I swapped my paid Google One storage subscription for a free open source sync tool that backs up files automatically

Published Aug 25, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT I'm too lazy and dependent on Google, and I have no plans to deGoogle my phone any time soon. Or maybe never, unless the Mountain View tech giant goes into self-destruct mode. However, I want to experiment to see what I lose after deGoogling my life. In the meantime, I made a bold decision to rely less on Google. I've taken a small step. I ditched my Google One storage subscription, and so far, the decision hasn't caused me any substantial trouble. That's because the tool I replaced my Google One storage subscription with handled the transition surprisingly well. It's an open source sync tool, but I've turned it into a dual-purpose backup system. I swapped my paid Google One storage subscription for a free open source sync tool called Syncthing that backs up files automatically. Here is my experience with Syncthing after using it for a few weeks. But you can still sort of use it as one Syncing and backing up aren't the same. If you go by the official description, the Syncthing team calls it a file synchronization program and not a backup solution. Syncthing keeps your files identical across all your devices, just as you'd expect from a syncing tool. A backup system creates a separate copy of the original files and folders to protect from data loss. Syncthing isn't designed to perform like a complete backup solution, but you can use its file versioning feature to create a basic backup, like I did. After enabling File versioning, when I delete a file on a device, Syncthing doesn't delete it immediately from across all the devices. Instead, it archives an old version of the file, allowing you to restore it later. I use this trick to retain the historical versions of files. Syncthing allows users to configure it to keep versions forever, which is what I use. I own five devices, so I'm less likely to lose everything at once because I distribute files strategically across them. How do I use Syncthing to replace Google One? I don't need to pay for more cloud storage A Google One subscription isn't a bad deal, but only for those who want those additional AI features and a YouTube Premium Lite subscription along with the storage. While I use Google's productivity suite, I haven't found the company's premium AI features useful for what I do. I decided not to renew my Google One subscription after I realized I needed it only for additional storage. Another major reason was Google removing the ability to back up a local folder to Google Photos using the Google Drive desktop app. Why would I have to go through this after paying a subscription fee? Syncthing is free and open source, and doesn't have a built-in limit to how much you can store. You can sync files of any size as long as your physical storage has enough space. I use it to back up my photos and videos because that's where most of my storage goes. When I add new images to the Photos folder, it automatically syncs to my other devices. Since it's a peer-to-peer sync system, the other devices need to come online for the files to sync. For an always-on setup, I recommend setting it up on network-attached storage. For the photos that I take on my phone, I don't set up a two-way folder sync. Instead, I allow the sync to go only from my phone to my computer to prevent accidental deletion propagating from destinations back to the source. Syncthing is bidirectional by default, so to enforce a one-way setup, you must manually change the folder types. Setting it up as Receive only means it will ignore changes to this folder from outside. Receive only is the destination because it only accepts updates and never shares changes. If you want to back up important files on your phone using Syncthing, the phone should be the source. There isn't an official Syncthing app on Android, but Syncthing-Fork is a third-party replacement that works on Android phones. In addition, I keep file versioning enabled for more protection against accidental deletions. I still use Google's cloud, but not for all my storage I use Gmail, Google Keep, Google Tasks, Google Calendar, and all my data on these apps is stored in Google One storage. But after I embraced Syncthing for backing up my files, the free tier, which offers 15GB of storage, is enough for me. There is a difference between the time when I didn't use a paid Google storage subscription and now. Back then, I used to reach the cloud storage limit on Google Photos. Now, I don't have that headache because I learned when to say yes to Google One, thanks to Syncthing.