About syncing and encryption - Beginner questions

Hi there!

I would be very grateful if someone could help me.

Currently I use Obsidian and have all my notes synced using Dropbox and without encryption.

But I am starting to use Joplin, and have some doubts about syncing and encryption.

For example, I wanted to use my account at Mega (mega.nz) now: do I have to use the option "file system" for sync?

If so, is it better to change the location of the Joplin's database (from the current ~/.config/joplin-desktop - I am on Linux) and put it in some other place I would sync with my Mega's account?

Also, currently with Obsidian I do not use encryption. What's your opinions about this matter? Is it better to use encryption with Joplin since the beginning of the usage?

Thanks in advance and sorry for so many questions. I know that they probably are very beginner, but I have not found any tutorial and/or FAQ regardint this.

The only way to sync with Mega is using filesystem sync, but personally I don't recommend this anymore as the filesystem in general is not that reliable for sync, and many people have troubles getting it working on Android.

Joplin has built-in support for E2EE so perhaps you can use that along with a regular cloud sync target?

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Hi,

Many thanks. I'll take a deep look on that.

So, I am a bit confused here. Using Obsidian, for example, all I had to do was to set an unique folder to be synced.

But on Joplin I saw that path which needs to be informed inside sync settings, and I was wondering: does the Joplin's database needs to be maintained at its original path and I have to set a secondary folder only for the synchronization?

What do you mean by database? There are settings and cache in ~/.config/joplin-desktop but this you don't need to deal with it. This folder will be recreated wherever you install Joplin.

For sync, if you use filesystem sync, you would pick a folder within the Mega folder and the app will upload sync data there. Then other apps on other devices can also sync with that same folder.

Sorry for not have expressed myself very well. I meant that database.sqlite file inside ~/.config/joplin-desktop. For backup purposes, so, this is the only file I need to save, right?

Also, regarding sync, I think I understood now. I will try to use filesystem sync for now (I have only a Linux machine and an Android smartphone - let's see how that goes). So that path we set at Joplin sync settings is a kind of a "temporary one", right?

joplin

Yes it's good to backup this file. But I'd suggest doing a backup of the whole directory at ~/.config/joplin-desktop

Yes that's the path to sync. Once you set it up, you'll see the files in Mega

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Understood. :slight_smile:

Thank you very much, my friend. I hope to start helping out people here in the forums as soon as I understand how everything works with Joplin.

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It really depends on the situation… If someones travels a lot and ends up in situations with no Internet like I often do (e.g. riding a train in the middle of nowhere or flying on a plane), then file system sync is the only reliable way to have access to the up-do-date version of the notes (as they can sync in background, e.g. using Syncthing).

Especially on Android, with other sync methods and with no background sync in place, Joplin basically requires to have a working Internet connection to sync upon opening, and if that happens after the plane has taken off, the game is basically over.

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Hmm, yes that's a good point. In that case, you basically delegate background sync to SyncThing or some third-party. I feel it's a bit of an edge case though, Joplin is offline first in any case so any work you do is saved to device and can be synced once the internet is back on.

Yeah, it's just that I often work on important data right before leaving a place (e.g. on a desktop PC), so I need to be 100% sure that I will have access to the updated information when I'm on the go (e.g. on a phone/tablet/laptop, etc.). With Syncthing always running in background on all devices and syncing Joplin's filesystem sync folder, I don't need to worry about that :slightly_smiling_face:.

Just to give one specific example, I save my tickets inside Joplin. I absolutely need to be 100% sure that I've got everything ready when asked to show them on the train.

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