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Huh, but Signal does allow you to this [0]? It doesn't allow you to do this on iOS, but I'm guessing your stance on data portability makes your life very hard

• djrogers 7y ago
  > I'm guessing your stance on data portability makes your life very hard on iOS anyway. Pretty much all of the data in the stock apps on my iPhone is easily portable, and most of it is API accessible, meaning I can use multiple apps to view and manipulate it. Apple even publishes a support doc on how to export your data using first-party tools. For any more complex needs, there are plenty of easily accessible 3rd party options. [1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055
• samatman 7y ago
  On the contrary, the vast majority of iPhone apps use iCloud and offer data export in addition to recovery/transfer to a new device. Signal is an outlier in this respect, and I hope they add this feature before I'm ready for another phone.
• novia 7y ago
  Has anyone had success in actually restoring their conversations from the signal backup? I'm on Android and reinstalled the app once when it was causing me trouble (it especially lags with group chats) thinking I'd be able to restore my chats no problem. Unfortunately, even though I had the passcode to unencrypt the backup saved, it didn't restore a single message.
  • petschge 7y ago
    Yes, I have done so successfully. As well as moved devices.
    • iudqnolq 7y ago
      How? I don't see any restore option.
      • climb_stealth 7y ago
        Last time I did it, you had to place the backup in the correct folder before the first start of the app. See the Signal faq. It is not the most user friendly approach, but it has been going through iterations and getting better.
        • iudqnolq 7y ago
          Thank you!
  • iudqnolq 7y ago
    I've dumped them to media and plain text with Signal-Back. I'm pretty sure that's all they offer. Edit: last part is wrong, see sibling https://github.com/xeals/signal-back/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/xeals/signal-back/blob/master/README.md
  • parliament32 7y ago
    I've done it across three phones so far, works great. The flow is a bit weird though, you need to put the backup in the Signal folder before you start the app for the first time (before it tries to re-register) and it'll ask for the key and import happily.
    • gravitas 7y ago
      This is indeed the crucial step, having had to do it several times as well. If you accidentally start the app before getting the backup file onto the device folder, going into the Apps setting and clearing all Signal app data is required to get the import process to work.
  • mindthegap 7y ago
    Yes, I switched phones and restored a backup on the phone without issues.
• mopsi 7y ago
  There's a workaround. If you use the iOS app in combination with a desktop client, then it is possible to back up messages, assuming they have been synced to the computer. On Windows: 1. Download DB Browser for SQLite https://sqlitebrowser.org/ https://sqlitebrowser.org/ 2. Unpack it and run DB Browser for SQLCipher.exe. 3. Open database, select %APPDATA%\Signal\sql\db.sqlite. 4. In the following dialog, select Raw key type and enter the encryption key stored in %APPDATA%\Signal\config.json into Password field (prefix it with 0x). 5. Now you can work with the database, including exporting its contents to unencrypted SQLite, CSV and JSON. The process should be similar on other platforms.
  • faitswulff 7y ago
    Thanks so much for posting this!
• Y-bar 7y ago
  > I'm guessing your stance on data portability makes your life very hard on iOS anyway. I have zero understanding why you would ask this. Every single first party and third party app other than Signal on iOS allow me to include its data in backups and/or export it’s data.
• dannyw 7y ago
  I can export data from every other app I use on iOS, barring Signal.