GrapheneOS partial offline backup? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 days ago by chocolatechip@lemmy.world to c/privacyguides@lemmy.one

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I may need to visit the United States briefly, therefore I want to offline backup my text messages and signal messages from my GrapheneOS phone. Once I return home I want to restore my data from the offline backup. Does anybody have experience and recommendations for this?

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[-] ArchRecord@lemm.ee 23 points 6 days ago

GrapheneOS has Seedvault integrated in Settings > System > Backup, where you can choose what you want backed up, back it up into a file, then transfer that file anywhere you want.

You can then restore a backup from the three-dot menu in the top right.

I haven't had to do restore yet myself, so I'm unsure how well it restores, say, text messages, to an existing client on your phone. (I'm not sure if it replaces your existing messages or not)

As for Signal, I believe it now supports restoring up to the last 45 days of message history from your device. (Even after wiping your messages off Signal from your phone, leave the app itself, as it has totally innocuous files that definitely don't possibly harm police hardware used to crack phones embedded in it.)

[-] ruplicant@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

"There is no other significance to these files." hahah

thanks for the read

[-] maxmalrichtig@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 6 days ago

Wouldn't be so sure about the 45 days for Signal. Had to do an "emergency" reinstall of Signal at one of my family members. All messages were lost.

However, Signal has a dedicated backup-function baked in that I've used before. (See under Settings > Chats) It should just do want you want.

[-] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

Aren’t signal messages dependant on the same password “key” being used to decrypt the messages.

I’m still new to signal and still playing

[-] maxmalrichtig@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 days ago

You are right, basically.

However, the backup solution of Signal will basically export the "content & metadata" of the messages into a re-importable format and then bundle everything into an encrypted container. You will get a separate password for that container file that you need to re-import your messages.

As far as I understand it, Signal will then re-encrypt your messages after the import with the key of your new Signal installation.

[-] confuser@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

I tried backing up to seedvault through USB once, that did not work at all lol idk where exactly the issue was but the USB would get warm and eventually fail but I could write so much more data to the USB on a computer so it had to be something with the phone.

[-] BioMyth@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Like others have noted, for signal do a backup using the built-in feature. Then wipe the apps storage to clear messages.

For SMS/MMS I have usedSMS Import/Export before to transfer that data between devices easily without any issues so it should work as well.

I would also make sure to enable the feature to disable USB when the screen is locked. Just in case you get TSA stopped & they take your device for any reason.

this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2025

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