Discussion

This page depends upon 2. VPN, because I'm not synchronizing my private data over the public Internet, even with TLS. I prefer defense-in-depth, so I'm putting all of my sync through a Wireguard tunnel.

I'm using Obtainium (installed through the GrapheneOS App store) to install other apps when I can. One of them is syncthing-fork.

Initial Set up

• Install the Syncthing app using Obtainium
• Start the app
• You'll see the Introduction page, press the "CONTINUE" button at the bottom right
• Next is the "Storage Permission" page. Touch the "GRANT PERMISSION" button in the middle.
  • I'm using Storage Scopes wherever possible. On this page I'm going to select a default, then I'll add folders for each app I'm syncing later.
  • Select "Setup Storage Scopes"
  • Toggle on "Enable Storage Scopes"
  • Touch the "Add Folder" icon
  • Touch "Create new folder"
  • Type in "Sync" and touch "OK"
  • Touch "Use this folder"
  • Touch "Allow"
  • Touch the left arrow button at the top-left of the screen
  • I tried to use Storage Scopes, but ran into issues with allowing the sync of my Obsidian folders. I ended up having to allow all permissions. I'm sure it's an issue of my knowledge, not either app, so I just need to figure it out.
• Next is the "Location Permission" screen. I'm not allowing that for now, so touch the "CONTINUE" button at the bottom right.
• I'm not sure what notifications it needs to send me, but I'm okay with that. Touch the "GRANT PERMISSION" button, then the "Allow" button.
• I'm kinda paranoid, so I'm not allowing the "Anonymous Usage Reporting. I touch the "NO" button at the bottom of the page.

Connect to the Pi

• I already had my laptop connected to my Pi via VNC, so I fired up my TigerVNC Viewer and connected to the Pi. Then in the VNC windows, I opened up Syncthing on the Pi and clicked on the "Actions" drop-down at the top right corner and selected "Show ID". You'll have a QR Code pop up.
  • You'll need to open the VNC window anyway, to verify and allow the phone to connect to the Pi later on.
• Then, on the phone, I opened Syncthing.
• At the top of the page, click on the "DEVICES" tab
• At the top right, you'll now see an icon that looks like a computer with a plus on the screen. touch that icon.
• In the "Add Device" page that shows up, on the right you'll see a mini QR-code icon. Touch that icon.
• You'll get a permissions request. I touched "Only this time".
• You may have to touch the QR-code icon again.
• Point the camera at the VNC viewer page with the QR code for the Pi. The Device ID will populate.
• I named the device.
• I went ahead and toggled on "Introducer". This will make it easier for me to configure the phone to accept other shared folders from the Pi when I share them from the laptop to the Pi. For instance, when I later set up either Bitwarden or KeePass.
• I don't do "Auto Accept", because I will probably want to specify where I put the shared folders.
• Click on the check mark at the top right of the page.
• On the Pi VNC windows, in the Syncthing client, you'll now see an alert asking if you want to allow the phone to connect. Click the green "Add Device" button.
• Change the name of the device if you wish, then click the "Save" button.
• On the phone, the Pi device status will now change to "Up to Date".

Now ready to sync my Obsidian Notes

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