Progress of GrapheneOS' own backup solution?

DefinitelyNotOCD

I have read on other threads that GrapheneOS is making their own backup solution rather than relying on Seedvault (which is pretty bad.)

I was wondering what the progress of this feature is? I have read that it's quite high priority?

I'm also hoping that if this does take a while longer that it may be made available to recently out-of-support devices to help them upgrade.

Tandara

It's postponed due to the difficulties with porting to the next major Android release. Even before that, it was not the first thing on the list. I give it 2 years to be implemented unless someone else contributes.

Geert

Tandara
Unfortunately it keeps getting postponed...
I have been waiting for a usable solution for years now. It keeps me from upgrading to a newer pixel.

Bimmy

Admittedly, after Seedvault appeared very unstable to me when I tried at first, in recent months (plus me changing my backup settings), my experience hast become more positive. Nonetheless, a better solution, assuming no significant drawbacks, is a nice perspective. So I had similar questions like you - and came to similar conclusions: Other issues probably demand much higher priority, atm.

In case someone acquainted with development of the future backup solution is reading this thread:
I was wondering if it has already been decided if that future solution should be backward compatible to existing Seedvault backup data?
Personally, I'd find it very useful if old backups could still be restored. Maybe you can already say something about that matter.

Thank you.

DeletedUser370

Bimmy Admittedly, after Seedvault appeared very unstable to me when I tried at first, in recent months (plus me changing my backup settings), my experience hast become more positive.

I feel the same. Fewer Seedvault backups now fail for me and it's slightly more reliable. I still feel that the UI should be reworked; options need to be more clearly explained.

Eirikr70

Geert I don't know what apps you want to backup but generally speaking there are inidividual solutions for most apps.

Eumenia

Eirikr70 I don't know what apps you want to backup but generally speaking there are inidividual solutions for most apps.

The problem is that it can take much time do backup all the independent apps.

It would be very helpful if there is an app that makes IPC calls to all compatibility apps to ask them to send backup data, then compress and encrypts it, then send its to a cloud.
All with one press.

treenutz68

'soon'

Bimmy

treenutz68

Do you mean it the solution had been announced with that word? Or are you frustrated, because you need a better solution and hoped that it was already available today?

treenutz68

Bimmy

both.

this was from march of 2022:
"We're deprecating SeedVault and will be replacing it with a new implementation. SeedVault was created by a member of the GrapheneOS community in 2017 based on our design for it. Unfortunately, it has been taken over by an untrustworthy group of developers without aligned goals."

https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1507745283131781121

Bimmy

Somehow I find it remarkable that each Seedvault update I can remember had the explicit statement about replacement:

For Instance this from latest release, 2025071900 (URL: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_manifest/releases/tag/2025071900 ):

Seedvault: update to 15-5.6 (will be replaced with a better backup implementation in the future)

(Italics mine.)

Admittedly, "in the future" is maximally vague, and I don't want to derive expectation from it. Nonetheless, I wonder about the nature of this repeated statement. Is this just a remainder routinely written by some release script or does it have a deeper meaning?

For interest: Are there any other components that receive the same kind of announcements?

de0u

Bimmy I wonder about the nature of this repeated statement. Is this just a remainder routinely written by some release script or does it have a deeper meaning?

Maybe it's like a "warrant canary": its significance is if it ever stops being repeated.

AngWay

So what can i use now to backup my graphenos ?

tux_

AngWay One approach is to avoid the need for backups by not storing valuable data on the phone. I store files on a remote server accessed through a Wireguard tunnel. Photos are synced using the Nextcloud app (to my own instance). The rest (like Signal conversations) is already cloud-based.

DefinitelyNotOCD

AngWay GOS comes with SeedVault. I also use Syncthing (and sync the root directory of the phone) to backup "everything". It backs up the SeedVault files like this too.

DefinitelyNotOCD

tux_ It's all the configuring that needs to be backed up that is the main issue.

tux_

DefinitelyNotOCD I tend to use few apps, so I suppose there just aren't many "configurations" to be saved. I also forgot to mention previously that my contacts and calendar are also remotely hosted so even if my phone was, say, accidentally destroyed, I wouldn't really lose anything important. I would just pick up a new Pixel, flash Graphene, redownload the few apps that I use and relink them to my "cloud." Your mileage may vary of course.

DefinitelyNotOCD

I'm starting to quite regret using GrapheneOS solely due to the lack of a good backup.

When I upgrade my phone (assuming I don't lose my phone before that) I don't think I will be using Graphene. If I'm going to have to re-setup everything manually anyway; I'll look into other (rootable) options that support 3rd party apps that can do a better job than SeedVault.

Easy backup & restoration is the #1 thing I look for these days. I can't spend my whole life setting up devices constantly. I config all my apps a very specific way and need a somewhat reliable system in place.

I use Syncthing to backup the root directory of the phone, and do automated backups with SeedVault (which is about as good as it gets) but it still isn't as robust as I need it to be for setting things back up.

littlerack

DefinitelyNotOCD I'll look into other (rootable) options that support 3rd party apps that can do a better job than SeedVault.

Easy backup & restoration is the #1 thing I look for these days.

If that outweights the rest, you indeed don't need GOS.
I've been using backups on samsungs and now on GOS, and I would say, I need to re-setup less on GOS, not talking about privacy gains. One need to know limitations and some aspects of SeedVault though.

Still if GOS implements perfect backup solution for an Android, I'll be even happier)

Murcielago

DefinitelyNotOCD

Easy backup & restoration is the #1 thing I look for these days. I can't spend my whole life setting up devices constantly. I config all my apps a very specific way and need a somewhat reliable system in place.

I'd like to add another thought, if i might: I've noticed that for some users who haven't done this (often) before, setting up from scratch seems more complicated than it actually is.

I wipe my phone regularly (sometimes because I have to, sometimes because I've been messing around with the settings and just feel better doing a clean reinstall), and if you approach it systematically, it really doesn't take much effort.

It takes me less than 45 minutes (wipe, setup apps, appearance, permissions, multiple profiles, new Google account if necessary – really everything). If you want to give it a try, you may find these tips helpful:

Many apps offer their own backup solution – use them.
If you don't use a central app store like Google's Play Store (or want to create a new account): make a list of all your apps
For apps that are more complex to setup and don't offer backup solutions and for system settings: Take screenshots of your settings or write them down (screenshot the settings and with OSS-Document Scanner, for example)
Connect your device to a computer and copy all files (data, pictures, video, etc.) and backups.
Reset your phone.
Install all apps by just working through the list you just made.
Copy files and backups back on your device.
For system/apps without backup: Open the screenshots on your computer and configure your device accordingly.

A side effect of a fresh installation is that you are forced to take a closer look at your settings and installed apps: Many of them may have been installed or configured a long time ago and are no longer suitable for your current situation.

Even though I'm not one of those people who care about complete backup solutions, I can understand the desire for them:

So if backup is by far the most important feature, I agree with littlerack : There are probably better options for you than GrapheneOS (personally, for security reasons, I would switch to iOS rather than a rooted Android device).

But if it's just one of several reasons why you use GrapheneOS (I'm guessing you didn't switch to GrapheneOS just because of Seedvault back then), maybe my suggestions will speed up your workflow and help you avoid to

[...] spend my whole life setting up devices constantly.

And one day there will probably be a decent replacement for Seedvault:

We plan on replacing it [Seedvault] with a new implementation since the project has been taken over by another group of people not sharing our goals or approach. For now, this is the best available option, so we're including it to give people encrypted backup support. We've made several security fixes to work around upstream issues with the project.

source: https://grapheneos.org/features#encrypted-backups

littlerack

BTW, one of habits I've got used to from Samsung era - don't customize unless it's absolutelly necessary, especially UI.