Backups

gonzalo if I understand your question correctly, I guess the answer would be it wouldn't work with an unmodified GrapheneOS build.

I'd suggest skimming/reading through the storage access section of the website.

Apps have their own (as the website calls it) "app-private ('internal') storage". Unless a special backup app can access that storage without restriction, copying a full "home directory" won't work for backups. If a phone is running an unmodified version of GrapheneOS, then I don't believe it's possible for any app to access those directories, even a privileged app. If apps want to support users backing up and restoring data, there is a supported way to do that. See https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/backup

Seedvault does not suck! It is actually very good, especially with the recent addition of D2D backups which backup all app's data, at least all apps that have been active in the past while! You do need to learn how to use it, and have patience. It will now backup and restore app data even to apps where doing that will make the app crash and only way to fix is reinstalling the app. (financial apps, Proton apps, etc.) You need to do an APK only backup for those apps separately using any app from the Play Store or F-Droid. I recommend App Manager from the later, it;s what I use.

Seedvault may fail backup a few times, just restart it! wait for it to finish completely. If it finishes o an automatic backup and you switched to D2D backups, do it again manually! Then once it finishes your manual backup (you can turn storage backup off for the subsequent backups if you want but leaving it on it just seems to skip storage backup after the scan if nothing has changed), create a new user profile, and at the end of the setup wizard restore your new backup to check it. Make sure all apps are restoring, After 20 of them are OK, just hit back and go to start system so you can go back to Primary profile and delete the test profile.

Congrats! Your backup will now definitely work when needed, and has a lot of app data backed up! Transfer the APK's backup you made with App Manager, Swift Backup, or whatever (those two work great, but App Manager's my favorite) to the same USB drive and there you go!

Oh, and never back up with Seedvault to internal storage!! It is the worst thing to do! Useless for restoring later from there, and can be corrupted if you move them to USB later. Only backup to USB unless you have a stable WebDav server.

That's it! Crash course in how to make Seedvault a valuable tool and how it doesn't suck... if you put some time and actual effort into it. No it isn't an app that "Just Works." So learn how it works! It's not that hard... No it's not like iOS where it's just click and works there are quirks. So spend time and use a bit of mental energy and work out how you can make this powerful tool work for you!

mmmm You do the incredibly, I know for some, difficult thing that is looking at the notification area to see the progress of your backups! If it fails, and does so a few times, perhaps exclude a few apps and back those up as APK's instead, try the ones that store most or all data on the cloud. You can clearly see the notification that says "backup failed" or "XX/XX apps backed up, click here to see more." If no notification, then assume failure. I just wrote a guide based on very successfully using it for over 6 months for you. Try following it before you write off what I also think is you only option maybe?

That does sound SO trying, and so tedious though, Because it's not iOS-easy. Maybe you should have stayed there if you wanted 100% easy-peasy and didn't want to figure out how to put some of your own effort towards making things works for you? ALL the excellent root backup apps that are terribly effective, that people compromise the security of their phones over take a lot of effort and time to learn how to use correctly, because they are powerful tools! Security (and what do you think those 12 words at the beginning are about? It's you encryption password for backups!) and Privacy take A LOT of work! And no one else will do that for you! On iOS you never deal with your own encryption key, Apple has them from what I remember... I had an iPhone 13 Pro Max myself just over a year ago. That's much worse security and especially privacy than holding the key phrases in your own hands, and making local backups. Want redundancy? Initialize more USB drives!

Myself, I don't even need to deal with Seedvault if I don't want to! Yesterday I lost the keys to my Seedvault backup, and thank God that I build GrapheneOS from source and I always make two builds each update. One regular one and one with KernelSU modified into the kernel giving me full root privileges with a locked bootloader and therefore maintaining full verified boot. I can switch between rooted and unrooted without needing to unlock the bootloader so no data loss! All I needed to do was sideload the rooted OTA update and load my backups into Neo Backup, Swift Backup and App Manager (AM hasan excellent root mode, trying to build it into my fork of GrapheneOS as a system app). That way I got everything restored in 30 minutes without touching Seedvault!

So... If I can do that at will, why do I bother with Seedvault at all? Because it's a really good app, good at what it does once you know how to work with it! That and nothing else gives me back homescreen icons and system setting the same way. Sure I can backup and restore the system apps Contacts Storage, Bookmarks, Emergency Information, and others, but NOTHING else does it all as seamlessly as Seedvault! With D2D backups now, I don't think I'll need to use anything else. Which is amazing as I am trying to cut down and eliminate my root usage. Even with a locked bootloader ( usually rooting is unlocked bootloader only) it is a major security risk and is to be avoided as much as possible.

Tryptamine I don't know what you're being so defensive for. Seedvault is terrible. And all your posturing about ios. I can plug my iPhone into my computer, create my own password, and back up the whole thing to my local drive. Its very easy, very effective and ridiculously private. Yes, I know. Even if it IS Apple. Funny that.

mmmm

rufus

I have nothing at all against Apple, I had an iPhone 4 for my first smartphone way back in the day, and it lasted a whole day before I jailbroke it. My last iPhone was a 13 Pro Max, and I jailbroke every iPhone I got in between those two within the hour that I got them home, and loved using them with root access! (Such that it is on iOS, nothing like Android!) I moved to Android because I wanted to try something new, got very high end and expensive IEM's and digital analog converter/amplifiers to go with (Campfire Andromeda /w iFi Gold Bar & Gryphon) and the Gryphon supported LDAC and compared with crappy AAC that topped out at ₃₀₀ -ish kbps, and was all Apple supported, on Android I could use LDAC @ 990kbps. Other reasons too, like a Pixel being a very open yet secure platform that you could tinker on, and most of all, loosing my jailbreak on the 13 Pro Max and seeing that unless you had an older device with a hardware exploit, you were going to either have to sit in a space without the latest security updates, sometimes going in half a year or more, (just terrible...) or loose the jailbreak for up to 6-12 months at a time, until Apple patches it and you loose it again!

Anyways, back on topic.

If Seedvault crashes, to restart it, if a backup is not running on the notification screen, go out of the backup screen in Settings and back in. That restarts the service in the background. If a backup is running on the notification screen, try restarting the phone first. If it crashes again while in a backup, then go into the backup screen, and click on your USB drive. Choose your USB drive again from the options you see. Ignore the warning of loosing previous backups, it is not what happens! For Seedvault to overwrite your previous backups, you need to generate a new 12-word encryption key.

A backup will start automatically once you initialize the drive again, and clear the stalled backup that was on the notification screen but not going anywhere! After that you can do another manual backup, whether it fails or not, regardless of what it says!! That part is very important! The text next to the D2D backups option in Expert Settings clearly states, "you MUST perform a manual backup, automatic backup will overwrite your D2D backups," or something like that. Regardless, D2D backup needs manual as last backup.

Don't forget storage backup too! Works great, but I always copy over my Documents folder since my highest important stuff like recovery files and codes for 2FA is stored there, (in encrypted .zip files) mirroring the Documents folder on my computer. Just in case storage backup misses something because it says its experimental I manually back up very important stuff too. But so far it has backed up over 150GB of files perfectly!

The thing you cannot do without Seedvault or root access, is backup app data or system settings! THAT'S why it's an important tool for many people, and a great convenience feature for just about
everyone else! Unless you root your phone, which is the absolute last thing you should do, unless you care to learn how to do it both with a locked bootloader and verified boot. Also build GrapheneOS on your own too so you own the signing keys to the OS, making it so you don't need to be in a persistent root state and can flash it on for half an hour then revert to a nice and safe GrapheneOS with intact security model. THEN I'd say it's worth it and you'll gain access to the tools that allow you the access to what Seedvault is offering. Until then? Seedvault is the best you'll get until the GrapheneOS team finishes their own backup and restore functionality. However for how far along it is? Not even started. Also sounds like there's a log of other higher priorities to get through before they get to that.

So because I've done all the trial by error already, and put it in a guide for new users even! Also I'm typing it all back out here for you and others that see it and it hopefully helps a few people not need the trials I went through figuring out what is actually pretty powerfully and works well. In effect it acts just like a root-based backup solution in effect, just as powerful, just as steep learning curve!

mmmm

rufus

Can't put into an edit, waited too long but this importiant, should have mentioned it far sooner...

Aldo, try getting some good quality USB drives or a decent external SSD. Works A LOT better with better media! Samsung BAR USB, SanDisk external SSD. I use both if these, Samsung BAR, NOT 64GB, they suck have cheap memory. The 128 and 256 GB ones are great! The extreme SanDisk SSD's are most excellent, but the regular ones work fine, just slower!

jackFang The thing is, without roit access or an all having system level access (UID 1000 and correct SElinux rules) nothing can backup app data...

Thanks for this though! I'm going yo check it out for sure. I need something like this!

@Tryptamine
Thanks for all your helpful informations.

Anyway I hope there will be a reliable working solution in future.
Meanwhile I gaved up with the idea of having backups from my phone. Only do backup my contacts and thats it.

I

gamer

I wouldn't trust an image from another user. But it's fairly easy to build a "userdebug" GrapheneOS image yourself that includes "adb root" support. That's how I do regular full backups of my device to my laptop with rsync.