feat(gui, config): support simple folder grouping (fixes #2070) by maen-bn · Pull Request #10563 · syncthing/syncthing

maen-bn · 2026-02-06T16:49:50Z

Purpose

Adds a very simple way to group up folders to help with organizing from the GUI. My intention is to not make this too complicated and just as a starter but potential follow on PRs to improve this but out of scope here are:

Sub group
Colour coding
Drag folders into groups on top of the putting them into groups via edit modal

Resolves #2070

Testing

Expand a folder and click Edit to bring up edit modal.
Enter a folder group name of your choice and save
Folder should be under Group heading
Edit a different folder to be part of the group you added the previous folder to (a count should appear near the Group heading)
Any non grouped folder should sit at the top

Screenshots

Documentation

I haven't done this yet as I want to wait for the feedback on the changes. I'm happy to do those doc changes too but the changes to the doc should be

Add "group" attribute to users/config.html#folder-element

Authorship

Ben Norcombe bennorcombe@pm.me

acolomb · 2026-02-06T21:21:21Z

Why should this affect the protocol? IMHO folder grouping is a local thing to organize the device's individual folder list. Groups may not mean the same to other users.

AudriusButkevicius · 2026-02-06T21:35:13Z

This can be even more simple, and can be fully a UI feature with no changes at all.
i.e., if the label has a slash, it ends up being interpreted as a group

g1/f1
g1/f2
g2/f1

ends up as:

g1
f1
f2

g2
f1

etc

acolomb · 2026-02-07T07:44:12Z

That idea has been discussed before on the forum and in some issues, e.g. #2070. The major downside is that it fails for some common labels where a slash is used differently. For example: School term 2025 / 2026.

A separate config field for the grouping was the favored approach IIRC. Heuristics such as separation levels by a slash can be applied there. But mixing semantics with the label field will cause trouble for existing setups.

maen-bn · 2026-02-07T08:35:44Z

Why should this affect the protocol? IMHO folder grouping is a local thing to organize the device's individual folder list. Groups may not mean the same to other users.

No probs. I can drop that. I was just following something you said here about adjusting the protocol but I might have misinterpreted it #2070 (comment)

bt90 · 2026-02-07T08:53:49Z

That idea has been discussed before on the forum and in some issues, e.g. #2070. The major downside is that it fails for some common labels where a slash is used differently. For example: School term 2025 / 2026.

This can be fixed by allowing users to mask /

e.g School term 2025 // 2026

acolomb · 2026-02-07T09:56:18Z

This can be fixed by allowing users to mask /

Really? That still leaves users needing to bend over backwards to adjust their labels, when they simply do not need a grouping feature. Label is a label, completely free form, already used that way. Semantics can be attached to an additional field, with a special purpose.

No probs. I can drop that. I was just following something you said here about adjusting the protocol but I might have misinterpreted it

That was about protobuf, which we had used to define the configuration structure at the time. I believe we went back to simple go structs since.

tomasz1986 · 2026-02-07T12:23:42Z

I would also like to suggest keeping labels their own thing. For example, all my labels are basically relative folder paths (separated with / forward slashes), so if the slash character suddenly got a special function, everything would likely become a large mess 😅.

@maen-bn Could you post a screenshot with more folders in each group than just one? I would also be curious how the UI looked if you dropped the group background colour (as I think the current version doesn't look the best, especially with the empty space below the last folder). Alternatively, maybe drop the background for ungrouped folders only? If possible, it would also be nice to see how everything looks in the light and black themes 🙂.

maen-bn · 2026-02-07T13:12:13Z

@acolomb Ah okay that makes sense, appreciate the context given I'm a newbie to contributing here.

@tomasz1986 there is a part in the gif where two folders are in the same group

But I can get a screenshot where there's more than two as well if that helps. Yeah I can remove the background for them and show some screenshots for the light theme too

maen-bn · 2026-02-07T18:17:15Z

Here you go @tomasz1986, I've removed the background for the groups and examples of more folders grouped with all the themes available in the GUI

Light

Dark

Black

tomasz1986 · 2026-02-07T21:01:29Z

Thanks for the screenshots! Not sure what others think, but for me, the current iteration (without the background) looks better 🙂.

superboo07 · 2026-04-03T17:27:19Z

Loving the look of this

calmh · 2026-04-05T08:29:36Z

Looks reasonable to me, but the immediate followup question will be why this is not supported for devices. It seems reasonable to support the same mechanism for both at the same time, possibly?

maen-bn · 2026-04-05T08:35:23Z

Looks reasonable to me, but the immediate followup question will be why this is not supported for devices. It seems reasonable to support the same mechanism for both at the same time, possibly?

Yeah that's very reasonable. I'm happy to sort that out in separate PR if that's cool

calmh · 2026-04-05T08:53:53Z

I think it would be fine to have in the same, as a single grouping concept.

tomasz1986 · 2026-04-05T10:40:08Z

Please also push a relevant PR to the Docs, so that https://docs.syncthing.net/users/config#config-option-folder.group works (and the same for device groups, if implemented) 🙂.

Document upcoming fuctionality addtion for grouping done in syncthing/syncthing#10563 Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn · 2026-04-05T15:40:51Z

Okay @calmh I've popped in some new changes to add grouping to devices too. Here some screenshots (redacted info as it was my own data) showing the new changes

Also (FYI @tomasz1986 ) I have stuck in changes on the docs repo to cover the changes here which can be found in the PR syncthing/docs#1001

Let me know if I need to adjust anything

calmh

Some nits to pick

calmh · 2026-04-06T06:07:21Z

gui/default/syncthing/core/syncthingController.js

+            console.log("HELLO!!!");
+            console.log($scope.deviceGroups);


calmh · 2026-04-06T06:09:17Z

gui/default/syncthing/device/editDeviceModalView.html

            <p translate ng-if="currentDevice.deviceID == myID" class="help-block">Shown instead of Device ID in the cluster status. Will be advertised to other devices as an optional default name.</p>
            <p translate ng-if="currentDevice.deviceID != myID" class="help-block">Shown instead of Device ID in the cluster status. Will be updated to the name the device advertises if left empty.</p>
          </div>
+          <div class="form-group" ng-class="{'has-error': deviceEditor.deviceGroup.$invalid && deviceEditor.folderGroup.$dirty && !editingDeviceDefaults()}">


folderGroup should be deviceGroup

calmh · 2026-04-06T06:10:24Z

lib/config/folderconfiguration.go

 	Path                    string                      `json:"path" xml:"path,attr"`
 	Type                    FolderType                  `json:"type" xml:"type,attr"`
 	Devices                 []FolderDeviceConfiguration `json:"devices" xml:"device"`
+	Group                   string                      `json:"group" xml:"group,attr"`


Suggested change

Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr"`

Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr,omitempty"`

calmh · 2026-04-06T06:13:51Z

gui/default/index.html

-                            <span ng-if="folder.versioning.type == 'simple'" tooltip data-original-title="{{'Keep Versions' | translate}}">
-                              &ensp;<span class="fa fa-file-archive-o"></span>&nbsp;{{folder.versioning.params.keep}}
+          <div ng-repeat="(folderGroupKey, folderGroup) in folderGroups">
+            <h4>{{ folderGroup }} 


Might want to make the h4 conditional on the group name not being empty ""?

calmh · 2026-04-06T06:15:00Z

gui/default/syncthing/core/syncthingController.js

            }
        };
+
+        $scope.folderListByGroup = function (group) {


These are called several times per frame, perhaps it would be worth it to cache them as a map/dictionary instead?

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn · 2026-04-06T12:29:05Z

Some nits to pick

All sorted @calmh and changed up how the folder and device groups are constructed so rather than just a list of groups they're now a map with group as the key and their related devices/folders so no need for those filtered function that were being called over and over again.

Document upcoming fuctionality addtion for grouping done in syncthing/syncthing#10563 Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

…solves syncthing#2070) Rather than filtering a list of devices and folders by group name which can be called multiple times per frame, the change here maps the devices and folders into their groups only when the local config changes and makes it easier to access just by keying into the map. Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

calmh

Further minor things

calmh · 2026-04-06T20:45:13Z

lib/config/folderconfiguration.go

 	Path                    string                      `json:"path" xml:"path,attr"`
 	Type                    FolderType                  `json:"type" xml:"type,attr"`
 	Devices                 []FolderDeviceConfiguration `json:"devices" xml:"device"`
+	Group                   string                      `json:"group" xml:"group,attr,omitempty"`


Suggested change

Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr,omitempty"`

Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr,omitempty" restart:"false"`

calmh · 2026-04-06T20:52:25Z

gui/default/index.html

-                    <span class="inline-icon">
-                      <span ng-class="rdConnTypeIcon(rdConnType(deviceCfg.deviceID))" class="reception reception-theme"></span>
-                    </span>
+          <div ng-repeat="(deviceGroupName, devices) in devicesGrouped">


This clobbers $scope.devices inside the loop, should probably use a more specific name... (Same for the folders I think)

calmh · 2026-04-06T20:53:53Z

gui/default/index.html

-                              &ensp;<span class="fa fa-file-archive-o"></span>&nbsp;{{folder.versioning.params.keep}}
+          <div ng-repeat="(folderGroupName, folders) in foldersGrouped">
+            <h4 ng-if="folderGroupName !== ''">{{ folderGroupName }} 
+              <span ng-if="folders.length > 1 && folders.length > 0"> ({{folders.length}})</span>


More than zero and more than one?

Sorry typo that's suppose to be checking how many folders there are and if the group has a name that isn't empty

…ng#2070) Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

…esolves syncthing#2070) Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

…) (syncthing#10563) Adds a very simple way to group up folders to help with organising from the GUI. Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me> Signed-off-by: Tomasz Wilczyński <twilczynski@naver.com>

tomasz1986 · 2026-04-07T18:55:37Z

I think something is broken regarding device grouping. For some reason, it shows the "self" device in the remote devices list.

As you can see below, "syncthing1" is the self device, which isn't supposed to be displayed in the list.

Document upcoming fuctionality addtion for grouping done in syncthing/syncthing#10563 --------- Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me> Signed-off-by: Jakob Borg <jakob@kastelo.net> Co-authored-by: Jakob Borg <jakob@kastelo.net>

Regression was introduced in PR syncthing#10563 due to new devices grouping feature not utlising the otherDevices utility function to ensure the local device is not shown in the remote devices list Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn · 2026-04-07T19:31:10Z

I think something is broken regarding device grouping. For some reason, it shows the "self" device in the remote devices list.

As you can see below, "syncthing1" is the self device, which isn't supposed to be displayed in the list.

Ah yeah apologies. The groupedDevices map didn't utilise the otherDevices utility function. I've created a PR to fix the regression #10631

github-actions bot added the enhancement New features or improvements of some kind, as opposed to a problem (bug) label Feb 6, 2026

maen-bn changed the title ~~feat(gui,config,protocol): Support simple folder grouping~~ feat(gui,config,protocol): support simple folder grouping Feb 6, 2026

maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch from 912fe37 to 93aa32a Compare February 7, 2026 08:58

maen-bn changed the title ~~feat(gui,config,protocol): support simple folder grouping~~ feat(gui,config): support simple folder grouping Feb 7, 2026

maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch from 93aa32a to e51b75e Compare February 7, 2026 09:28

tomasz1986 changed the title ~~feat(gui,config): support simple folder grouping~~ feat(gui,config): support simple folder grouping (fixes #2070) Feb 7, 2026

maen-bn added a commit to maen-bn/syncthing-docs that referenced this pull request Apr 5, 2026

docs(config): add grouping folders and devices

36ccb74

Document upcoming fuctionality addtion for grouping done in syncthing/syncthing#10563 Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn mentioned this pull request Apr 5, 2026

docs(config): add grouping folders and devices syncthing/docs#1001

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calmh reviewed Apr 6, 2026

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maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch 5 times, most recently from a7a1e11 to 855ca38 Compare April 6, 2026 12:03

maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch from 00db40e to d300a92 Compare April 6, 2026 12:23

maen-bn added 5 commits April 6, 2026 13:24

feat(config): add group to folder (resolves syncthing#2070)

7a19bcb

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

feat(gui): support grouping of folders (resolves syncthing#2070)

3916a75

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

feat(gui): remove background for folder groups (resolves syncthing#2070)

4cd54c0

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

feat(config): add group to device (resolves syncthing#2070)

e091756

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

feat(gui): support grouping of devices (resolves syncthing#2070)

669bd0c

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch from d300a92 to 409137a Compare April 6, 2026 12:25

maen-bn added a commit to maen-bn/syncthing-docs that referenced this pull request Apr 6, 2026

docs(config): add grouping folders and devices

afdf4fe

Document upcoming fuctionality addtion for grouping done in syncthing/syncthing#10563 Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn added 2 commits April 6, 2026 14:40

feat(config): omit empty group for folder (resolves syncthing#2070)

cf4c9da

Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

maen-bn force-pushed the folder-grouping branch from 409137a to cf4c9da Compare April 6, 2026 13:48

calmh reviewed Apr 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

maen-bn added 2 commits April 7, 2026 15:13

feat(config): set restart to false for folder group (resolves syncthi…

80476e7

…ng#2070) Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

feat(gui): minor tweaks to folders/devices grouping implementation (r…

ecd1b3f

…esolves syncthing#2070) Signed-off-by: Ben Norcombe <bennorcombe@pm.me>

calmh changed the title ~~feat(gui,config): support simple folder grouping (fixes #2070)~~ feat(gui, config): support simple folder grouping (fixes #2070) Apr 7, 2026

calmh approved these changes Apr 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

calmh merged commit 6a26d56 into syncthing:main Apr 7, 2026
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maen-bn mentioned this pull request Apr 7, 2026

fix(gui): don't show local device under remote devices (ref #10563) #10631

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	Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr"`
	Group string `json:"group" xml:"group,attr,omitempty"`

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Purpose

Testing

Screenshots

Documentation

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