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Is there a way to stop ubuntuone-syncdaemon automatically (and all other Ubuntu One related processes) from running in the background after I quit the Ubuntu One app? Like when you quit Dropbox, it will also stop all its syncing processes? I mean, there should be some simpler ways of doing it rather than killing it manually via terminal or system monitor?

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There is an option to Disconnect in the UbuntuOne app ... will this help? – barrydrake May 7 '12 at 14:53
Yeah, I saw that option. But, what I need is that when I start the Ubuntu One app, I shouldn't have to look for that option again to reconnect. It should like, remember its settings before I quit it, so that when I restart it again, it will just sync and connect, and everything. But when I quit it, it should also close all related processes to it. I also have Dropbox installed but I also don't run it all the time, only when I need to sync some new files. But when I quit Dropbox, I don't see any left-over background processes. Ubuntu One was already like this in 11.10. – tonybac May 7 '12 at 16:00
If you open the ubuntuone app on my version it gives an option to 'open control panel' There is a settings tab there that lets you prevent it from starting automatically, but that's all. I think the settings for ubuntuone are in syncdaemon.conf but I can't take you any further as I've never wanted to alter it from the defaults. – barrydrake May 7 '12 at 16:35
Actually, I don't even have any app that will run on startup. Even my Dropbox doesn't run at startup. It's just that whenever I have to quit the Ubuntu One app, I also have to kill ubuntuone-syncdaemon via system monitor. I only have enough resources in my laptop, and running background processes which I don't use anymore is pretty much a waste. If I really want to run Ubuntu One in the background, I could have just minimized it. Well, anyway, thanks for the suggestions. – tonybac May 7 '12 at 16:48
i'd love an answer too: I want to stop it from syncing while i'm in a cafe working on battery. – Amanda Jul 10 '12 at 16:56

5 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

You can use the Ubuntu One Indicator. It works like the Dropbox indicator (or tray icon), and you can use it to disconnect and reconnect to Ubuntu One with two clicks (open the menu, click the item) or using the HUD. Disconnect will kill the daemon, and connecting again will spawn it.

enter image description here

You can install it from this PPA:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-ubuntuone

It will be added to your auto-startup programs, so if you don't want it to start you will need to delete it from there.

To run it:

/usr/lib/indicator-ubuntuone/indicator-ubuntuone

If you plan to use it a lot, you should probably simlink it to bin (for easy command line access) or create .desktop file for it (for Dash/Menu access)

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After disconnecting, it still didn't kill the daemon, it just sits there, wasting 19MB of memoryd. One thing I noticed about this tray indicator is that, it doesn't have the QUIT option, like that of Dropbox. Besides, why is this a different install when it should have come with the Ubuntu One app as part of the package. I believe users should always have the option when to sync and when not to. Thanks anyway. – tonybac May 8 '12 at 14:54
It's a third party program, not a Canonical thing. Most users don't worry about a 19Mb and let the program sync always, believe it or not, yours is a fringe use case. They had better things to spend resources on, like a fast reliable sync. I expect that now that this seems resolved, the user interface is going to get much better, and this things get resolved. – Javier Rivera May 8 '12 at 15:10
Note that if the daemon is inactive it doesn't matter if it takes memory. Trust the kernel, it will page it to disk as soon as it needs its memory even for file cache. – Javier Rivera May 8 '12 at 15:12
up vote 1 down vote

If you don't use Ubuntu One (Canonical's cloud service), you can just get rid of the entire suite by typing the following into the Terminal:

sudo apt-get purge ubuntuone-client

You can always get it again at a later point with all your files remaining if you want it back.

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up vote 0 down vote

The Ubuntu One syncronization process (syncdaemon) doesn't have a window, so you can't minimize it. If you don't want to start it when you login, just remove it from your autostart applications.

On the other hand, if you are not going to have it running, there is no point on having it installed at all.

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It's not even included in the list of my autostart application. My issue with Ubuntu One is that, if I want to quit running it, then it should terminate all related processes to it. What's the use of quitting an application if it still going to run in the backgrounds. The reason I would quit Ubuntu One is because I don't have anything to sync anymore, therefore I have no use for it at the moment. I might take your suggestion and just uninstall it, anyway, I'm already satisfied with Dropbox. Thanks anyway. – tonybac May 8 '12 at 0:00
Note that the work the sync daemon does is not always triggered by your actions. If someone has shared a folder with you, the syncdaemon will update your copy when they make changes. That is one of the reasons for structuring the code as a background service. – James Henstridge May 8 '12 at 0:34
up vote 0 down vote

In the U1 control panel there is an option to set U1 to not connect automatically. Perhaps this is what you need. When you login U1 will not start and you have to start it manually through the control panel.

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up vote -1 down vote

I know I'm late but this was the first hit on Google when I was looking for an answer to the same question as the OP. So, a note for future me:

u1sdtool -q

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1  
-1 from the question 'there should be some simpler ways of doing it rather than killing it manually via terminal'. – Tom Brossman Oct 16 '12 at 19:50

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