Keen to hear people’s experiences with backing up using Seedvault, whether on BraX3, another iodéOS device, or something else. And what strategies you use or experiences; or other solutions there are?
I’ve been told and can see from my initial use on the B3, that Seedvault is a bit erratic and inconsistent (i.e. doesn’t always back up all apps, or all settings or data for those apps, in the specified profile); and it’s also not recommended to try and use it to restore a config from one device to another as I’ve been told. So how reliable have people who have used Seedvault for a while found it; and/or are there other alternatives or suggestions anyone has used outside this?
While Nextcloud is the obvious private cloud solution, I haven’t implemented it as yet as I have not decided long-term (yet) what solution I want to use with my Linux PC & Laptop; and any mobile devices. So although I have Proton Drive I don’t think this is the most ideal (due to poor support for Linux Desktop) and so I was looking at Syncthing as an interim solution that might be easier to implement. And I see it’s a fairly common alternative to Nextcloud. Who’s had experience using Syncthing with Android for doing back ups and syncing (and possibly backing up general data also)…?
Other than having Syncthing or Nextcloud sync a local directory on your mobile device to back up the Seedvault data location (and possibly also the general user data directories), are there other alternatives? Are there other apps? AND are there any other alternate ideas - e.g. does anyone do it manually by plugging in a USB-Stick and running a sync tool or similar to just do a straight copy of all directories to the USB storage?
Keen to hear how existing people (with Android in general, or who have had previous degoogled privacy phones) have approached or tackled this; and what other new BraX3 owners (new to Android or degoogled) have been looking into doing around backups?
With the B3 I am running seedvault (never used it before) I notice it doesn’t back up apps you have installed but don’t use which is frustrating I have some apps I want but only ue very occasionally. My plan was to use Seedvault to restore apps/settings onto my second b3 so I could swap phones and factory reset the used one periodically, so what you say on that capability is worrying. I haven’t got round to trying a restore yet.
I run my own synology NAS and their synology drive works brilliantly and there is a Linux App (I share the frustration that proton drive doesn’t support Linux) to give me a way to get files on/off my b3 or give me access to data I don’t keep on the phone. I also use the synology photos app to auto backup my photos to my synology NAS then weekly I use the function in it to clear uploaded photos from the local device. So my “gallery” app I use to show folks photos is the synology photos app not the built in b3 gallery app.
I work my phone very similar to how Rob has described I keep virtually nothing on my phone its all on my own cloud and then I use a Dell XPS13 Laptop running LMDE as my daily driver computer.
So for me a phone backup is just an easy way to restore my apps/settings on my phone. Guess I’d better make time to try that seedvault restore to an alternate b3.
I’ve noticed that in Seedvault settings, having selected
“Backup location: disk (internal storage)”
I can select a mounted MicroSD card, and the “Backup my apps” function runs as expected.
But having then enabled “Backup my files,” under “Files backup (beta)”
… with no overt warning, it reverts to using cloud storage, uploading photos, videos and other files to the Seedvault server.
Note that there is plenty of free space on my 512 GB MicroSD card.
I assume that all Seedvault backups are encrypted for my passphrase, but I have disabled the (defective, albeit “beta”) “Backup my files” function. Local storage is cheap - I avoid willfully using anyone’s cloud storage.
I can write my data directly to the MicroSD card, and regularly copy the entire card to other, local storage media.
Thats very helpful to know. I’m using SV locally to the phone’s storage currently, but on the whole don’t really have high opinion or expectation of it… This reinforces that.
Just had an issue with Seedvault not backing up and issuing an error something to the effect of the backup failed and it asked if I had WIFI turned on. Despite repeated attempts, it would not backup and it has flawlessly in the past.
So in digging around on the Net, i found where Seedvault might not play well with Android 16 and the solution was to turn OFF WIFI and your SIM card connections.
I did this and it worked.
So if you are having this issue, try turning off WIFI and Cellular Data/SIM access and then try backing up.
Thanks for the comments I’ve been backing up using seedvault with a USB drive plugged into the brax3 so far so good no error’s - haven’t tried a restore yet. Lol a, ny thoughts on my methods?
