I’m reading many people complaining about the app being abandoned, not being updated for a long time.
Have you tried contacting the developer with your issues?
They last replied to a review on Google Play on 13th Jan 2025. Someone else also mentioned that they received a response via DM. So the developer is definitely still alive.
The app is free to use. It’s great if you chose to support the developer by paying for the ad-removal or subscription. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the user base is large enough to allow the developer to work on it full-time, or even part time.
Personally, I think Sync is a passion project, hence the original Reddit version was so good. The downside with passion projects is that you work on them when you have time and inspiration to work on them.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that all the negativity won’t help inspire the developer to dedicate more time to the project.
It would be more helpful to compile a list of bugs and issues, and forward them to the developer.
Yup. LJ has pinged in several posts. I sent an email to the address listed in the play store. No response to either.
I get that you want to be positive and whatnot and that’s fine, but Sync has never been Laurence’s fulltime job and it was never intended to be. LJ has a very successful family business which is his priority.
Now I can’t talk about what issues he has or hasn’t received. But I do know that plenty of people paid to support LJ and Sync and he disappeared on us. This isn’t the same as Sync for Reddit where it was a negligible one and done payment, this was a subscription and for some a lifetime license that was paid in good faith and he bailed on everyone just as breaking changes got made to the platform. If you’re going to go the subscription route, it’s a two way street and the developer has to commit to it too. I’m not even talking about a constant stream of releases, at least keep your customers abreast of what’s happening. One year without updates and an app that barely works. it’s unacceptable by every metric.
I say all that and it sounds angry and disappointed, but ultimately I just hope he’s happy and healthy. If he does ever come back, I hope he can commit to his customers the same way they commit to him.
Subscription - I totally agree that people who paid for an annual or lifetime subscription should expect at least some maintenance bug fix releases. Otherwise, it would be reasonable for them to get a refund.
Has anyone tried asking for a refund? He does have 2 million in the bank. I imagine the total money he has received from the Lemmy app would be no more than a few thousands.
I really doubt he has anywhere close to even a single million in the bank. Though I would be happy for him if he did.
As of 31st March 2024, The company has $1.49 mil of cash in the bank.
Listen. SYNC for Lemmy is so broken atm that I have switched first to Boost (also randomly broken in some ways), and then to voyager.
I love sync, don’t get me wrong. And I was a sync for reddit user before I switched to relay. But I’m not the type to stick around and try to troubleshoot an app the developer doesn’t prioritize. I appreciate what LJ did for those of us who bailed on reddit. I appreciate that the app gave me the functionality I wanted for Lemmy. But on the other hand, we had prior notice that the update of the Lemmy platform would break things for those of us using third party apps that weren’t being updated and that means he had to have known.
When he has time and he gets around to taking a look at the state of the app, I guess I’ll circle back. But I am not going to spend valuable time on this if he isn’t.
Maybe I should try another client, because Sync is the only one I’ve used and don’t know what is and isn’t normal, seems to work great for me
A couple of things happened for me. One was switching to a specific instance that wasn’t my own and finding that posts just disappeared. I then forced the app to stop in settings and went back in. Nothing doing, no posts loaded. Then I signed out and signed back in. No luck, same result. I had to uninstall and reinstall to get the app to show content again. Then there’s the random replies that go missing or don’t show up in the inbox but are there when I go back to the post and magically after I see them in post they show up.
A lot of the time I will look at a post and it doesn’t log it as being read. Or it’ll log all posts and being read and then I end up not being able to load more posts (despite my settings not having scroll to read enabled). I’ve gotten the no comments on posts with comments. I’ve gotten the ghost comments with no text. There’s been other stuff too.
I never know what glitch I’m going to encounter.
I have experienced the not automatically Marked As Read bug, but not the others, but I’m also not that active on Lemmy yet.
Same here. No issues.
Device information
Sync version: v24.03.26-14:56
Sync flavor: googlePlay
You can cope all you want. It doesn’t change the nature or the fact Sync is broken and has stopped working in major areas where it impedes function. It would’ve been fine if it was cheap like the old sync reddit app.
But, we weren’t the ones asking for high ad-free purchase, or Sync Ultra price.
It doesn’t change the nature or the fact Sync is broken and has stopped working in major areas where it impedes function.
This is really the core issue right here. Long periods of inactivity from ljdawson was more acceptable on Reddit as the backend software didn’t change much so the app at least kept working. It’s been over a year since the last update here and Sync for Lemmy still has some serious problems.
It’s a shame because I love the app, but I’ve felt forced to move on.
What app did you move on to?
I’m using Summit. It also has a few niggles and missing features but I believe it will get there in the future. I’ve tried almost all the available apps and Summit felt the best for me overall.
And at least the dev is active and responsive. Well, he has been at least. He’s been gone for a few weeks with IRL interference but he’s said it is temporary.
Yeah, Summit is what I’m using too. I prefer the Sync UX, but between missing and broken features, using a working alternative is a no-brainer.
Connect has a similar UX, just throwing it out there :) (and just mentioning it since Sync seems to no longer maintained).
Just gave it a whirl, it feels very unpolished. So many options wouldn’t apply until I restarted the app. I couldn’t find the option to set New as default. The drawer is too short and using only bottom navigation is clearly an afterthought. Also the font selection is terrible and actually hurts my eyes.
Dude, that’s the dev…
And you should try out other apps. I heard the name Summit being mentioned by many users on this sub. You can always come back to Sync if/when it gets the necessary updates.
But no one forces you to pay. You chose to do that to support the developer, but it does not mean they owe you.
Fediverse.org reports that Lemmy currently has 484,850.
Backlinko.com reports that Reddit has 97.2 million daily active users in June 2025.
Let’s round those figures up to 500k and 100mil.
Say 5% of Reddit users paid $1 to the developer > 5mil users = $5mil
If my maths is correct, for 5% of Lemmy to donate 5mil to the developer, so they can invest the same time & effort as they did on the Reddit app, each paying Lemmy user would have to pay $5mil / (500k*.0.05) = $200 each.
It would be unreasonable for the developer to expect people to pay $200 to use the Lemmy app. It’s equally unreasonable for us users to expect them to put in the same effort, without the same return of investment. I imagine the developer will invest in more time when the Lemmy user base hit some kind of critical mass.
What? When you charge a subscription, you’re not saying this is for the work done. You’re selling the idea that by paying for a subscription users are supporting the work remaining ongoing. Users who paid yearly, got less than half of what they paid for. So sorry, as much as I like LJ, it absolutely does mean they owe you. At the very least they owe you an explanation.
Sync for reddit grossed over 2 million British pounds - and that’s current account balances, I didn’t check withdrawals over time. See for yourself, company filings for UK Ltd.'s are public.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08807876
So you might consider sync for Lemmy a passion project since it’s not exactly cashing in on the same level, no doubt, but it’s a far cry from a lone nerd trying to make ends meet.
Thanks for sharing the link to the dev’s company.
I don’t have a finance background. My understanding of the company filing (20 Dec 2024) is that the company income came from investing $719,683 which earned $22,147.
That’s not enough to live comfortably in UK, especially if you have family to look after. The $2 million value of the company would not go very far if they start to spend it instead of investing it. I magine the developer would have to find other sources of income.
There was a withdrawal of almost 1M in 2023, and the company’s entire equity is basically cash. What you don’t find in the balance sheet are salaries paid, which would be to himself alone. The 22k in earnings from investments is merely interest on top.
I mean all of that is good and well but basically all of this is just your assumption. Its nice that you “believe” this but you don’t speak for the developer.
My issue is we have heard nothing at all from the developer. If the project was alive or just moving slowly I’d imagine we would hear something. Literally anything but we haven’t. If youre going to take people’s money be direct and just let people know what to expect. It’s not difficult to do. That’s great you sent issues to the developer when’s that update coming to fix it? This week, next year, never…
As mentioned in my original post, the developer account on Google Play did respond to one of the reviews, asking the reviewer to clarify their issues. They would not be asking that if they have abandoned the project completely.
This developer is known for being MIA for long periods of time. Yes, this time it has been extra long.
We don’t know what is going on in their life. They could be dealing with mental health or other personal issues. They could have a new baby. Someone very close to them could have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. They are working on the next big thing that could make them 100 million, and set their family up for life.
The point is, sometimes life gets away from you, and you drop the ball on less important things.
Great so why can’t he take 30 seconds out of a year to say that? I’m sure people would understand. The issue everyone is having is the lack of updates. So essentially yes it is abandoned. No updates either way, no word from developer either way been over a year = abandoned.
Great he responded to you but did he say when the next update will be? Or explain the lack of updates? I mean we could all makes guesses but the fact of the matter is it’s been abandoned and in its current state is broken. There is no reason to use it.
Additionally this is hurting Lemmy in general. People will try to use sync for Lemmy because it’s familiar and not realize the issues they are having are with sync because it’s broken not Lemmy. Then stop using Lemmy. I know you’re well intentioned but you shouldn’t give people hope when you know nothing more than anyone else.
