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I'd find it useful if I could access my Signal chat logs in plaintext. The software offers no facility to do this on any platform, and on Desktop the programs t

I'd find it useful if I could access my Signal chat logs in plaintext. The software offers no facility to do this on any platform, and on Desktop the programs that have allowed me to take proper backups are (by necessity) a moving target because of changes to the database, so I am constantly having to get around to updating them and occasionally even that's a pain.

XorNot 1y ago
It'd also be useful if backups on Android actually streamed somewhere off the phone so they could be meaningfully appended to, kept. Or handled per channel (i.e. my baby pictures channel with family).
- proactivesvcs 1y ago
  ...and if the restore process wasn't so fragile. The only time I needed to backup and restore it just crashed part-way through, so the backup process wasn't even doing any validation.
  - hedora 1y ago
    The lack of encrypted (and cross platform) backups is the biggest security hole I know of in Signal. People inevitably end up working around it, which can mean using SMS, copying the threads / screenshots / attachments to arbitrary other storage, or switching to things like TeleMessage because of record keeping requirements. I wish Signal were less hostile towards forks. I'd happily switch to a client that uses their network, but that's compatible with iCloud backup.
    - Zambyte 1y ago
      This comment confused me a lot, because Signal has encrypted backups, just not cross platform. Looking into it more, it seems that iOS only has a "transfer" option instead of allowing backups. It's hard not to suspect this is due to arbitrary limitations on filesystem access on iOS.
- nicce 1y ago
  That would hit the Google One revenue if people would use alternatives… But also, it must have something to do with law enforcement. On the other hand, Google may say that forensic investigation of phone is harder (if no jailbreak), but on the otherhand it is easier to hand over the data behind the scenes from the remote cloud. Backups are not E2EE by default (user can enable, so they have an argument), so in most cases law enforcement can access WhatsApp messages, SMS messages and anything else without a problem. Many people don’t think about this, and defaults matter.
- walterbell 1y ago
  PhotoSync can incrementally backup iOS/Android photos to self-hosted or cloud storage targets, with optional encryption, https://www.photosync-app.com/support/encryption https://www.photosync-app.com/support/encryption
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> I'd find it useful if I could access my Signal chat logs in plaintext I'd probably also find it useful if I could access your Signal chat logs in plaintext. That's the problem.
- jazzyjackson 1y ago
  If someone has enough control of the app to utilize its export-to-plaintext button you were SOL anyway, there are plenty of use cases for “export a password protected encrypted blob of chat history so I don’t lose everything every time I switch devices”
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > If someone has enough control of the app to utilize its export-to-plaintext button Or find the lowest-paid, most-indebted and/or most-adulterous member of the TeleMessage team and bribe and blackmail them.
  - Zambyte 1y ago
    Signal already has exactly that? That isn't the same as a plain text export like the GP was saying though.
nicbou 1y ago
Neither do other chat apps. It's usually impossible to regularly export your chats to a machine you own in a format you can use. Same with photo apps.

XorNot 1y ago

It'd also be useful if backups on Android actually streamed somewhere off the phone so they could be meaningfully appended to, kept. Or handled per channel (i.e. my baby pictures channel with family).

proactivesvcs 1y ago
...and if the restore process wasn't so fragile. The only time I needed to backup and restore it just crashed part-way through, so the backup process wasn't even doing any validation.
- hedora 1y ago
  The lack of encrypted (and cross platform) backups is the biggest security hole I know of in Signal. People inevitably end up working around it, which can mean using SMS, copying the threads / screenshots / attachments to arbitrary other storage, or switching to things like TeleMessage because of record keeping requirements. I wish Signal were less hostile towards forks. I'd happily switch to a client that uses their network, but that's compatible with iCloud backup.
  - Zambyte 1y ago
    This comment confused me a lot, because Signal has encrypted backups, just not cross platform. Looking into it more, it seems that iOS only has a "transfer" option instead of allowing backups. It's hard not to suspect this is due to arbitrary limitations on filesystem access on iOS.
nicce 1y ago
That would hit the Google One revenue if people would use alternatives… But also, it must have something to do with law enforcement. On the other hand, Google may say that forensic investigation of phone is harder (if no jailbreak), but on the otherhand it is easier to hand over the data behind the scenes from the remote cloud. Backups are not E2EE by default (user can enable, so they have an argument), so in most cases law enforcement can access WhatsApp messages, SMS messages and anything else without a problem. Many people don’t think about this, and defaults matter.
walterbell 1y ago
PhotoSync can incrementally backup iOS/Android photos to self-hosted or cloud storage targets, with optional encryption, https://www.photosync-app.com/support/encryption https://www.photosync-app.com/support/encryption

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> I'd find it useful if I could access my Signal chat logs in plaintext I'd probably also find it useful if I could access your Signal chat logs in plaintext. That's the problem.

jazzyjackson 1y ago
If someone has enough control of the app to utilize its export-to-plaintext button you were SOL anyway, there are plenty of use cases for “export a password protected encrypted blob of chat history so I don’t lose everything every time I switch devices”
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > If someone has enough control of the app to utilize its export-to-plaintext button Or find the lowest-paid, most-indebted and/or most-adulterous member of the TeleMessage team and bribe and blackmail them.
- Zambyte 1y ago
  Signal already has exactly that? That isn't the same as a plain text export like the GP was saying though.

nicbou 1y ago

Neither do other chat apps. It's usually impossible to regularly export your chats to a machine you own in a format you can use. Same with photo apps.