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

  • ramble81@lemm.eeEnglish
    101·
    6 months ago

    Signal sucks hard when trying to transfer between iOS and Android (in either direction). I lost years of chats, photos, etc as a result.

    • Mikufan@ani.socialEnglish
      518·
      6 months ago

      Thats a feature. It literally only safes stuff you your devices.

      Also. Who the hell uses Ios?

            • Mikufan@ani.socialEnglish
              11·
              6 months ago

              Ok but… Let’s be real… 60% of USA people Bing stupid is a pretty conservative estimation…

              • clgoh@lemmy.caEnglish
                2·
                6 months ago

                How elitist can you be to find 60% of a country to be stupid?

                • Mikufan@ani.socialEnglish
                  11·
                  6 months ago

                  European. We don’t think so, we know. Like seriously, look at the guys you have for election.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        6 months ago

        No, it’s not a feature, it’s a missing feature. When your backup and restore system only works sometimes, despite being set up correctly, then that’s a shit backup solution.

        Also. Who the hell uses Ios?

        Everybody who uses an iPhone. Which is a metric shitload of people. What kind of question is that?

        • Mikufan@ani.socialEnglish
          14·
          6 months ago

          IPhones are only used by people that have too much money and not enough self respect to just buy a actual phone.

          And the problem comes from Ios itself. They have another format than everyone else.

          Its on the people to not use shit phones that fuck up everything.

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            Cool story bro, but your feelings don’t change the facts: signal’s backup system isn’t fit for purpose.

            A backup system that can’t effectively back up and be restored is a flawed system.

                • Mikufan@ani.socialEnglish
                  12·
                  6 months ago

                  I was just saying that your opinion is not a discussion point. And furthermore that i don’t care about it.

                  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    21·
                    6 months ago

                    It is a discussion point, since it’s here being discussed. And also, apologies. I didn’t realise I was dealing with such a badass.