MEGATHREAD - First Hand Experiences with Seedvault

nandohyphen1

Novalissoide I so want that feature to 'just work'

It seems to honestly back up everything flawlessly so far! Except files (which are Beta), get stuck halfway, but I back up my files and photos to Proton Drive anyways, so thats no big deal. But everything else is working amazingly. I'm surprised - and happy! 😀

de0u

nandohyphen1 Out of curiosity, could SeedVault be installed on my Motorola Moto G Play or does it have to be integrated into the OS?

Accessing/replacing the settings/data of all apps is highly privileged. SeedVault works only as a privileged system application.

mmobder

Is three a way to restore profile's seedvault backup info private space? Could not find how to search in this particular thread.

mmobder

mmobder ok, so the answer is - yes.
one needs an app like AppManager in private space in order to start full Settings app that is otherwise not accessible. Then, usual procedure.

It's great SeedVault exists!

nandohyphen1

Will SeedVault backup my Duress PIN, or would that have to be reset when I get a new phone?

userofgos

nandohyphen1 no it does not. I just did a Factory reset to start fresh for the new year. Duress didn't carrier over. I think it makes sense why, since the password/pin and fingerprint also don't carrier over.

userofgos

As mentioned above, I decided to start 2026 by factory resetting my Pixel 8a. Restored from Seedvault backup with minimal issues. I can definitely see there it's become more stable from the last time I restored from backup, so hats off to the GrapheneOS team for the minor/gradual improvements over last year.

Main issues I experienced was with SV restored Proton Mail & Calendar apps as they kept crashing and enabling Exploit Protection Compatibility Mode didn't help. So I had to reinstall them, all other Proton apps had no issues though.

The other issue was restoring WhatsApp from backup. But I figured that out after about 5 attempts

nandohyphen1

userofgos I've also noticed Seedvault has been more stable during the test backup/restores I've done. Since you just did a factory reset and restore, are app permissions really a mess or do they keep their same permissions? Also, I wonder if since sensors are allowed be default, if its worth skipping restore from backup on the startup page, disallowing sensors by default, and then restoring from the backup section in settings? I'm just thinking about all this stuff for when I get a new phone.

userofgos

nandohyphen1 are app permissions really a mess or do they keep their same permissions?

You have to start over, enabling necessary permissions for all apps

nandohyphen1 Also, I wonder if since sensors are allowed be default

Yes it's on by default. Thanks for the reminder, I just disabled it.

nandohyphen1 if its worth skipping restore from backup on the startup page, disallowing sensors by default, and then restoring from the backup section in settings?

Up to you and what you think would be best

nandohyphen1

userofgos thanks for the info, great to know how it all goes, especially from someone who just restored from Seedvault. :)

nandohyphen1

Oh yeah, I was going to ask this but forgot. So I have a 64GB flash drive that I backup my phone to. My phone storage is 128GB, but I've only used about 63-64GB. 11GB of that is apps. I only back up my apps to Seedvault (I backup files and photos to Proton Drive and always restore them that way), so is only 11GB getting backed up to the flash drive? Reason asking is that I'd like to know, in case I exceed 64GB in internal storage, since thats the size of my flash drive.

userofgos

nandohyphen1 so is only 11GB getting backed up to the flash drive?

I couldn't tell ya, theoretically yes (plus a little more for SMS, contacts, settings, etc). But ultimately you'd have to verify the total size of the ".SeedvaultAndroidBackup" directory yourself to be sure

mmobder

nandohyphen1 so is only 11GB getting backed up to the flash drive

Android's (not SV) approach to backup, limits app's data to something like 25MB, I think. SV unless I'm mistaken, doubles that.
However a lot of apps doesn't respect the backup requirements and thus aren't compliant even with seedvault, not speaking of aosp.
An example would be media/streaming apps, that often put cache/downloads into apps data.
Thus if your 11GB apps are like that, they will not be backed up.

nandohyphen1

userofgos thanks, I'll take a look next time I back up my phone, and I'll post my findings, in case others have the same question and read this. ;)

nandohyphen1

mmobder interesting. I'm gonna take a look next time I do a backup, when I have time.

mmobder

nandohyphen1 it's seems since 5.2 (15) it's no less then 1GB (it was 50MB before that), hasn't checked further https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault/issues/822#issuecomment-2593458411

nandohyphen1

OK, so I had time to backup my phone this morning. It appears the total backup size was only 1.5GB.
https://drive.proton.me/urls/XRPHRN17P4#MrTVw1WwJ4sM
I also looked in settings under the android.seevault.backup (or whatever its called) folder but couldn't find a size on it, even by long pressing it and clicking Get Info.

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