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Creating and using text config files

Updated

Written for Synergy 3 (v3.8.2) and Synergy 1 (v1.22.2), checked 13 October 2026.

Most people never need a text config file: you can set up Synergy 1 and Synergy 3 entirely in the app. Write one when you need something the app's layout editor can't make, such as a screen wrap, or to run Synergy 1 or Synergy 3 from the command line: Running from the command line

Your product's section, below, has the steps to export your current setup as a file to start from, and to use the file.

Reasons for creating your own config file

  • To run Synergy 1 or Synergy 3 from the command line, you need a text config file for the server.
  • If you need to access a feature that is not available in the app.
  • Gives you more control; the app cannot create advanced configuration such as non-reciprocal connections. An example of a non-reciprocal connection would be that if you go right from screen A you get to screen B, but if you then go left from screen B you get to screen C rather than back to screen A as you would in a reciprocal connection.
  • You can use a version control system
  • Easier to share configs with people
  • You can have multiple config files (for example if using a laptop in multiple places)

File format

Every section and option the file can hold, with an example file, is in: Text config file format

Tips

Synergy 1 and Synergy 3 both build a text config file behind the scenes from the layout you make in the app.

What follows depends on your product: Synergy 3 or Synergy 1

Synergy 3

Start from your current setup

Go to Local settings (under Advanced) and click Export config file… to save the configuration made from your current layout, ready to edit.

Use your config file

On the primary computer (the one whose keyboard and mouse you share):

  1. Go to Local settings (under Advanced).
  2. Beside Configure this computer with an external config file (advanced), click Use external config.
  3. Click Use external config again to confirm. The External config page opens.
  4. Click Load config file…
  5. Choose your .conf file.
  6. Check that This computer shows the name this computer has in the file.
  7. Turn on Primary (server). This computer's addresses appear under This computer's IPs.
  8. Click Start server.

On each other computer:

  1. Go to Local settings (under Advanced).
  2. Beside Configure this computer with an external config file (advanced), click Use external config.
  3. Click Use external config again to confirm.
  4. Click Load config file…
  5. Choose the same .conf file. Connect to server stays unavailable until a file is loaded.
  6. Check that This computer shows the name this computer has in the file.
  7. Turn off Primary (server).
  8. Enter the primary computer's IP address in Server IP.
  9. Click Connect to server.

On Windows, the page also has Run as system to allow UAC interaction; for that, see: Sharing your keyboard and mouse on UAC prompts

To run the core with options of your own, use a settings file from the command line. The page's Command arguments box doesn't do this: in Synergy 3 (v3.7.0 and later), what you type there is saved but isn't passed to the core, so it has no effect. For the steps, see: Running from the command line

If something on the page is wrong, a message explains what to fix before Synergy 3 saves.

Synergy 3 uses the file for as long as external config is on. To go back to your Screen layout, click Stop external config on the External config page; your layout takes over again.

Synergy 1

Start from your current setup

On the server, click the Export server configuration button (the save icon next to Configure Server) and save the file.

Use your config file

  1. On the server, click Configure Server.
  2. Go to the Config file tab.
  3. Tick Use a server config file.
  4. Click the folder button next to Config file path.
  5. Choose your file.
  6. Click OK. If Synergy 1 is running, it restarts with the file.

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