diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index b7b8d13..78555b7 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Features
 * ``--looponfail``: run your tests repeatedly in a subprocess.  After each run
   pytest waits until a file in your project changes and then re-runs
   the previously failing tests.  This is repeated until all tests pass
-  after which again a full run is performed.
+  after which again a full run is performed (DEPRECATED).
 
 * :ref:`Multi-Platform` coverage: you can specify different Python interpreters
   or different platforms and run tests in parallel on all of them.
diff --git a/docs/remote.rst b/docs/remote.rst
index 997bef3..a0d7b43 100644
--- a/docs/remote.rst
+++ b/docs/remote.rst
@@ -5,6 +5,17 @@
 Sending tests to remote SSH accounts
 ====================================
 
+.. deprecated:: 3.0
+
+.. warning::
+
+    This feature is deprecated because the support for ``rsync`` is faulty
+    in terms of reproducing the development environment in the remote
+    worker, and there is no clear solution moving forward.
+
+    This feature is scheduled to be removed in release 4.0, to let the team
+    focus on a smaller set of features.
+
 Suppose you have a package ``mypkg`` which contains some
 tests that you can successfully run locally. And you
 have a ssh-reachable machine ``myhost``.  Then
diff --git a/src/xdist/newhooks.py b/src/xdist/newhooks.py
index 7776624..384cde7 100644
--- a/src/xdist/newhooks.py
+++ b/src/xdist/newhooks.py
@@ -24,12 +24,16 @@ def pytest_xdist_newgateway(gateway):
     """called on new raw gateway creation."""
 
 
-@pytest.hookspec()
+@pytest.hookspec(
+    warn_on_impl="rsync feature is deprecated and will be removed in pytest-xdist 4.0"
+)
 def pytest_xdist_rsyncstart(source, gateways):
     """called before rsyncing a directory to remote gateways takes place."""
 
 
-@pytest.hookspec()
+@pytest.hookspec(
+    warn_on_impl="rsync feature is deprecated and will be removed in pytest-xdist 4.0"
+)
 def pytest_xdist_rsyncfinish(source, gateways):
     """called after rsyncing a directory to remote gateways takes place."""
 
diff --git a/src/xdist/plugin.py b/src/xdist/plugin.py
index 09301cc..a4e9284 100644
--- a/src/xdist/plugin.py
+++ b/src/xdist/plugin.py
@@ -204,6 +204,13 @@ def pytest_configure(config):
         )
         config.issue_config_time_warning(warning, 2)
 
+    if config.getoption("rsyncdir", None) or config.getini("rsyncdirs"):
+        warning = DeprecationWarning(
+            "The --rsyncdir command line argument and rsyncdirs config variable are deprecated.\n"
+            "The rsync feature will be removed in pytest-xdist 4.0."
+        )
+        config.issue_config_time_warning(warning, 2)
+
     config_line = (
         "xdist_group: specify group for tests should run in same session."
         "in relation to one another. " + "Provided by pytest-xdist."