Graphite

Considered alone, yeah it's sucks that users who put their digital life and trust in GOS feel disempowered like this.

On the other hand - how much of a voice do users have in the Google or Apple ecosystems?

Can we find examples among other OSes who use a different funding / resource allocation / prioritization structure? (LineageOS, etc?)

The Kickstarter model is not a good one for security and privacy minded OS in my opinion, many problems with the kickstarter funding model. I think there are good reasons why most creators on the KS platform move on to forming their own org independently of KS after their initial success, rather than stick around on KS long-term.

    5 days later

    Would be handy if there was a OS based backup system that creates a local backup file of like the settings, sms and call history, contact list, etc., which then can be either be stored on a computer or a cloud storage like Proton Drive, so I don't need to look for apps on the Play store that can do these things.

      12 days later

      GrapheneOS is fantastic and automated, reliable backup is the only critical part that I miss. I hope you'll build a great solution, you have my support guys.

        WickedMouse

        WickedMouse Would be handy if there was a OS based backup system that creates a local backup file of like the settings, sms and call history, contact list, etc.

        I have used "SMS Import / Export", which covers SMS/MMS and contacts. The need to manually use airplane mode is a little clunky, but it's been useful.

        A general backup solution would indeed be great, but we will need to wait.

              Draknof Give them some time.

              The Project is heavily underfunded in staff and financial terms.
              Please keep that in mind and consider some form of support.

              Either with financial donations or if you have the required skills contribute to the project.

              Cheers.

                de0u Yeah I've been using "SMS Backup & Restore", to save them all locally and then copy them to PC, so use the same app on the new/other phone to import them.

                  7 days later

                  As there is no good backup solution in sight, my strategy is to store data on /sdcard where possible and from there I back it up with another app. Obviously this does not work for all apps, but I have started to prefer apps that can store on /sdcard and will be changing code for apps that I compile myself.

                  IMO the best long-term solution would be too hook into the existing Android BackupAgent mechanism (link) and make it backup into a self-hosted network storage instead of Google cloud. But that requires development inside the OS and/or creating a shim that replaces the existing Google backend.

                  Where is Google's backup mechanism implemented; in the core OS or in GSF? If it is in GSF, one could create a shim like many other shims in GOS. It would be enough to support one backend, namely Rclone (link). Rclone itself supports many storage solutions, ranging from self-hosted SFTP to public cloud providers. So every user could chose his preferred backup storage.

                  I have tested backup. Perfect no it isn't. But pretty
                  damn good actually. I'm not seeing why people dislike it. At the end of tbr day I'm just so thankful for a non apple/google solution.

                  Thank you to the devs and community.

                    James did you test restore to a new phone? From what I've read, about 40% of your phone is backed up.

                        Yeah I've been trying seedvault the past few days it'll install all your apps , most settings are saved , contacts and call logs are saved .
                        But no app data , texts or pictures .
                        It doesn't save the important stuff
                        It will install backup on pixel 6 but not on pixel 6 pro half the time.

                        Problem is that Seedvault depends on the same functionality as "adb backup" which Google has deprecated and said they will remove it in the future. That's why a new solution is needed. As far as Seedvault is concerned, I have tested restoring individual apps from APK while a USB drive with a Seedvault backup was plugged in, and the data was restored correctly. Whether that is enough to restore an entire phone is a different question. There are a number of apps that successfully opt-out of being backed up.

                        A future solution should try to make use of mechanisms proposed by Google instead of working against them. That's why using BackupAgent seems to be a good idea. A future solution should also support more than one storage backend, that's why integrating rclone seems to be a promising option; one integration point, multiple backends.

                        25 days later

                        Graphite sorry missed this. yep. Tested. There are apps that don't backup correctly but you know I'm OK with that. Give and take. Can't be perfect. Id estimate over 50-60% of backup was 👍👍

                          5 months later

                          Does anyone have experience with https://openmtp.ganeshrvel.com/?
                          I think I just transfer all data and encrypt them on my external drive.
                          I am just worried that the app might be a security vulnerability.
                          Anyone has more insights in that and could share this, please.

                          Best

                          Even if it's more effort, I'm a fan of setting up the phone completely from scratch - especially as long as there is no reliable backup solution for GrapheneOS.

                          I make regular backups of individual apps (e.g. Messenger chat histories) and I have created a document with screenshots where I have noted a list of the installed apps or the arrangement of the quick toggles, for example - so that I don't have to completely start from scratch.

                            Murcielago I basically do the same and its very helpful, good strategy for saving all of the apps installed makes resetting and setting up again much easier.

                              2 months later