Ways to migrate to GrapheneOS / restore prior apps? (Swift Backup + Shizuku?)

BikeHelmet

Hi there,

I got a chance to upgrade to a Pixel 9 Pro XL. I figured I'd move on over from a string of rooted Pixels to GrapheneOS for better security and privacy. The sandboxing interests me. Although I'm fine with using Google services, I wouldn't mind clipping their wings a bit either. A few months back Google Photos backed up 250GB of photos in the OFF setting with no account set as a photo backup target, severely pissing me off. (Filled my Gmail and blocked incoming email, plus I had to carefully test if clearing photos online would clear from my phone. Also, why even ask or have a toggle if you're just going to do it anyway?) GrapheneOS seems like it might have some positives for reigning in the power and control of BigTech.

That said, I do like Gmail, Gemini, even the GBoard. But some other Google things can get lost.

I have about 500 apps to restore, many of which are no longer available on app stores. (I have been moving them from phone to phone with Swift Backup.) Is there a way to get up and running without having to track down and manually reinstall all of them? I imagine doing 500 will take me about 3 weeks, so I'd rather avoid that. I heard about an app called Shizuku that can temporarily bump something up to root if you run it via ADB. I figured that might be an option? Elevate Swift Backup once, restore, get everything into the right places, then shut it down and configure the permissions in GrapheneOS so that everything is nice and contained.

Would this be a good procedure? I do not plan to be using that app long term - it's just for the initial migration. Thoughts appreciated.

Happy Holidays!

nandohyphen1

BikeHelmet Is there a way to get up and running without having to track down and manually reinstall all of them?

Maybe someone else will chime in with ideas, but to the best of my knowledge, if your switching from regular Android to GrapheneOS, you'll most likely have to do it all manually, unless you can somehow backup all the app APKs to a flash drive and put them on the phone that way. Yes its a pain, but I think thats all you can do.

BikeHelmet I heard about an app called Shizuku that can temporarily bump something up to root if you run it via ADB.

Shizuku and ADB are extremely dangerous to your phone and are not recommended to use. You can run into all sorts of problems if you go this route that could screw up your phone! I would not use Shizuku and/or ADB at all. It also compromises the security of the device. Just letting you know this so you know the risks that could happen to your phone. If something does go wrong when using Shizuku or ADB, theres a good chance no one could help fix your phone, depending on what happens. Just a warning. I would never recommend this!

nandohyphen1

BikeHelmet colzinmoore FYI, I have an old Motorola Moto G Play that I messed around with Shizuku and ADB on a while back. I ONLY did this because it is used solely as a testing device and not used as a daily driver!!!!! I have indeed broken stuff on it using ADB & Shizuku (the file system no longer works, the camera is broken, and some settings are broken) and I would never, EVER use this on a production/daily device. This is just a warning from my experience.

Vincent96

Shizuku and ADB are extremely dangerous to your phone and are not recommended to use. You can run into all sorts of problems if you go this route that could screw up your phone!

Agreed. Don't do this.

colzinmoore

Hi,
I am migrating from a Samsung S21 Ultra 5G, and have similar questions. I don't even have root, so I suspect that ADB would be my most powerful tool.
What do people use in ADB, and what are the dangers?
I wouldn't mind reflashing if I make a mistake.

nandohyphen1

colzinmoore I suspect that ADB would be my most powerful tool

It would be. Its also the most dangerous, security compromising tool.

colzinmoore What do people use in ADB, and what are the dangers?

Using ADB and Shizuku could,
Send your phone into an endless bootloop.
Make it permanently unusable.
Brick it.
Make it very suspectable to being hackable, and it lowers your security big time.
Break certain functions of your phone.
And many more, dangerous, irreversible things.

colzinmoore I wouldn't mind reflashing if I make a mistake.

You'd have to do a lot more than reflash, if you screwed up. Most likely just toss the phone and buy a new one. Trust me. Don't play with this stuff. Shizuku and ADB are very, extremely, dangerous to your device. If you go this route and break something, chances are people on the forum won't be able to help.

BikeHelmet

nandohyphen1 I'm curious what you were doing with it, that you were able to break things so badly? On my rooted phones, everything functioned other than the TD banking app. I managed to load in firewalls and adblockers and expanded permissions systems and other things to more tightly control what accesses what. It was pretty handy, honestly.

I was only planning to use it to get the APK files to restore en masse and reload properly. Swift Backup works great, but the root access is a pre-requisite. I wasn't planning to touch anything else. It sounds like I might need to consider other options, though. Or just spend the many weeks trying to do it manually.

I do have APK backups, so I could copy them all over via another method. Tapping on hundreds of them one by one seems like a mundane way to spend a few weekends, but I'll consider it. After going to such effort, how should updates be handled? Swift re-integrates with Google Play... I assume I'll have to use something else to update the apps if I manually reinstall them? Google Play probably won't pick them up as being native to its app store? Plus it's highly sandboxed now?

Feedback on what I should expect would be appreciated.

nandohyphen1

BikeHelmet I'm curious what you were doing with it, that you were able to break things so badly?

I was attempting to "degoogle" the Motorola as much as possible (which required removing non removable system apps) and I think I removed one too many things that broke it. I mean, I don't care, since its my testing device and I was willing to accept that I could brick it.

BikeHelmet I was only planning to use it to get the APK files to restore en masse and reload properly. Swift Backup works great, but the root access is a pre-requisite. I wasn't planning to touch anything else.

If you do want to do this, if you confidently 110% know what your doing, it could turn out OK, but I still really wouldn't recommend it, for security reasons.

BikeHelmet Or just spend the many weeks trying to do it manually.

Honestly, this is probably the better option, as harder as it seems.

BikeHelmet I do have APK backups, so I could copy them all over via another method. Tapping on hundreds of them one by one seems like a mundane way to spend a few weekends, but I'll consider it.

I do really think this would be the best option. :)

BikeHelmet After going to such effort, how should updates be handled? Swift re-integrates with Google Play... I assume I'll have to use something else to update the apps if I manually reinstall them? Google Play probably won't pick them up as being native to its app store? Plus it's highly sandboxed now?

I'm not sure exactly how you'd update them (if they were installed from Google Play originally, you should be able to update them from there, I'd think) but if you haven't yet, all the info on how Sandboxed Google Play works is on the GrapheneOS website. Here's the direct link.
https://grapheneos.org/features#sandboxed-google-play