Syncthing 2.0 debuts with SQLite migration, new logs, platform changes, and much more

Syncthing 2.0 has arrived, marking a major release for the popular open source solution for continuous file synchronization. With this update, the database backend transitions from LevelDB to SQLite, aiming for easier maintenance and improved reliability. Users also benefit from enhanced diagnostic capabilities, as logging now uses structured entries with newly introduced per-package log level controls and a new WARNING level positioned between INFO and ERROR.

For users running on less common systems, there are notable distribution changes. Prebuilt binaries are no longer provided for DragonFlyBSD (AMD64), Illumos (AMD64), Linux on PowerPC64, NetBSD, OpenBSD (386, ARM), and Windows on ARM because of the new SQLite dependency. Users on these platforms must now build Syncthing from source. Following these core changes, several adjustments to behavior will affect workflows: deleted items in the database are now forgotten after six months rather than preserved indefinitely, and the “default folder” is no longer created on first startup, requiring manual setup.

Command line option parsing has been modernized, with deprecated single-dash long options removed, several options renamed, and support for environment variables expanded. Other technical updates include the removal of rolling hash detection for shifted data, enabling faster scans, adoption of three default connections between v2 devices, and improved file conflict resolution that can now result in moved conflict copies when deletions win.