# Update #8 - Syncthing Systemd Recovery After Upgrade

#### **Date:** May 10, 2025  
**Category:** System Maintenance / Automation  
**Backlink:** [Update #7 – Syncthing UFW Rule Automation with DDNS Integration](https://docs.natenetworks.com/books/02-project-notes/page/update-7-syncthing-ufw-rule-automation-with-ddns-integration)

### Overview

After performing a system upgrade on the VPS hosting BookStack and Syncthing, it was discovered that Syncthing no longer started correctly under the user-level `systemctl --user` session. Attempts to restart the service resulted in a `Failed to connect to bus: Connection refused` error, likely due to the user session being interrupted by the upgrade process.

---

### The Problem

- After the package upgrades, the Syncthing service appeared to be inactive.
- Running:
    
    ```bash
    systemctl --user restart syncthing
    
    ```
    
    resulted in:
    
    ```
    Failed to connect to bus: Connection refused
    
    ```

### The Solution

Switched Syncthing from a user-level service to a system-wide service tied to the user account.

#### Steps Taken:

1. **Stopped any failed user service attempts (optional but safe):**
    
    ```bash
    systemctl --user stop syncthing
    
    ```
2. **Enabled the system-wide service instead:**
    
    ```bash
    sudo systemctl enable syncthing@<username>.service
    sudo systemctl start syncthing@<username>.service
    
    ```
3. **Verified Syncthing is active:**
    
    ```bash
    sudo systemctl status syncthing@<username>.service
    
    ```

###  Optional Consideration

If future system upgrades disrupt services again, I will consider using a simple systemd timer or cron job to periodically check and restart Syncthing, though this is not currently necessary due to the stability of the system-wide service.