Tips on how to do it right the first time

DeletedUser443

Tips or tricks or things to avoid

So great news. I finally saved enough money and got my pixel 9 pro today. Had to go smaller storage as that's all I could afford but I'm over the moon happy

I appreciate the effort and input of everyone involved and I have spread the word and once I save back up a few dollars, I'll be donating to the project too

I have never had a pixel and never had graphene before. I understand from all I've read it's quite simple to install and I'm confident of that however I do have a couple of questions

I'm a simple person that uses a limited amount of apps and mostly secure apps anyway (that probably won't require play store to run) but I'd like to run a few like a banking one I require (I'm guessing that will definitely require playstore) and Spotify (if I can't find something as good but better regarding privacy) and vpn. So was going to load graphene with sandboxed Google play store (unless I don't need play store)

I have read a few posts and I don't want to make a mistake so I'll ask:
I may be mistaken or not explain properly so feel free to ask if I don't make sense
Open to any tips or tricks or things to avoid:)

Any tips such as not using a vpn for initial load? I read someone saying if you want to be private, maybe initially use an ip address like a library or public before loading sim card in? But I also read someone was asked by Google for a phone number at some point to verify and there was a way to get it set up and then turn 2fa on or off so they won't ever need to request phone number (locked out etc) but I can't seem to locate thread. Feel free to point me to any relevant threads
It's not the end of the world and I use an encrypted calendar now but I have years worth of old things that are not private but important still and they are in my old Samsung calendar which I haven't used or added anything for many years but I do keep it so I can recall key dates of things from years ago etc
Any way of transferring the events across to a graphene one? Or a way to transfer them to sandboxed samsung calendar
Is there a transfer like component where I can transfer my photos and all sorts (like smart switch from my previous years) from my old android device to new pixel or am I better off just manually saving and then manually one by one putting them on new pixel?
I know sms messages are not secure however unfortunately and annoyingly so many companies use this service and I cannot get away from having sms but I have hated the fact that I was even forced to go from Samsung messages to Google messages. I know they are both sms but I REALLY don't like using Google messages. Any sms alternative? Or is there a less data hungry graphene factory sms app?
Also I'm a little confused about profiles. Do I set up a main profile and then a secondary one for Google play store?
Any other tips you can think of so I don't make a rookie error?

Muchly appreciated

Please move post to correct section if its in the wrong section

xxx

DeletedUser443 I was even forced to go from Samsung messages to Google messages.

You can use the build in SMS functionality. Which is quite fine and works.

Delaney

Tips on how to do it right the first time

Install Google Play Services on your main profile. Don't worry about secondary profiles.

The less you change, the better. This should be easy for you to follow if you value simplicity. GrapheneOS is already configured to work out of the box, especially for security.

DeletedUser443 Any tips such as not using a vpn for initial load? I read someone saying if you want to be private, maybe initially use an ip address like a library or public before loading sim card in?

This doesn't make sense and implies you don't understand what these ideas achieve. In my opinion, you don't need to worry about this. Just load your sim card in and setup the VPN you want.

But I also read someone was asked by Google for a phone number at some point to verify and there was a way to get it set up and then turn 2fa on or off so they won't ever need to request phone number (locked out etc) but I can't seem to locate thread

This likely won't be an issue if you just setup a new account when you install Google Play Services before setting up your VPN.

Is there a transfer like component where I can transfer my photos and all sorts

If it exists, I haven't seen it. Regardless, I would manually transfer because I prefer having full control.

I know sms messages are not secure however unfortunately and annoyingly so many companies use this service and I cannot get away from having sms but I have hated the fact that I was even forced to go from Samsung messages to Google messages.

Sounds to me like you're talking about RCS rather than SMS, since RCS specifically relies on Samsung and Google messages. GrapheneOS has a default SMS messaging app but does not officially support RCS.

Also I'm a little confused about profiles. Do I set up a main profile and then a secondary one for Google play store?

Don't worry about profiles.

Any other tips you can think of so I don't make a rookie error?

The less you change, the better.

raccoondad

DeletedUser443 you don't have to use a separate profile, if you want to, you can, if you don't, you don't have to. Its up to how you want it done.

If for whatever reason you don't want to contact GOS over your IP, you could install the OS and install CLI over Tor. Not much of a reason to do so for most ppl.

Alvyn

Ad 2) i think you can do a workaround to sync that calendar to some fake new google account on samsung device and than export from Google as ics file. Than you can delete that Google account.

mmmm

Delaney Install Google Play Services on your main profile. Don't worry about secondary profiles.

It’s ok to mention this but to do so so authoritatively is a bit much. There are some reason one might not want anything Google in their profile. The op said they actually only really want their banking app. So why contaminate everything for one app?

I suggest either a separate banking profile or private space in your main profile just for the app and play services. This is also better just in case your banking app doesn’t work with a vpn, but you want your phone to be under an always on vpn.

DeletedUser443

Appreciate replies. I do get where you're coming from however I will add this incase it changes response :)

The not using home or cellular ip prior to vpn was simply for privacy when setting up play store initially so my own ip to connect to google is not used as that defeats the purpose partially of linking my ip to them? Just something for initially setup I had read somewhere here but can't find it again now. I'll do a search again and see if I can find. I could have read it wrong too

Just to be clear, although a rookie to graphene, I already do a LOT of mucking around constantly daily to maintain privacy "as best I can" for the past few years with the stock androids I was using so I'm quite used to spending substantial time daily doing things and being inconvenient and I quite frankly don't mind the inconvenience as I value privacy more than convenience so I don't mind modifying behaviour more or leaving new ways now to help even further

So the inconvenience and learning new behaviour I don't believe will be an obstacle for me as I'm kind of used to it now and have been sustaining modified inconvenient behaviour for years

That's the reason I asked about second profile with sandboxed play store as if I understand it correctly, I don't think I'd mind switching between profiles as most of the day I only use the basic functions of phone and very limited privacy focused apps. And the few other apps I have like banking, I may only check once every 24 hours or even 48 hours and that's it. My life is pretty simple lol

Don't know if that changes your response at all

Delaney

DeletedUser443 The not using home or cellular ip prior to vpn was simply for privacy when setting up play store initially so my own ip to connect to google is not used as that defeats the purpose partially of linking my ip to them?

IP address alone is not enough to track you, especially for a service as big as Google. They will just rely on tracking you via your account and profile identifiers anyway, so a VPN doesn't change much in this case. VPNs nowadays are more useful for hiding your traffic from your ISP.

DeletedUser443 Just to be clear, although a rookie to graphene, I already do a LOT of mucking around constantly daily to maintain privacy "as best I can" for the past few years with the stock androids I was using so I'm quite used to spending substantial time daily doing things and being inconvenient and I quite frankly don't mind the inconvenience as I value privacy more than convenience so I don't mind modifying behaviour more or leaving new ways now to help even further

The advice I gave you was specifically to address "Tips on how to do it right the first time". I can appreciate wanting to tinker for learning purposes, but that is the sort of thing you should do on a secondary phone, or at least a temporary profile, rather than your daily driver.

DeletedUser443 That's the reason I asked about second profile with sandboxed play store as if I understand it correctly, I don't think I'd mind switching between profiles as most of the day I only use the basic functions of phone and very limited privacy focused apps. And the few other apps I have like banking, I may only check once every 24 hours or even 48 hours and that's it. My life is pretty simple lol

You may be overestimating the effectiveness of profiles. Only in very certain use cases does it actually make sense to use them.

That being said, if you really want to use profiles, try using "Private Space" first. It's essentially a nested profile within your profile and practically has the same effect as a secondary profile, but it's much more user friendly.

DeletedUser443

raccoondad I don't mind contacting graphene over my ip. It was actually just google play store setup. Maybe i confused the value of not disclosing ip to google play though

raccoondad I guess my only question about profiles is, since I don't use these other apps often and they aren't privacy focused. Would the second profile add a lot of privacy/limit the amount of data going back rather than having them on main profile all the time?

DeletedUser443

To add, I may not have explained the sms as well as I could lol.

Although my sms and my whole life really is quite mundane, I do like rcs and I LOVE when it works but sadly I often don't have data on anyway so many of my sms send or received without rcs
(I can't find a way to stop messages sending or receiving until a data signal is reached - meaning I'd love a toggle saying "do not send or recieve any message until rcs is available") and all big companies or shop / appointment conformation sms that are sent to me are not rcs anyway from what i can see so whenever it defaults back to plain sms which is often, it is annoying

My issue was more that I didn't like using google messages for my messaging but I didn't mind Samsung messages as much for some reason before they stopped supporting it and the default is now google messaging only. I just don't believe what some companies say about what they do with data or what they collect as they don't all have a great track record in all areas lol. So yes graphene sms would be great with rcs but maybe I'll just use it without rcs. It's great that graphene has an sms app. I'll definitely miss the rcs component that sometimes is used but I really cringe at using Google for messaging

raccoondad

DeletedUser443 It's great that graphene has an sms app.

To be clear, its androids messaging app. It was made and maintained by the Android Open Source Project, to give credit where due

raccoondad

DeletedUser443 if you want certain apps installed in an environment with a different file system, apps, app data, etc. Users are useful, otherwise, you don't have to. Matters what you want.

DeletedUser443

Awesome info. Thanks for your time