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Comment by celsoazevedo | Hacker News Reader

There's Möbius Sync, but iOS restrictions means that it can't work in the background or access folders like it does on Android/Windows/macOS/Linux.

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iOS literally doesn't have "just there for storage" directories that are not icloud. Either you use the photos pool, or you use icloud, or you use per-app directories that are local to each app. But then those directories cannot be accessed by other apps. Even if access to individual files is implemented, it's often very buggy.

Say you have a pictures directory shared via Möbius Sync. Then you want to edit one of the pictures with a pictures editing app that is not the builtin photos app. The app crashes, or cannot save an edited copy of the file into the same directory. I encountered this in real life.

Working copy has some of doing this. I had it syncing my logseq notes and it worked fine (other than merge conflict type things). The setup was fairly convoluted though.

This is how it is done https://github.com/CharlesChiuGit/Logseq-Git-Sync-101/wiki/F...

Apple has a “files” app that lets you access your “home directory” on the phone. It def has “just there for storage” space. It’s literally the best way to access/delete some log files.

That directory doesn't work with Möbius Sync however. It gives an error when you try to set it as the local path for sync. Also, I can't figure out how to access that from Linux via ifuse: https://github.com/libimobiledevice/ifuse/issues/58

You might need to build ifuse from source or email your package manager to update it. For sync, they likely need to just update their library.

> iOS literally doesn't have "just there for storage" directories that are not icloud. Either you use the photos pool, or you use icloud, or you use per-app directories that are local to each app.

Isn’t this no longer the case for the last 5 years or so?

‘Files’ allows to access local non iCloud folders and every app with the right entitlement can write/read there.

You can even integrate your own cloud service into ’Files’ making in indistinguishable from iCloud (in some ways at least).

iOS effectively blocks all background apps from accessing the internet except a few kb per sec. You are forced to pay apple for the convenience of a cloud backup. Walled garden dark pattern

> it can't work in the background

I could care less about that, I just want it to appear in Files.app

... but it's not available in the iOS FR app store (is it available anywhere but in the US app store?), so, deal breaker.

I use Möbius and I'm in Spain

Available in Germany

Those are two of the reasons I use Android.

- Syncthing is available in the Play Store. If it wasn't, I could use F-Droid or simply download the app from Github.

- It works in the background and it has access to my folders. I can take a picture and few seconds later it's on my PC without having to change or move anything.

Not saying that iOS is bad, but I felt tied when I had to use it. It's not for me.

I just found out it's a regulation from France regarding encryption (mostly declarative paperwork), so it's not an Apple App Store thing. Seems like Apple's App Store enforces it, but maybe not Play Store? And so either it may be published but may not be in compliance with regulations, or SyncThing did the paperwork but Mobius Sync did not.

https://github.com/MobiusSync/MobiusSync/issues/27#issuecomm...

Apparently Blink hit the same snag, which was resolved.

https://github.com/blinksh/blink/issues/355

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