Replacing Dropbox with Tailscale + Syncthing

Dropbox and Google Drive provide great convenience in syncing files between multiple devices. However, the free storage space is small and there can be privacy concerns. The solution is to have our own server (for example, N100 mini PCs with 500GB storage that cost about 100 GBP), sync our files with Syncthing, through a private VPN network built with Tailscale.

This solution allows us to sync files between our PCs and phones free of charge.

1. Building up a private VPN network with Tailscale

  1. Install Tailscale on your server — there are official tutorials for different OS, for example Fedora.
  2. After the tailscale up command, you’ll be shown a link to log into your tailscale account.
  3. Add another device (e.g. a smartphone) — see 0:00–2:32 in this official video.

2. Syncing files using Syncthing

  1. Install Syncthing from your package manager or download from this page.

  2. Ensure Syncthing starts now and will be automatically started in the future: 

    systemctl enable --now syncthing@<linux-username>.service
  3. Configure the folders to sync following the official documentation.

3. See also

I started with following this blog post, which is sufficient to guide me through the process. My blog post here is meant to be complementary to that and the official documentations.

If the server’s WiFi connection is unstable, refer to this blog post of mine for auto-reconnecting the WiFi.