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Installing BitTorrent Sync on a Raspberry Pi





I've been looking for a replacement for Dropbox for a while now. I've tried OwnCloud, but it seemed awefully slow on a normal machine, and especially slow on a Raspberry Pi. It seemed to heavy for the simple task of file syncing, anyway, with all of its features. I knew about BitTorrent Sync, but didn't know that there was an ARM version of the client for it. When I saw that there was, I decided to try it out on the Raspberry Pi. It works great and with the Pi always on it replaces Dropbox perfectly for my needs.

To install BitTorrent Sync on your Raspberry Pi download the ARM version  and transfer it to your Pi. Next, extract it and in the folder you will find the BitTorrent Sync binary called btsync. Following BitTorrent's instructions, simply run that binary by entering `./bstync` in your Raspberry Pi's terminal.

Next, you can visit /gui on port 8888 of your Pi. So if your Pi's IP address is 192.168.1.4, visit http://192.168.1.4:8888/gui to set up the folders you want to share.


BitTorrent Sync web interface
BitTorrent Sync web interface

Once you select a folder to sync on the Pi, you can generate a secret string for that folder. When you enter that string in the web interface for BitTorrent Sync running on another computer, it will start syncing files from that folder on your Pi. To get BitTorrent Sync for your other computer (Windows, Linux, or Mac) go to that same download page and download the client for your machine.

BitTorrent Sync is a great replacement for Dropbox or other similar file syncing software. You also get to control the computers that your files are on with BitTorrent Sync, and aren't vulnerable to anyone deleting an account and endangering your data.

If you have any questions just ask them in the comments below and I'll help you out.