I’m aware of how to set up chat backups on Android, but this only makes local backups that you have to manually upload or copy.
I’m trying to find a solution where I can set and forget backups to the cloud.
My requirements are:
- It doesn’t require me exposing the rest of my file system/cloud storage to a third party app without scoping (filesync works, but doesn’t meet this criteria).
- It can upload directly to a cloud service
So far, no dice :/
Is there some workaround?
P.S. my potential solution is move Signal to my Shelter Work profile, where I do have filesync installed, but then I won’t have contacts access, which is a slight pain (and because I don’t want to create contacts in my work profile).
Syncthing-fork since the origional is dead now
This looks great, but I don’t currently have a device I can use as always on storage to sync to. Looking for methods to upload to GDrive or OneDrive (I am aware this is antithetical to privacy, but for signal at least, backups are encrypted. And switching over everything takes time I currently don’t have)
I’d second syncthing, out of everything I have tried this just works once its set up.
For anyone who may have missed it, cloud backups are coming https://signalupdateinfo.com/news/cloud-backups.html
They’re already testing the backup functionality with the “desktop history sync” feature - https://community.signalusers.org/t/help-us-test-desktop-history-syncing/65452 so I think its very likely we’ll see Android/iOS cloud backups live by mid-next year at the latest (just a guess, not taking any bets).
I was not aware, thanks for sharing :)
Yeah, Signal backups are pretty poor. I recently discovered that they’re not included with a full Google device backup, so if your screen dies you’re screwed, unless you happen to have backed it up manually to a microSD card, which wasn’t the case.
Not to mention that you cannot copy or screenshot the security codes, so you have no way to verify the codes you wrote down on a piece of paper.
I’m all for security, but the user has to actually be able to use it.
This is not my experience. I happily copied the backup passphrase, and there’s a spot under settings > chats > chat backups > verify backup passphrase It allows pasting there.
Further, you can set signal to allow screenshots too, under privacy > screen security
Hope this helps
So whats so important about chat messages that you actually.need to backup?
i’m also sentimental about all that i’ve written with friends, but honestly i don’t really need to have it backed up.
That’s an entirely different question, but here’s a few reasons: chats with family members who are no longer alive, photos of newborn babies, birthday wishes, serial numbers, links to useful content, notes to self, etc. etc.
Will life come to a sudden and laborious end with the loss of these, probably not. Would life be better if they continue to be accessible, for plenty of people, myself included, yes.
I save my backup code in my password manager and I’m able to just paste it from there into signal in order to verify it.
How did you get the backup recovery codes into your password manager?
Kde connect can usually share clipboard contents too. I use that for for copying and pasting stuff between the phone and laptop.
I use the TalkBack screen reader and it has a copy last utterance to clipboard. So I was able to just select the passphrase so that it was spoken aloud and then copy that text to clipboard.
https://github.com/newhinton/Round-Sync
I have it scheduled to sync the signal folder an hour after signal makes it’s backup. My personal setup is a crypt vault (so I control the encryption key) wrapping a B2 vault, but you can use any cloud provider that rclone supports.
I couldn’t seem to get it connect to google drive (tried on my work profile, tried the various apks available. Made sure Google Drive was also installed in the work profile)
Also, it asks for complete local phone folder access. Really wish services like this would allow you provide access to certain folders, since this option has existed in Android for quite some time.
Thanks for the suggestion though!
