Installing, starting at sign-in and uninstalling the desktop app

For users of the easysync desktop app. The app never downloads or installs anything: you download a new version by hand from the download page on easysync.me and check it against its .sha256 file. The app has an optional check that can tell you when a newer version number exists; it is off by default (see "Update notice" below).

Downloads #

Every release has, next to each file, a .sha256 file; check the download with it (sha256sum -c on Linux, shasum -a 256 -c on macOS, Get-FileHash on Windows). All files are unsigned:

Because they are unsigned, Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper warn before the first start; the checksum is how you know the file is the published one. The Linux packages are built but not verified on every desktop; the arm64 package was never run.

Update notice #

Off by default. Settings, card "Updates", switch "Check for new versions". After you have installed a newer version, the app offers once to switch it on (a line in the window, never a dialog; "Not now" ends the offer); until you do, the app contacts only your relays and your own devices.

• What it does. When the switch is on, the app asks easysync.me about once a day, and when it starts (one to five minutes after the start), for a small file that holds one version number. If the number is greater than the version you run, the app says that version "may be available" and offers a button that opens the download page of easysync.me in your browser, only when you click it. The address is also shown as text. It downloads and installs nothing.
• What easysync.me sees. The IP address and the time of the request, that an easysync desktop app is asking, and the path of the file. The request carries no version, no operating system, no device name and no data from your devices, and no cookie. The DNS lookup of your network is not hidden. The privacy page of the desktop app (the "Privacy" link in the About card) says what the site stores.
• "Check now" sends one request when you click it, also while the switch is off. It switches nothing on and schedules nothing.
• No proxy. The check does not use a system or environment proxy. Behind a proxy that you must use, it fails ("Could not check") and changes nothing; download by hand.
• The file is not signed. Anyone who controls the site, or has a valid certificate for it, could name a higher number or serve an old file. That can show you a notice that is not true or hide a real one; it cannot make the app download or run anything. The installers come from the same site, so a matching .sha256 file shows that the file arrived intact, not who made it. The notice says only that a greater number was announced.
• Switch it off in Settings, card "Updates". If you later install easysync from a Linux package repository, switch the check off there: the package manager then looks for new versions.

Installing #

• Windows. Run the installer. It installs for the current user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\easysync (never into %LOCALAPPDATA%\easysync: that folder is the state directory of the device, and the installer refuses it as an install folder) and needs the WebView2 runtime (Windows 11 has it; the installer downloads it otherwise). It adds no firewall rule: Windows asks once for permission for incoming connections the first time easysync listens (direct connections and discovery on the local network). Allow it on private networks to find your devices directly; without it the app still works through a relay. Upgrading from 0.3.0 or 0.4.0: those installers put the program into %LOCALAPPDATA%\easysync, the state directory, and 0.4.0 then showed "easysync could not open its data" (E_STORAGE_FAILURE). Run the newer installer over it: it moves the program to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\easysync, removes the old program and uninstall.exe from the state directory (only those two files; the state, the settings and received files stay) and points the Start menu and desktop shortcuts and the sign-in entry to the new place. On the page "Already installed" either choice works ("Add/Reinstall" or "Uninstall" when the version is the same, "Uninstall before installing" or "Do not uninstall" when it is older). Only the folder page refuses the state directory; a silent install with /D= of that folder is redirected to the program folder. If you had switched the start at sign-in on, check the switch in Settings after the upgrade.
• macOS. Open the .dmg and drag easysync to Applications. The first time the app looks for devices, macOS asks to allow "local network" access; allow it, or devices on the same network are not found directly. Gatekeeper may need a right click and "Open" for an unsigned app.
• Linux. sudo apt install ./easysync-desktop-<version>-linux-amd64.deb. The package depends on WebKitGTK and GTK 3 and on libayatana-appindicator3-1 for the tray icon. Without a tray host (some GNOME sessions need the AppIndicator extension) the app shows its window and closing it quits the app.

Starting at sign-in #

Off by default. Settings, card "Startup and tray", "Start easysync when I sign in". The app then starts hidden in the tray when you sign in; if the system has no tray it shows its window instead, because easysync never runs without a visible way to stop it. Switching it off removes the entry again. Installing a newer version over the old one removes the entry as well (by default the installer removes the old version first): switch it on again in Settings.

Uninstalling #

An uninstall keeps this device's identity, paired devices, settings and received files. They live in the state directory and the system key store, not in the program folder: a reinstall finds the same device and the same paired devices again.

To remove the device completely, reset it before you uninstall: Settings, card "This device", "Reset this device" (the same as easysync reset on the command line). Other devices keep listing this device until you revoke it there. After an uninstall without a reset, easysync reset still removes what the app left behind (the state directory and the key store entries).

• Windows. Settings, Apps, easysync, Uninstall, or the uninstaller in the install folder. It removes the sign-in entry and never touches the state directory or the Credential Manager. Its option "Delete the application data" removes only the browser data of the app window (%APPDATA% and %LOCALAPPDATA% under me.easysync.desktop), not the device state.
• macOS. Switch the sign-in item off in Settings first (or remove it under Login Items), then drag easysync from Applications to the Bin. Nothing else is removed.
• Linux. sudo apt remove easysync prints a notice that the data is kept and how to reset the device. A user's sign-in entry lives in that user's home and is not removed by the package: switch it off in Settings first, or delete the file named above.