Question - Restoring config on Android

Support Android
1

Hi, I have a question regarding the in-app “restore config” process in the android app.

Purpose - I’m changing a phone - so the idea is to do the following: 1 - backup the old config 2 - copy the backed config over to the new phone by other nodes 3 - submerge the old phone in lava 4 - install ST on the new phone and "import the old config" 5!! - the new phone’s ST starts up, recognized as the old known instance, but "fileless" 6!! - fileserver/desktop sends all the stuff back to the phone bringing it back up to date

Now regarding steps 5+6 - will it actually receive all the files, or will it recognize new phone’s (after restore config) “fileless” state as “everything was just deleted” and wipe stuff from every other instances?

(I know i can set repos on fileserver as "master"s, but there are plenty of repos, and due to the lack of “batch editing” capability, it’s quite a PITA I’d rather avoid…)

2

As only the config is restored, and not the index, the new phone will send the info “I have no files and I am on version 0” to the other nodes. So it should work (if the paths on the new phone are the same and exist).

Also the new phone will scan the directories and see nothing, but as it doesn’t have any index yet, it won’t create “delete that file” entries and send it to the other nodes.

The only thing I can think of, which could be a problem is the new delta index feature. The other nodes know what index data they send to your old phone and might not send that again to the new phone. But I’m not sure on this. You might need to use the resetdeltas cli option on all other nodes.

3

Is there a way to reset deltas for the android instance (without root)?

4

As I understand it delta indexes should not be a problem in that case. Other devices don’t know what index you have, you tell them when a connection is established. So the phone will tell all the other nodes that it has version 0, thus it will get the full index.

1 Like
5

It will work the way you wish. I have done this a lot of times. I even think the missing directories are created when you import the config.

Don’t worry about the delta index stuff. When your node connects and announces it’s index as 0 it will receive the full index.

6

One other thing… I have had ST Android crash a lot during the initial sync of large shares. The phone can run hot, drain battery and sometimes seem to stall. I suggest pausing the shares and bringing them up to date one at a time.

7

Thanks everyone!

Seemingly it went just fine as planned, although I did go through the hassle of resetting the deltas on other nodes (wweich’s reply got me a bit worried, before the rest of the comments came in…)

Regarding initial sync - I decided to just let it all go at once, put the new device and upgraded router to test. The transfer went quite smooth (and way faster than over USB btw), no crashes. 50GB in less than an hour, and everything is ready :slight_smile:

1 Like