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Using SyncThing on iOS with Secure Shellfish

TechCraft always has great instructional videos, and the recent File Sync with Syncthing Made EASY showing how to easily set up SyncThing an alternative to DropBox or iCloud was no exception.

One challenge he presented at the end was iOS access, as SyncThing does not natively provide this. The video listed two possible approaches to iOS integration, but a third possible approach to iOS access would be to use an SSH app like Secure Shellfish to set up folder access to a SyncThing folder on either your travel Pi or a home SyncThing server accessible in your DMZ. This would allow you to use the folder from the Files app or applications folder that use file access. This would include edit-in-place apps like Textastic or Runestone.

Prerequisites

This assumes you have:

Set up SyncThings on multiple systems, and have already introduced the system, set up shared folders, and enabled sharing among those folders - Rob's video shows this

You have enabled ssh on one of those systems

Set up Secure ShellFish to log in via ssh (ideally using shared keys and not passwords) and have logged in successfully

Enabled File access for that system in Secure ShellFish - directions to enable File access are in the app help)

Use

The setup is the hard part! Once that is done:

Go to the Files app. You should see a Secure Shellfish icon in the left-hand file locations sidebar

Select that, and you should see the system(s) which which you have set up ssh connections

Navigate to the folder you have set up for sharing in SyncThing

You can then use the standard Files app commands to move files in and out of that folder, and SyncThing will share them with your other sync destinations

To use Textastic to edit in place:

Launch Textastic

Click "Add External Folder" in the left file location sidebar

Select the Secure Shellfish icon in the file browser

Select the system you have set up for sharing

Navigate to the folder you have set up for sharing in SyncThing

Edit as normal - the file will get saved back to the shared folder, and SyncThing will take it from there

OK, looks like I've let this channel linger too long...