Sync folders + subfolders

[iav]

Currently option "make available offline" can be swiched only for files, not for folders.
Need a way to do it ffor folder tree.
And should be option to turn this off for some of subtrees.

[OlivierS1]

I concur.
"Set as available offline" should be extended to folders.

[tobiasKaminsky]

We have #285 where we describe how to improve the current system to a real 2way sync.

[bkraul]

Just migrated from owncloud to nextcloud and found the folder 'make available offline' feature is not available on Nextcloud for Android. Any plans on implementing? This issue seems to be almost 2 years old.

[bkraul]

@tobiasKaminsky I don't mean to come across as offensive, but help me understand something. Nextcloud broke away from owncloud in part because owncloud was not listening to the community in a way that furthered the product. But yet, here we have a an almost 2 year old issue still largely unaddressed (one that owncloud has supported for a good while). So my question is, is nextcloud really more community-aware than owncloud is? I understand a comment like this does not make me look very nice (and I apologize for that), but I am just curious.

[TheLux83]

I want to throw my hat into this ring, too. I'm using Joplin and the direct synchronisation isn't very fast. So my idea was to make the whole Joplin folder offline available, but it seems, that this isn't possible. Please create a offline sync for folders!

[Tonus1]

@TheLux83 Exact same use case here!

[edmael]

Hi, any news regarding this bug/feature request?

Having a whole folder available on the device is a major feature to have.

[vincolus]

I tried synching my selfmade ringtones / notification sounds via Google Drive to my Smartphone. It's about 150 files and clicking each file and manually downloading it would take longer than developing that feature, I guess...

Sadly though, this feature and topic seem to have been buried!
I cannot really understand why, because it's nothing new and in my eyes nothing too difficult to implement.
There is/was dozens of applications capable of doing so, for example dropbox, owncloud, etc.
I even wrote my own, long time ago. One using wget and the later one using rsync.

So where is the big problem?

In linux you simply use rsync with the correct parameters, comparing modification date and creation date, ignoring permissions and that's about it! Heck, you could even embed rsync into an app that then does this for you I believe.
If you still do not believe people need this, then check out these works.
People did invest lots of time and trial-and-error to implement that

• Google Drive direct download of big file(s)
  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25010369/wget-curl-large-file-from-google-drive
  https://github.com/circulosmeos/gdown.pl

• Downloading files Using Drive API
  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20665881/direct-download-from-google-drive-using-google-drive-api

• Sync folder with Google Drive. Recursively downloads with wget and Google Drive public links
  https://gist.github.com/wernerb/7864141

So it seems google has had an API that was capable of doing that, but they removed those features.
Still, people managed to code their way towards their goal. If that ain't dedication, then I dont know...

[Passaita]

Is there any change on the status or some workaround?

[timkrief]

This usually doesn't work for me, but I decided to try a minimal reproductible example and it did work:

Folder
|-- Subfolder 1
| |-- File.txt
|-- Subfloder 2
| |-- File.txt
|-- File.txt

I tapped sync for the main folder and everything synced.
This was surprising to me because this did not work for other cases and I don't know what caused that, if that happen again, I'll try to investigate.

An issue is that there is no indication of the current sync status of a folder after the blue syncing one, even if everything is synced inside it doesn't show a green tick (I'm not sure but I think that was the case before).

Using version 3.30.2
Hope this helps.

[Werewolfke]

This is still not solved? We have folders where we need to be able to make everything inside available offline, this works perfectly on pc, but we want to switch to more portable android tablets and this needs to be available as we are not always at a place where there is any connection to the outside world...

[Cosmopal]

+1 on this. We are trying to keep our content libray in sync across all devices and it is a little frustrating because we have to go to every subfolder for it to appear in the android files.

I see this item is still open in #285 . Maintainers @tobiasKaminsky @joshtrichards what is the challenge here? Is it too tricky to implement? Or is it just about developer manpower? If it's latter, I am happy to volunteer time for this. Please let me know if someone is already working on this else I can give it a go.

[ozturkkl]

Yes! Was going to start a new thread but found this:

1. Syncing folder doesn't sync subfolders
2. Syncing already synced folder re-downloads EVERYTHING
3. Qustion: is there a way to keep the folder synced?

I'm on Android Samsung S24 Ultra. @Cosmopal please keep us posted. This is very much needed.

[dakotagrvtt]

I am curious too why this has not been implemented yet. I had to resort to downloading a music folder for a family member (which comes in as a zip file) from the browser instead of using the app because subfolder downloading still does not work.

Even a "download subdirectories" option would be preferable to prevent users from downloading very large folders by accident.

[one7two99]

Also reproducing the same behaviour while trying out Nextcloud as an alternative for some of our customers who want to "de-cloud" their services from SharePoint/Onedrive.
Would be great to get a feedback from the developers what is the major obstacle to implement this change (as the issue seems to be open since a very long time AND it looks like an actual basic feature if there is a sync button). If its money than maybe we can start a funding to get this implemented.
I am somewhat surprised that lots of features gets added to Nextxloud (Nextcloud Plugins) but something which is actually a core functionality (sync to local device) is kind of broken.
I thing it would rather make sense to remove the feature or maybe add a BETA to it as normal users will not understand why this is not working and might loose trust in the product.

[one7two99]

I run several other tests and even when I manually sync a folder before enabling Two Way Sync it is not working.
Sync period has been setup with 15min.
Even after waiting 8 hours a file which has been created on the android device within the folder which is enabled for two way sync will not be uploaded to the nextcloud server.

Can someone try to reproduce this problem:

1. Sync a folder locally to the device
2. Setting up two way sync via Folder > Details
3. Enabling two sync in the nextcloud settings
4. Create a file locally in the folder which has been synced to the device
5. Wait until the two way sync period is over
6. Check if file is available on nextcloud server
7. If not, initiate a sync via nextcloud app
8. Check if file is available on nextcloud server

I am running Nextcloud stable 3.30.7 (Jan/06 2025) on GrapheneOS.
Nextcloud App has been excluded from battery optimization.

[polandy]

@one7two99
I followed the exact same steps as you. Unfortunately, synchronization is not working for me either. I'm using the Nextcloud client version 3.30.7 from the Play Store on Android 15 (Pixel 8).