Curious about both android and iOS because I want to know what to recommend to friends. I’m asking about Google Drive because that’s what is simplest for my peers right now.

With Facebook adding AI directly into messenger, I have some people wanting to switch to Signal. However I’m not confident in my process for backups.

Right now I’m using FolderSync which is working well. The problem is deletion, where the deleted file sticks around in the trash for 30 days, eating up storage space until I manually delete it. Since the Signal backups can get quite large, the trashed backups are enough to put me over the limit.

I didn’t try WhatsApp that long, but it had a built-in feature to backup to Google Drive. I don’t need that level of simplicity, but something close would be nice.

  • Joël de Bruijn
    8•7 months ago

    To understand correctly: You have friends that care about moving files of their mobile by sync? Or is their only concern switching to Signal, but the lack of backup besides on the device?

    Asking because:

    • I have the same solution as you but the android folders - foldersync - Nextcloud variant.
    • My motivation comes from privacy / sovereignty.
    • My friends lack this motivation so they are happy using the cloud (iCloud or Googles) to “backup” everything.
    • Any hassle by not using that needs strong motivation to endure and overcome.

    So when their photos are in the cloud and their documents stay happy in mail attachments often there isn’t much more to backup besides configuration. Which all those bigphone (Samsung Lenovo Apple etc) suppliers provide.

    For the chat backup:

    • I got my whole family to switch to Signal (at least with me and for group chats, we have them for events and topics). The leverage I used was to only use Signal for baby photos of our newborn kids which my sisters and mom just couldn’t live without. 😎
    • They complain about running out of local storage and not being able to bulk delete media in Signal.
    • As a workaround they sort by filesize and delete a dozen big files (eg video).
    • Or they leave a group, delete it along with media and join again.
    • I was surprised they don’t care about the files after consuming it (foto video) and happy delete them.
    • After that … the backup becomes small again.
    • OtterOPEnglish
      1•7 months ago

      Or is their only concern switching to Signal, but the lack of backup besides on the device?

      Pretty much this, they like the comfort of being able to check old messages to remember what was talked about. I’ll look into deleting my files to keep backups at a manageable size