Or just GPG encrypt your messages and store it on some cheap shitcoin's blockchain for free forever storage.
Signal Secure Backups
331–340 of 460 posts
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#332Backing up Signal on Android for free and offline was ~always possible. The app creates a multi GB backup file on the phone memory under the Signal folder that you can just copy out and back on a new phone. The file is encrypted with the passcode and the database can be extracted. https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools
There are a couple of problems with the existing backup: 1. It is non-incremental. This means you'll need about as much free space on your phone as your Signal database takes, and it may take many hours to make if your database is large (mine is 18GB). I used to wake up to find my phone had not even fully charged because it had been so busy writing Signal backups. 2. Once you have it on disk, how do you get it away f…
#1 does suck very much.
My solution for #2 is an sshd I start up in Termux when I need to backup. I just rsync the file onto my computer.
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a couple of problems with the existing backup: 1. It is non-incremental. This means you'll need about as much free space on your phone as your Signal database takes, and it may take many hours to make if your database is large (mine is 18GB). I used to wake up to find my phone had not even fully charged because it had been so busy writing Signal backups. 2. Once you have it on disk, how do you get it away f…
> There are a couple of problems with the existing backup: > > 1. It is non-incremental. I wonder if that's differently with the newly announced functionality. Their announcement doesn't sound like it: > Once you’ve enabled secure backups, your device will automatically create a fresh secure backup archive every day, replacing the previous day’s archive.
@greysonp verified they're indeed incremental for media: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45170515#45175402
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#334What is the reason for saving the end-to-end encrypted backup files on Signal backup servers instead of iCloud or Google backup service, as most of us are already paying for this storage?
FYI: "Signal backup servers" currently seems to mean either Google Cloud Storage or CloudFlare R2 according to https://github.com/signalapp/storage-manager/blob/e45aaf5bd1...
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
>"Telegram is not fully e2ee but it's way more convenient here." Yeah convenient way to hand your data to a Russian oligarch. PGP has no forward secrecy and OTR in XMPP lacks future secrecy, multi-device support etc. Signal introducing end-to-end encrypted backups is exactly how Telegram should've done it decade ago.
Future secrecy? PGP does multirecipients natively, so any restrictions there would be in the XMPP client. I have actually tried out PGP over XMPP and is was nice once it was set up. Absolutely no state. If the message somehow gets to you it just works. Sucked when the keys expired though: * https://articles.59.ca/doku.php?id=pgpfan:expire PGP support on XMPP isn't really that great. Forward secrecy might be a nice ad…
>Future secrecy?
Meaning --if-- when your keys get compromised the system recovers.
PGP lacks even forward secrecy, meaning key compromise alone allows retrospective decryption of every message you've ever sent.
OTR fixed that in... ...2004 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1029179.1029200
Using PGP for secure communication in 2025 when you have option to use stateful E2EE over stuff like Signal is just bonkers.
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
You already can, if you at least set up desktop, you can transfer also message history, though you won't have your media older than 45 days. Maybe it can work as a stopgap before they roll out encrypeted backups everywhere
That's a weird and crappy arbitrary limitation when I could move an arbitrary amount of data between the two devices otherwise. It's the worst part of Signal.
It also does not work on Windows clients but errors out. Android and Linux are fine.
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#337I want to have local backups and i want to be able to decrypt them myself.
It‘s my fucking data!
(I‘m on iOS)
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#338What is the reason for saving the end-to-end encrypted backup files on Signal backup servers instead of iCloud or Google backup service, as most of us are already paying for this storage?
Besides the obvious (they want/need the revenue from selling their own solution), many people using Signal do so in an effort to move away from Big Tech and/or on devices with custom ROMs.
Yes, but Signal mission is also to popularize E2E secure communication for normal users, whi usually don’t use a custom ROM.
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
The $1.99/m is not for the up front work of fixing what sucks about current backups though, it's just bundling those fixes in with YACSS (Yet Another Cloud Storage Subscription) is the only way to get people to pay their "reasonable" recurring fee. People here seem to want to answer the question of how to copy data most directly, but only because that's how the problem was phrased. I'm not convinced "users had no way…
Explicitly, from TFA: > But secure backups aren’t the end of the road. The technology that underpins this initial version of secure backups will also serve as the foundation for more secure backup options in the near future. Our future plans include letting you save a secure backup archive to the location of your choosing, alongside features that let you transfer your encrypted message history between Android, iOS, a…
Looking at how long it‘s taking them i wouldn‘t hold my breath!
Re: Signal Secure Backups
#340Backing up Signal on Android for free and offline was ~always possible. The app creates a multi GB backup file on the phone memory under the Signal folder that you can just copy out and back on a new phone. The file is encrypted with the passcode and the database can be extracted. https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools
If you restore the backup on a new phone, you'll have to resync all desktop machines, and at least on Windows syncing old messages has never worked for me.