supporting this for multiple cloud storage products including Nextcloud.

AndyScherzinger avatar May 20 '21 20:05 AndyScherzinger