Android @lemdro.id Moonrise2473 @feddit.it 6mo ago

Syncthing saved my ass

Note for Americans: here WhatsApp is the de facto communication standard. Literally nobody uses SMS/iMessage/Facebook messenger/signal. And carriers still charge 2 euro for a MMS which completely kills iMessage/RCS (if accidentally send MMS, it's expensive)

I switched phones and instead of copying manually /Android/data/media/com.whatsapp I used the new feature of pairing via qr code.

Besides that's a not very well designed feature (you need to start transfer on the old phone before logging in the new phone) because they really want to store unencrypted backups on Google drive, the transfer completed in a short time.

Maybe too fast, I was expecting at least one hour to transfer the 5000 photos 10gb, instead it completed in 20 seconds.

So I told myself, ok photos not transferred, I'll just do that manually and directly put them in the photo archive on my PC rather than keep them mixed with all the "happy holidays" trash.

I browse the old phone to /Android/data/media/com.whatsapp and... It's empty. Wiped clean after the "successful" transfer process!

Luckily I had set syncthing (the fork on fdroid, the one on play store doesn't have access to whole storage) to have a full overnight backup! On my PC I still had all the photos, almost deleted too as I noticed that I didn't set the "trash can" option

Conclusion: go to download syncthing fork from fdroid and have a safety net from mistakes like this

62 comments

Signal all the way.
- Signal is particularly secure when you have no contact using it.
  
  I just forced them all. They usually want something from me so they can at least use what i wish.
- Signal sucks hard when trying to transfer between iOS and Android (in either direction). I lost years of chats, photos, etc as a result.
  
  Thats a feature. It literally only safes stuff you your devices.
  
  Also. Who the hell uses Ios?
syncthing is an extremely valuable piece of software in my eyes, yeah. i've been using a single synced folder as my google drive replacement and it works nearly flawlessly. i have a separate system for off-site backups, but as a first line of defense it's quite good.
I still wouldn't use WhatsApp.

Wait, why does MMS cost money?
- They decided the pricing 20 years ago during the early days of EDGE data pricing. Then they realized that the money that's flowing from users that accidentally send them is a gold mine, so they left the crazy pricing
  
  Is this an Italian thing? we don't have that in France we've had unlimited texts and mms for a long time way before messenger and whatsapp
- I wouldn't be so sure if I were you. Everyone, and I mean everyone, uses WhatsApp here. Friends, family, work, doctors, landlords, etc. Not using WhatsApp will make you miss get togethers with friends, make it way harder to communicate with colleagues, take away a lot of convenience when talking to your doctor or landlord or something.
  
  I have Signal groups with friends, but you're never going to be able to fully lose WhatsApp here unless you're prepared to be "that person" everywhere and miss a lot of convenience.
  
  It's the iMessage outside US
- Americans on Lemmy/Reddit always say this, but it's not easy.
  
  WhatsApp is essentially SMS. If you don't use WhatsApp, you're gonna have a bad time. You won't be contacted by friends or family, you'll struggle to make friends or get dates, you won't receive 2FA codes for a load of services, in some places even government stuff is done via WhatsApp.
  
  WhatsApp is about as optional as having an email address. You basically need it unless you want to live as a hermit.
The simplicity of Google Photos has me still rolling with that.

But for all my music, syncthing is the best. In my case it's synced to my phone though, and also backuped up from that to the cloud.
- If you self host, or want to try it out, Immich is amazing. It feels very much like Google Photos, but you can run it completely locally. Great integration with desktop and mobile, both Android, and iOS.
  
  I'm not affiliated at all with the project.
  
  That's been my plan to move off of Google photos. Decided on Immich a few months ago. Now if only I had some more of that free time to set it up.
Interesting.

Android 12 with syncthing-fork from fdroid does not allow access to the /android/data folder.

I want to backup my downloaded podcasts and whatsapp, but it can't do it.

Do you have an earlier android version?
- when adding a new share, you press on the cog, then it allows to choose /storage/emulated/0
  
  but without root it can't access Android/data or /android/obb, it can only access Android/media
  
  That's it, indeed it isn't rooted
And carriers still charge 2 euro for a MMS

I'm in Europe and I don't pay for regular texts or MMS.
- here all the plans have hundreds of "free" SMS but MMS are still 2 euro each even on the most expensive "all unlimited 300gb of 5g" plans
  
  Crazy, I'm also in Europe and my provider stopped supporting MMS like a year ago
  
  That's kind of terrible. I'm sorry
  
  I have a subscription with unlimited calls, text, and data. I pay (converted to Euros) around 45 per month. I also have unlimited roaming.
  
  Meanwhile my carrier doesn't even support MMS.
"And carriers still charge 2 euro for a MMS which completely kills iMessage/RCS (if accidentally send MMS, it's expensive"

In signal why not just turn off resend as MMS? Problem solved.
- Relies on people actually using Signal, which is an immediate non-starter unfortunately.
  
  Over time, the amount of signal contacts I have had went down, not up. IMO the Signal foundation has made multiple bone-headed moves that have stifled their growth and discouraged using Signal.
I keep my Obsidian notebooks and several source code repos in syncthing and then have them auto-shared between all my computers and my phone. Its been a great system, all my docs I need are readily available on all my devices with almost no delay and no cloud needed. A little advanced configuration to allow local deletes and I also have all my phone photos backed up this way too.

When I travel, I use my laptop and phone on a little travel router, so they're always networked together and syncing files. Definitely saved my butt a few times!
I find syncthing on android wrecks my battery. How have you been using it that doesn't do this?
- Make sure you are using syncthing-fork from f-droid and not syncthing from play store. Has much better battery life
  
  Thank you so much, man. I just installed it. Had the same problem.
  
  Thanks I just uninstalled and used the fdroid sync thing fork
- schedule that works only when charging and only at my home wifi (native setting of syncthing fork)
I'll never understand the people that have their photo archive linked to a chat app.

Where I live, line is the de facto standard. Soooo many people don't use any backup and just count on line to manage their pictures. Some dude went viral for losing 10years worth of family pictures when he went from iPhone to android. Line is a shit all that doesn't do any migration past 14days when changing os.

Just use Google photos and never think about it again? Or use self hosted stuff if you don't like the cloud. But for the love of God, don't count on the chat app...
- In my case it's just temporary. Every once in a while I'm supposed to take the phone, delete all the useless shit, archive the photos in the computer. Problem is last time I did that was over a year ago because procrastination
if you are fed up with juggling between whatsapp and the likes you could use beeper I won't recommended using beeper with signal because that would defeat the purpose

62 comments