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Setting up phones is a nightmare

joelchrono.xyz

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Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#171

Post by gib444 »

mid-kid wrote: post #106
timedude wrote: post #94

None of those problems exist on GrapheneOS. In fact i regularly do a clean wipe and am up and running again in minutes.

How do you back up and restore things without root? I've found that even with root, these days many backups are useless thanks to using hardware-backed encryption...

(not OP but been on Grapheneos for a couple of years).

I don't. I transfer any important data like photos to a real computer weekly

Mail, Calendar and Contacts are handled by IMAP and DavX. Passwords are in 1Password

I have minimal apps so setting up a new device wouldn't be too much trouble

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#172

Post by Tzk »

cmckn wrote: post #80
sonofhans wrote: post #8

“Phones” in the title is doing lots of heavy lifting. “Android phones” is the key missing piece. I love Free software too, and I wish I could run more of my life on it, but it’s no longer my hobby. I like cars, too, but I don’t work on a hobby car. The author’s experience is why I use proprietary stuff like Apple for these parts of my life. A new Apple device is usually a non-event: charge it, authenticate, wait for…

To be fair, setting up a new iPhone (without restoring from backup) is a pretty long-winded process these days. You have to make about 50 decisions on various features, tap through numerous info screens, set up Face ID, Apple Pay, voice recognition, etc. etc. It feels like every team at Apple wants something in the onboarding flow.

actually you can skip most of these, but get reduced functionality in return. You can skip faceID/touchID, unlock code, appleID. You can’t skip terms, some customization options and, data collection and privacy settings.

In theory you can use iPhone and iPad without apple account - basically as dumb phone. But of course you won’t get AppStore access.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#173

Post by tsaika »

yonatan8070 wrote: post #169
kirenida wrote: post #161

Regarding users creating new accounts on phone setup: Recently I encountered a user that had created a new Google account when switching to a new device... on their last 5 devices. So when they switched to the latest one and called me to set up the phone, I had to wrangle the contacts, photos, cloud storage and whatnot from all of those accounts. Another pain point for me (in the EU/Balkans) is the transfer of Whatsa…

WhatsApp can do a local backup to /storage/emulated/0/Android/media/com.whatsapp I have that set up, and Nextcloud syncs the folder to my server

Yes, but WhatsApp is very finiky about restoring that backup when you're setting up a new device.

Due to this, I've resorted to backing up to drive without any media and then after restore, sync the media back via other means.

It's also worth mentioning that when you sync with drive, it doesn't preserve the time stamps of devices

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#174

Post by prmoustache »

n8cpdx wrote: post #105
t0bia_s wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that isn't all that different from getting a Pixel. Paradox is, that with Pixel device you can get most freedom and security togather. Installation of GrapheneOS is easiest custom ROM installation that could possibly be.

I tried it, Graphene isn't really a good alternative because the built in apps are so bad that you end up needing to install the Pixel/Google versions anyway. If I have to install Google Messages for RCS, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Pixel Camera (which forces you to use Google Photos for basic functionality), … where is the benefit? If I have to turn Graphene into a Pixel to make it usable, and I did, there’s n…

> If I have to install Google Messages for RCS, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Pixel Camera (which forces you to use Google Photos for basic functionality), … where is the benefit?

I am not sure why would you have to install messages has nobody uses RCS these days.

As for calendars and contacts, I am struggling to see the added value over the fossify alternatives, hence I don't have them anymore on my smartphones.

Pixel camera and google photos are nice to get the most out of tye pixel camera but thanksfully grapheneOS lets you use them without access to network. Stock Pixel rom doesn't allow you to do that. That is a major difference imho.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#175

Post by Tzk »

What I hate the most about setting up new devices up is apple MDM on our company-managed devices combined with data transfer via iTunes backup. Here’s why:

1. The devices will offer to transfer data wirelessly, but won’t tell you that some data isn’t transferred. Instead using iTunes is a must as (in our case) more data is copied. This excludes data from managed apps - understandable.

2. When updating and recovering the backup on the new device is done, the regular setup experience starts. But, as your WiFi is also copied over, the device starts trying to update and install apps in the background, even before you logged into your Apple ID. So you’re constantly annoyed by popups asking for the ID. If you try to enter it, another pop up will interrupt amd stop you from entering the credentials. It even aborts touch/face ID setup and makes you start over again. I’ve had some colleagues starting over on Touch ID for like 5 times before they were faster than the popups. That mixes with popups for company accounts like mail credentials. And even a required change of the unlock password. Sometimes up to 10 different popups spawn in a few seconds…

Seriously, why? Is it that hard to stop these prompts till the setup is done and then prompt the user for everything needed once?

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#176

Post by breisa »

freitasm wrote: post #47

Another thing that annoys me on Android is the setup experience itself. All my recent device presentcthe same behaviour: login with a Google account, transfer data, setup voice assistant and some other defaults,done. Then after the first app updates is done, a notification comes with "let's finish setting up your phone" and again asks to setup voice assistant, check defaults and whatever else is in the flow. Has no o…

Isn't that just Google trying to dark-pattern you into finally clicking that checkboxes you unchecked during setup?

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#177

Post by dismalaf »

urbandw311er wrote: post #89
dismalaf wrote: post #19

This is literally the midwit meme... Here's how you actually set up an Android phone: - log into Google account - select a few checkboxes (basically just if you want to restore apps or not) - done, everything else is automatic All the fuckery they decided to do because they think they're tech savvy wasn't required.

You don’t sound very tech savvy yourself to be honest! Well, certainly not security conscious or in anyway concerned about data privacy.

You thinking anything OP did improves security or data privacy proves the midwit meme...

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#178

Post by LtWorf »

kirenida wrote: post #161

Regarding users creating new accounts on phone setup: Recently I encountered a user that had created a new Google account when switching to a new device... on their last 5 devices. So when they switched to the latest one and called me to set up the phone, I had to wrangle the contacts, photos, cloud storage and whatnot from all of those accounts. Another pain point for me (in the EU/Balkans) is the transfer of Whatsa…

> Another pain point for me (in the EU/Balkans) is the transfer of Whatsapp and Viber.

Telegram, due to not being e2e encrypted, is trivial to transfer, a new login does it.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#179

Post by LtWorf »

nomel wrote: post #84
cmckn wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, setting up a new iPhone (without restoring from backup) is a pretty long-winded process these days. You have to make about 50 decisions on various features, tap through numerous info screens, set up Face ID, Apple Pay, voice recognition, etc. etc. It feels like every team at Apple wants something in the onboarding flow.

All of those security related screens you listed is why I like Apple: security related things are local to secure enclave, not in cloud.

Keep in mind apple famously never fixes these bugs that let the phone be rooted via a 0click attack starting from imessage, which inexplicably runs with elevated privileges.

I mean they fix one when it gets known but keep the issue there, which is why there have been several of these.

Re: Setting up phones is a nightmare

#180

Post by zadikian »

II2II wrote: post #43
sonofhans wrote: post #8

“Phones” in the title is doing lots of heavy lifting. “Android phones” is the key missing piece. I love Free software too, and I wish I could run more of my life on it, but it’s no longer my hobby. I like cars, too, but I don’t work on a hobby car. The author’s experience is why I use proprietary stuff like Apple for these parts of my life. A new Apple device is usually a non-event: charge it, authenticate, wait for…

> I use proprietary stuff like Apple for these parts of my life. A new Apple device is usually a non-event: charge it, authenticate, wait for the back to restore while you go about your business. Most of the author's criticisms were centered on avoiding account creation and third-party apps. I'm not sure I would give Apple the benefit of the doubt here since the motivations are different: Apple is far more interested…

You don't need an Apple account to back up an entire iPhone and restore it onto a new one, keeping almost all settings. They've kept the local iTunes method working from day 1. Idk how you do this in Android, sounds like most people sync everything to Google.
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