I recently got a fairphone and I want to move my pictures, contacts, messages, etc. from my old android phone to the new one. My initial search found some apps that do this but they look like absolute privacy nightmares. What is a good way to accomplish this without handing my phone contents out like candy to whichever malevolent spyware developer?

  • paradox2011@lemmy.ml
    8·
    15 hours ago

    NeoBackup is the only one I’ve run across that seems to really fill the role of backup and restore thoroughly. The trouble is, in order to work it needs root, so I’ve nw er actually been able to try it. Almost reason enough to root in my book 😅, I love a good back up system.

    Seedvault is another fairly well developed option, but it needs to be hardcoded in to the OS by the ROM developer.

    You’ll probably ly benefit from a series of different backup apps in combination. Here’s a few that I’ve used and benefitted from:

    SMS import/export - backs up all SMS, MMS call logs and contacts. Does not backup RCS.

    Applist backup - back up your installed app list. This includes data on where you installed the app from and where you can get it again along with other useful info. The apps still have to manually installed.

    Aside from those two, most FOSS apps include a backup and restore function, such as: signal, neo launcher, fossify calendar, newpipe, metro (music player), aegis (2 factor), obtainium, etc…

    I hope this helps. I tend to tinker and install various ROMs, so am well aquainted with the pain of setting up a fresh OS without a system wide backup program. Its not as bad as it seems though, and as long as you get your messages, contacts and call logs moved over it goes pretty smooth.

    • KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
      2·
      10 hours ago

      Regarding Applist, does this copy the app’s data?

      I have a game on a phone I’d like to copy to a tablet so progress is not lost. App is in both devices already. Would that work?

      Sorry for piggybacking on OP.

      • paradox2011@lemmy.ml
        2·
        3 hours ago

        Sadly it doesn’t 🥲. Copying app data is the hardest part of the process without a system level backup like seedvault, neobackup or traditional google backup services.

  • mox@lemmy.sdf.org
    1·
    15 hours ago

    I use DAVx⁵ on my android devices, so calendar and contacts are synced to a private CalDAV/CardDAV server. (I self-host Radicale, but you could pay for such a service if you don’t want to host your own.)

    Pictures should be easy, since they’re just files. Swapping microsd cards, copying to/from a computer via USB, file transfer app, KDE Connect… there are lots of options.

    By messages, do you mean SMS/text? I suggest checking your old phone’s messaging app for an export feature, and trying to import it on the new phone’s messaging app. If that features is missing or incompatible between versions, maybe try one of these apps temporarily, just to get the backup/restore done:

    https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.smsmessenger/

    https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.fossify.messages/

    Edit: More backup/restore options here:

    https://search.f-droid.org/?q=backup

  • proceduralnightshade@lemmy.ml
    1·
    15 hours ago

    If it’s really just pictures and contacts, do it manually. Contacts app should have an export function. Pictures you can just copy via USB.

    Messages are usually cloud-stored nowadays right? Do you have more than idk 5 different messaging apps? If you don’t, and one or some of them for some reason don’t store messages on some server, find out if you can do it manually, most apps should have export/import functionality (not just messaging apps btw). For standard SMS though, no idea.