DivestOS work profile backup

Help Fairphone 4
,
1

I just posted this on the f-droid forum before realizing the Fairphone forum might be a bit more appropriate.
Basically, I am having trouble finding a good way to backup my messaging apps in my work profile. I am running DivestOS 20 on a FP4 - trying to get a full backup of everything before I transition to CalyxOS. So far this is where I have got:

  • SeedVault comes with DivestOS, but only backs up my personal profile
  • Specific apps for backing up popular messaging apps (MobileTrans, iTransor) are headquartered in China, and I am not willing to trust those apps with my chat data
  • Certain programs like Open Android Backup do not backup app data
  • Finally, apps like Neo Backup require root permission, which I am unable to get, since the Divest OS downloads are broken.

It appears I could extract my boot.img, modify it, root with something like Magisk, and then see if Neo Backup works, but that seems like a lot of work, and places where things could potentially go wrong. My request is: Does anyone have an (easier) open-source or homebrew solution for me to back up my messaging apps in my work profile on DivestOS?

2

Can you get into some detail about what exactly those messaging apps are? Signal and WhatsApp at least have their own backup functionality. Did you already check your apps for that?

1 Like
3

One of the apps is WhatsApp, yes. Signal does local backups which is easy to transfer. WhatsApp (and I believe LINE, and others) want you to only do backups via Google Drive, which does not work on DivestOS even with MicroG. I wonder if there would be any way for MicroG or another service to hijack the Google drive login to trick the app into backing up locally - though that sounds very similar to a MitM attack so I doubt it.

Online it seems like other people have had success in years past by installing an older version of the app in question which allows adb backup, so Iā€™m going to try that.

4

I only have local WA back-ups since years, you just need to transfer it to a PC and than back

2 Likes
5

Oh, I must have been misunderstanding the WhatsApp interface then. Thanks! Unfortunately I still need to find a way for LINE chats.