81–90 of 460 posts
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Thought people are talking about backups without a "cloud" involved. So you'd need to manually connect your phone to something...
What? My phone has a perfectly working 802.11 chipset, which is able to talk to my very own machines that are not in a cloud, no manual connection needed. This is purely a software/ecosystem issue.
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Yes! That has been supported for a long while. At least on Android, go to Settings -> Chats -> Chat Backups. Set up a schedule and a passphrase and a folder, and it will export your chats every day. I do that and then sync that folder with another computer using SyncThing.
Only on Android, not iOS.
Backing 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…
On Android? Easy, Termux app and then rsync to my Desktop/Laptop. Or via Solid Explorer. Or E-Mail via Blitzmail.
Non incremental is a suboptimal design decision, backups should be incremental, e.g. monthly if automated or with from-to dates.
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I'd also wonder where this shared encryption key for message "backups" is stored. If it's available on all of my devices, I suspect it would be available on other devices as well?
The article says it is generated on your device and they don't have a copy. Sounds like a public-private keypair where you are responsible for managing the private key.
Backing 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…
Without paying for remote backups, can I just manage my own backup on my own hard drive, and restore it when I want to?
Yes! That has been supported for a long while. At least on Android, go to Settings -> Chats -> Chat Backups. Set up a schedule and a passphrase and a folder, and it will export your chats every day. I do that and then sync that folder with another computer using SyncThing.
Do I get this for free if I’m a monthly donator?
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I'd also wonder where this shared encryption key for message "backups" is stored. If it's available on all of my devices, I suspect it would be available on other devices as well?
I mean it says so right in the blog post At the core of secure backups is a 64-character recovery key that is generated on your device. This key is yours and yours alone; it is never shared with Signal’s servers. Your recovery key is the only way to “unlock” your backup when you need to restore access to your messages. Losing it means losing access to your backup permanently, and Signal cannot help you recover it. Yo…
I'll save you the trouble:
- Even if you choose not to back up your chats, someone you are talking to can do it, and your messages to them will be saved in their backup.
- 100 MiB of message storage is free.
- Last 45 days of media storage is free.
- Beyond that you have to pay $1.99 per month, and get 100 GB of storage.
- Backups happen once a day.