File Versioning

Warning

This page may be out of date and requires review.

Todo

External versioning requires documenting.

Description

There are 3 types of File Versioning. When you select each in the web interface, a short description of each is shown to help you decide.

Todo

More detail needed here: Can this be a relative path, or must it be an absolute path?

With “Staggered File Versioning” method (only), you would like to specify where removed and deleted files are stored as part of the Versioning feature, you can specify the path in the “Versions Path” input after this method is selected.

No File Versioning

This is the default setting. With no file versioning, files that are replaced or deleted on one device are deleted on other devices that the directory is shared with. (Note: If a folder is marked “Master Folder” on a device, that device will not accept changes to the files in the folder, and therefore will not have files replaced or deleted.)

Simple File Versioning

With “Simple File Versioning” files are moved to the “.stversions” folder (inside your shared folder) when replaced or deleted on a remote device. This option also takes a value in an input titled “Keep Versions” which tells Syncthing how many old versions of the file it should keep. For example, if you set this value to 5, if a file is replaced 5 times on a remote device, you will see 5 time-stamped versions on that file in the “.stversions” folder on the other devices sharing the same folder. With “Simple File Versioning” files are moved to the “.stversions” folder (inside your shared folder) when replaced or deleted on a remote device. This option also takes a value in an input titled “Keep Versions” which tells Syncthing how many old versions of the file it should keep. For example, if you set this value to 5, if a file is replaced 5 times on a remote device, you will see 5 time-stamped versions on that file in the “.stversions” folder on the other devices sharing the same folder.

Staggered File Versioning

With “Staggered File Versioning” files are also moved to the “.stversions” folder (inside your shared folder) when replaced or deleted on a remote device (just like “Simple File Versioning”), however, Version are automatically deleted if they are older than the maximum age or exceed the number of files allowed in an interval.

The following intervals are used and they each have a maximum number of files that will be kept for each.

1 Hour

For the first hour, the most recent version is kept every 30 seconds.

1 Day

For the first day, the most recent version is kept every hour.

30 Days

For the first 30 days, the most recent version is kept every day.

Until Maximum Age

The maximum time to keep a version in days. For example, to keep replaced or deleted files in the “.stversions” folder for an entire year, use 365. If only or 10 days, use 10. Note: Set to 0 to keep versions forever.