It’s critical that my KeePassXC passwords are always up-to-date. But for this to work on my phone, it means continuously babysitting Syncthing, and that’s one app I usually notice only when it fails.
Then I found KeePass2Android and could finally switch off Syncthing. KeePass2Android can be a simpler fix than you’d expect if your phone feels a step behind your computer.
Two apps, one right pick
Choose the cloud version and your KeePassXC file opens straight from your cloud storage
Searching for KeePass2Android in the Play Store reveals a few similar results. What you actually want is KeePass2Android Password Safe, not KeePass2Android Offline. With the first one, you can open a password database stored online. The offline option works if you intend to manage your passwords locally. Both are good apps, but the first is the one that suits me.
Setup took me about three minutes: open a database, select the cloud storage service where it’s saved, sign in, and enter the master password. You can choose from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, WebDAV, and SFTP. I expected to dig through configuration files at some point, but that never happened.
Installing it also feels like every other Play Store install, which is more than I can say for Syncthing on Android, since the official app was discontinued at the end of 2024. The main way to use Syncthing on Android now is the community-maintained fork on F-Droid or GitHub.
KeePass2Android still requires a place to store your KeePass database. However, it doesn’t require Syncthing to move it between devices. It opens the database directly from Google Drive, Dropbox, or another supported cloud service. Since the file is stored encrypted, no provider can read the passwords inside it.
There’s no official KeePassXC app for Android, so KeePass2Android fills the gap by opening the same file that KeePassXC creates.
Conflicts get a prompt, not a puzzle
The cleanup chore my old setup kept handing me
When a sync app moves files, it doesn’t know what’s inside them. To Syncthing, my password database was just another file. I’d get a conflict copy if I edited the file on my phone and laptop before they had a chance to sync. Syncthing doesn’t lose either version, but it usually requires me to merge them by hand in KeePassXC.
Syncthing has no central server, so two devices only swap changes while both are on and connected, and the phone has to keep the app running in the background. On Android, battery rules don’t always allow that. In some cases, you get a new version of the file after you’ve unlocked the database and started typing. But if you have a file stored in the cloud, you don’t depend on any device to be awake.
I needed to see how KeePass2Android handles a sync conflict, so I added a login after turning off Wi-Fi on my phone. Next, I added a different login on my PC before reconnecting everything. When the app noticed the change, it asked whether I wanted to merge or overwrite. Picking merge kept both logins.
KeePass2Android has replaced a job I did manually. Also, logins work even without a connection because KeePass2Android keeps a local copy of the database.
Almost everything made the trip
Codes, key files, and folders survived
You don’t need to export or import anything because KeePass2Android uses the same file format as KeePassXC. Mine opened as expected, and it kept the Argon2 encryption settings I use on the desktop. Also, attachments work, and KeePass2Android generates TOTP codes from KeePassXC entries. This was significant because nothing about my routine had to change.
KeePass2Android opens and edits KeePassXC folders and attachments normally. It also generates two-factor authentication codes using the TOTP secrets already saved in my KeePassXC password database. It supports key files, YubiKeys, and stronger encryption settings
Stronger encryption can affect how quickly the database unlocks on your phone.
However, since version 2.7.7, KeePassXC has handled passkeys, but KeePass2Android hasn’t kept up. You may want KeePassDX instead if you store passkeys in your database, but if you don’t, you won’t notice any gaps.
Autofill, the built-in keyboard, and who should keep Syncthing
I’ve had Syncthing off for several weeks now, and nothing has fallen behind or gone missing. I still lean on autofill in apps and browsers even if it doesn’t feel as sleek as paid managers. I have to switch to the built-in KeePass2Android keyboard when autofill doesn’t work. It types the login without passing it through the clipboard, protecting against apps snooping on clipboard content.
I like KeePass2Android, but if you can’t put even an encrypted file on a server you don’t control, you should stick with Syncthing. Syncthing is also ideal if there’s a pile of other things it syncs for you. But if all you want is the same passwords on every device, KeePass2Android does it while requiring fewer moving parts.