GrapheneOS phone and MacOS computer

mudmatter

I am an Apple user, but have been wanting to move away from the ecosystem for a while. As a first step, I want to replace my iPhone 8 with a Google Pixel running GrapheneOS. However, I'm planning to keep using my M1 MacBook Pro for the foreseeable future since it's in good shape.

That said, I do have some concerns, mainly around transferring data and compatibility.

I'm looking for advice from anyone who has experience with having a GrapheneOS phone alongside macOS:

How does the initial data transfer from an iPhone to a GrapheneOS Pixel work? Any tips on migrating data like contacts?
How do you transfer and back up data between GrapheneOS and a Mac? Particularly interested in how to backup contacts and photos.

Any insights are appreciated!

Molasses

mudmatter

You didn't mention if file storage and backups have to be strictly local or if you're fine with using paid services.

When it comes to GrapheneOS + macOS, you could export your photos and videos (even from Apple Photos) to ente photos.

With Localsend you would be able to quickly share files between phone and desktop, comparable with Airdrop. But since it's an 3rd Party app, it lacks the integration into the OS. So you would have to disable Lockdown Mode for your VPN and enable Local Network Sharing for it to work.

JustBeginnez

These are the things I did.
Contacts:
I think the easiest way to transfer contacts is to sync iCloud with Davx5.
Photos and other files:
I transferred files by connecting iPhone to Mac, importing the files to Mac, and then transferring them to Pixel via usb drive or using online storage.
I also use cryptomator when transferring data between different operating systems.

Seedvault is the best for backup.

I'd recommend doing a search on the forum, as there is a good chance the answer already exists.

teezeh

I have not tested this app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/android-switch/id6449987166, but it should generally work with GOS as well.

buscopina

I did the transition quite recently but had already my contacts / photos stored on my own server or NAS.
I am a big fan of local send as it works really nice between iPhones, macOS and Android. But it's kind of inconvenient when it comes to a lot of separate files. Tried MacDroid to do that job but especially when copying things from the NAS to the Android phone with a MacBook as an intermediate only a very small percentage made it onto the Pixel at the end. The rest resides in a Cache folder created by MacDroid. In case anyone has a better suggestion, go for it :)

Seedvault works well as a backup solution.

Carpool7341

One thing good to know in advance is that it's hard to transfer the WhatsApp chats. Before flushing GrapheneOS, use the standard Android to transfer your WhatsApp history to the device using Samsung's migration tool (from Play Store) and then backup the chats to your Google Drive. You can do an end-to-end encrypted backup. From there, you can now flush GrapheneOS and restore WhatsApp from your backup. This all is needed because Android and iPhone WhatsApp backups are incompatible...

If you use Signal, I believe you can now transfer the chats via a linked device.

calpurtmun

I transferred my contacts and calendar from iCloud to Nextcloud. Nextcloud will sync with both macOS and Android.

I also use syncthing to mirror my phone's storage to a folder on my laptop. I routinely backup my laptop, and the syncthing folder of my phone's storage is included in the backups.

Crane

When I moved from iOS, I just exported my contacts as a .vcf file and imported them in the contacts app on GOS

Eagle_Owl

I prefer local solutions, but I also trust Tuta.com and Bitwarden.

And I am using apps with own backup or import/export functions.
This way, I don't have to rely on third-party software that somehow tries to read the phone memory and save it externally (there are hardly any practical solutions for this on the Android side).

Contacts: Tuta.com does offer synchronisation with the phone address book, but because this didn't work reliably, at least with the first versions, I exported the contacts as .vcf and imported them into the device memory on the Pixel phone.

Perhaps the Tuta synchronisation now works without errors? That's too risky for me!
Fortunately, I have three Pixel phones and I had the same address data on all three.

I then tried switching on Tuta's synchronisation on one of the three devices and that messed up the data. The only way to recover the data was to delete the messed up phonebook, export the intact phonebook from another Pixel phone and re-import it on the trial device.