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Remote Control by Broadcast Intents

Simon Frei edited this page Mar 9, 2023 · 15 revisions

Syncthing can be controlled externally by sending Broadcast-Intents. Applications like Tasker, Llama or Automate now can start or stop Syncthing on behalf of the user. Use cases would be to run Syncthing only in special conditions - like at home and charging, or once every night, ...

The following intent actions are available:

  • Start Syncthing: com.nutomic.syncthingandroid.action.START
  • Stop Syncthing: com.nutomic.syncthingandroid.action.STOP

The intents should be set to 'broadcast' rather than starting an activity of service. Note that some apps, e.g. Llama, are sensitive to trailing spaces so be careful not to leave any when entering the action.

Tasker example action to start Syncthing:

  • Action: Send Intent

Action: com.nutomic.syncthingandroid.action.START

Type: None

Mime type: [ leave empty ]

Data: [ leave empty ]

Extra: [ leave empty ]

Package: com.nutomic.syncthingandroid

Class: [ leave empty ]

Target: Broadcast Receiver

Description: Start Syncthing

If Syncthing is configured to Always run in background those intents are ignored and the configuration in Syncthing takes precedence over the intents – resulting in ignoring them.

For the Automate app there is an example-flow available in the Automate-Community that demonstrates the start- and the stop-intent. Search for Syncthing. ;-)

Note for developers: If you run a debug build of the app, the correct package name is "com.nutomic.syncthingandroid.debug".