I would like to backup as much of my Android data as possible, and I’m currently trying with syncthing, which is v1.27.10. The backup data will be stored on my home server, which has the Linux v1.27.10 now too.
I’ve had to take a number of advanced steps, and still having major issues with the Android client, such as it freezing almost daily and needing to be force stopped/restarted, and not saving some settings even tho I’m restarting it normally. So maybe Syncthing isn’t the best for this. Open to alternative suggestions.
For example, I started syncing /sdcard but realized I needed to run it as root in order to read/sync everything there, such as in Android/data or my Signal backups. Even after enabling it to run as root, and telling it to send ownership, permissions, and attributes, it’s still not doing that.
On my Linux home server “receiver” I’m also running it as root so it can set the correct owners and permissions (otherwise everything is owned by my account) but that’s not working totally right either, everything is owned by root now with a few random exceptions which sometimes match what is on the Android file system.
At least all the data is being synced now, but with the ownership and permissions wrong, and the Android instance freezing all the time and not saving the settings, I must have configured something really wrong here or this is not the solution I need.
PSA about Google’s “One” so-called backup: The only reason I’m doing all this is because Google utterly failed to backup my data and has lost the most important parts, ~20 years of text messages I’ve meticulously transferred across my devices over the years. Google One was telling me my data was backed up but it was lying to me, or their “backup” is not a real backup and it appears to save only 1 copy of the most recent data with no previous incremental data available? Answers and documentation are scarce. It seems when my previous device bricked itself overnight*, it interrupted the Google One backup and so none of my SMS data got saved and thus not restored to my new device, but MMS picture messages were. This was only shown by logging into Google Drive and checking deep in the status of the special backup area reserved there for Google One. Anyway, I’ve had a ticket open with Google for like 2 months now at least. They finally escalated it to an engineering team to see if they can find any of the previous successful backups and thus my data, but I’m expecting it’s gone forever.
*2nd PSA: This is a widespread issue with the Pixel 5a’s, due to poor soldering it looks like, but Google won’t admit anything. If you still have one or know someone who does, warn them and backup the data now because it will likely brick itself at some point. Then Google might offer to repair or replace your device though, which is nice.
3rd PSA: and would be nice if it weren’t a lie. I opted to have mine repaired at a local iBreak-uFix shop, but Google never followed through with the work order. When I called support back, they rescinded the repair offer and forced me to mail the bricked device back to them, making me wait weeks without a smart phone for a replacement. Then they destroyed that device before I had a chance to restore and verify the backup from Google One, likely destroying the only copy of my data in existence.
After that many f*ckups, and lying to me about repairs, it’s something I’d look into going into arbitration or small claims court over. Waiting to see if the 2nd level engineering team comes back with anything before going that route.