[HOWTO] use Seedvault early to understand Android backup

eOSWiki HOWTOs
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44

That makes a lot of sense. LOS (and Google) ROMs offer the “Restore from backup (or another phone)” during first-time setup wizard (so it would also be offered after a data wipe / factory reset. But it is also possible to access the backup functionality at any time. This didn’t seem to be possible in the /e/ R ROMs I was looking at. I may do some more digging when I have the time

1 Like
45

I was browsing Calyx Repositories today and saw mid-may work on making D2D backups possible in A12. Once /e/ focuses on the next Android version Seedvault finally can be a complete backup solution for the mere mortals.

5 Likes
46

Hey,

I’ve just picked up this topic and try to enable SeedVault on my device.
It is a Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) running /e/ OS Version 1.6-r-20221201239576-dev-a5y17lte.

Background:

As this is a non-rooted device (first time for me in several years), I am looking for an actually usable backup solution. Before I just rooted and used oandbackup or NeoBackup when a new phone had arrived.

This way is blocked now for me so I need another option before my phone needs to be replaced.

Following the HowTo I get an exception at this step:

Is this user error or did I miss something I should have done in advance?

mkamp@steiger ~> adb shell am start-activity com.stevesoltys.seedvault/.settings.SettingsActivity
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=com.stevesoltys.seedvault/.settings.SettingsActivity }

Exception occurred while executing 'start-activity':
java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.stevesoltys.seedvault/.settings.SettingsActivity } from null (pid=27234, uid=2000) requires com.stevesoltys.seedvault.OPEN_SETTINGS
        at com.android.server.wm.ActivityStackSupervisor.checkStartAnyActivityPermission(ActivityStackSupervisor.java:1043)
        at com.android.server.wm.ActivityStarter.executeRequest(ActivityStarter.java:999)
        at com.android.server.wm.ActivityStarter.execute(ActivityStarter.java:669)
        at com.android.server.wm.ActivityTaskManagerService.startActivityAsUser(ActivityTaskManagerService.java:1105)
        at com.android.server.wm.ActivityTaskManagerService.startActivityAsUser(ActivityTaskManagerService.java:1077)
        at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.startActivityAsUserWithFeature(ActivityManagerService.java:3670)
        at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.runStartActivity(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:543)
        at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.onCommand(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:185)
        at android.os.BasicShellCommandHandler.exec(BasicShellCommandHandler.java:98)
        at android.os.ShellCommand.exec(ShellCommand.java:44)
        at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onShellCommand(ActivityManagerService.java:10514)
        at android.os.Binder.shellCommand(Binder.java:929)
        at android.os.Binder.onTransact(Binder.java:813)
        at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub.onTransact(IActivityManager.java:5053)
        at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onTransact(ActivityManagerService.java:2875)
        at android.os.Binder.execTransactInternal(Binder.java:1159)
        at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:1123)
47

should be this one a bit up the thread

Only debug versions allow it without root. Isn’t the menu item “Backup” available? If not start from adb root

2 Likes
48

Thank you for the explanation. I think I have to look more deeply into seedvault and re-read this thread a few times to get it :slight_smile:
On my phone, “Backup” is not visible in the system settings GUI. Can you elaborate what you mean by “start from adb root”?

Can I use seedvault from the adb shell to backup single apks with data to my (linux) pc? I think that would be a viable solution for me, I’ll just have to learn a bit more to get comfortable :smile:

1 Like
49

let’s bump this thread, now that the d2d-transfer feature is implemented and released in version 14-4.0. The initial 2021 top post links a gitlab issue tracking / explaining what d2d is.

When /e/ gets to Android 14 (or backports to A13) and updates the 3 year old shipped Seedvault apk to or past that, users can have a more complete backup solution without any shell affinity or root privileges.

https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault/blob/9c4f9d8a67a8091a571d9805ee4bcfd04344c300/CHANGELOG.md#14-40---2024-01-24

  • Add experimental support for forcing “D2D” transfer backups
  • Pretend to be a device-to-device transfer to allow backing up many apps which prevent backup
3 Likes
50

That would be great. Than I no longer have to depend to third party backup solutions.

51

Do you have any idea what would be involved in porting to A13?

Is here any chance that /e/ will work on that, or will they just wait for Android 14? (In the past, issues relating to SeedVault haven’t got a lot of attention from /e/)

1 Like