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Comment by ibejoeb

2 years ago

Backups have existing for quite some time: settings -> chats -> backups

update: only on android. turns out there are quite a few caveats for backup. See https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Ba...

21 comments

ibejoeb

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izacus  2 years ago

Please stop peddling this horrible experience as a form of a valid backup. A process that requires full manual interaction and requires you to know ahead of time when your phone will break or be stolen is not a useful backup process.

  • growse  2 years ago

    Eh? My Signal auto-backups every night to a device folder which I then replicate off with Syncthing. How is that requiring "full manual interaction"?

    • freedomben  2 years ago

      I think GP is being a little too harsh, but I also think you're being a little too generous. If it requires a third-party tool like sync thing, then it seems like a hard point to argue that signal has Auto backups. It's better than nothing, but it is definitely not as seamless as most users would expect from a backup solution.

      7 replies →

anigbrowl  2 years ago

They're pretty bad. You can't specify where the backup goes, so if you are running low on storage space (eg if you have a lot of photos or videos to back up) and add an SD card, tough luck because you can't save there. The best you can do is manually export your media (also without any choice over where it goes) and then manually move it to the SD card to make space on your internal storage. They say this is for security but if an attacker is in a position to export your backup, they are already in your signal account.

Same story with the PIN signal requires if you haven't used it in a few hours. It's the same as your phone PIN and there isn't anywhere you can change it, so it's just security theater.

bsimpson  2 years ago

I see it, but it just looks like it uses internal storage. So far as I know, there's no Drive File Stream/Dropbox sync for Android, so you'd still lose your shit if you weren't manually backing them up somewhere.

I doubt that's a habit many people will develop for a setting they didn't even know existed.

  • MadnessASAP  2 years ago

    It's not going to help a casual user but I solved the problem by putting the Signal backup in a Syncthing shared folder. It's been a workable solution at least 2 phone swaps now

    • XorNot  2 years ago

      It tries to keep 2 copies and so uses 2x the space on your phone. If you're sending a lot of images and video, then it becomes impractical quickly.