SeedVault real mess key didn't work

Using /e/OS Setup
1

Hello everybody,

I just wanted to give a feedback about the messy SeedVault that I unfortunately tried to use to restore my data on my restored phone (OnePlus Nord with /e/ 3.6)

First, I wanted to get access to my banking app revolut and so I read that I need to lock the bootloader to get this result, and I saw that this was nearly impossible with a custom OS like /e/ (I do all this for nothing).

Then, I used SeedVault from the setting menu in /e/ and get a backup from it without 12 word pass key (no key asked when doing the backup and no key offered to do). I saw that it’s mandatory to have a key to get the backup to work, so I get to the SeedVault menu and generated a new key that I wrote exactly. After this I backed up my data on my internal storage and then I copied the folder on my computer.

After reinstalling the system, I tried to get back my datas backup and type *#*#7378673*#*#** to enter the restore menu of SeedVault. After copying my .SeedVaultAndroidBackup folder in the internal storage, I select “internal storage” for the location of the backup and then the system asks me the 12 word key that I’m entering correctly (I know it’s correct because if I try it on the SeedVault backup menu it says that it’s a correct key) and then I get :

“No suitable backups found at given location.

This is most likely due to a wrong recovery code or a storage error”

I’ve tried to use seedvault-extractor-linux-amd64 but it says “message authentication failed” that seems to say that my key isn’t the good one. I have saved the key on my computer at 2:54 o’clock and the backup was made at 3:02 so I don’t understand how it could have changed the key or what happened.

The developper should have made a security key verification each time users are making a backup so they don’t come at the point where I am, where I can’t restore my data that are now lost. If I knew that this wasn’t reliable I would do all manually for each app, my bad I should not be confident like this about SeedVault.

Btw I’ve copied all the data from the internal storage on my computer but I know that some datas are on a system level and that I can’t get them back with this.

Hope this serves as lesson for future users.

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I’d go through the Seedvault issues with that error if something fits your case. It has 6 hits atm for that search phrase.

emphasis mine - it reads like there was a pre-existing SV backup folder (that would hold the .SeedVaultAndroidBackup/) already. But as you create a new backup with a new key, that folder should be readable. Any chance you ended up with multiple SV backups at different paths?

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I don’t know, I gave it up and tried it on another device and it worked. But I’ve lost this backup and I should get all back manually. I had two backups but I didn’t had the key for the first one. Fortunately I copied the whole device on my computer before doing all this.

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as the /e/OS “version” as in 3.6 doesn’t tell on what Android major version you were - what was that? I see only Android 14 available on official, Android 16 on dev/community.

Seedvault merged better handling of the restore process in Android 15 when a first entry of passphrase failed (internally SV 15.5 and up) - Allow try again or restart when no backups found during restore by grote · Pull Request #893 · seedvault-app/seedvault · GitHub

SV Backup itself got kind of good enough (in terms of what it can backup due to “d2d”) with Android 14. I wonder what versions this all played out on

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