Note for Americans: here WhatsApp is the de facto communication standard. Literally nobody uses SMS/iMessage/Facebook messenger/signal. And carriers still charge 2 euro for a MMS which completely kills iMessage/RCS (if accidentally send MMS, it’s expensive)
I switched phones and instead of copying manually /Android/data/media/com.whatsapp I used the new feature of pairing via qr code.
Besides that’s a not very well designed feature (you need to start transfer on the old phone before logging in the new phone) because they really want to store unencrypted backups on Google drive, the transfer completed in a short time.
Maybe too fast, I was expecting at least one hour to transfer the 5000 photos 10gb, instead it completed in 20 seconds.
So I told myself, ok photos not transferred, I’ll just do that manually and directly put them in the photo archive on my PC rather than keep them mixed with all the “happy holidays” trash.
I browse the old phone to /Android/data/media/com.whatsapp and… It’s empty. Wiped clean after the “successful” transfer process!
Luckily I had set syncthing (the fork on fdroid, the one on play store doesn’t have access to whole storage) to have a full overnight backup! On my PC I still had all the photos, almost deleted too as I noticed that I didn’t set the “trash can” option
Conclusion: go to download syncthing fork from fdroid and have a safety net from mistakes like this
syncthing is an extremely valuable piece of software in my eyes, yeah. i’ve been using a single synced folder as my google drive replacement and it works nearly flawlessly. i have a separate system for off-site backups, but as a first line of defense it’s quite good.
What I love about SyncThing is that you don’t actually need a dedicated server. Anytime the 2+ devices are connected, they sync.
I still wouldn’t use WhatsApp.
Wait, why does MMS cost money?
They decided the pricing 20 years ago during the early days of EDGE data pricing. Then they realized that the money that’s flowing from users that accidentally send them is a gold mine, so they left the crazy pricing
Is this an Italian thing? we don’t have that in France we’ve had unlimited texts and mms for a long time way before messenger and whatsapp
We didn’t have unlimited texts long after WhatsApp. Nowadays every plan comes with thousands of them but just because nobody uses them and a big number is free marketing
MMS never free except some scam from Tim and Vodafone where if you paid 10 euro to recharge a PAYG account, they would actually credit you 8 euro and give you 50 MMS “free”, but expiring in 30 days and could only be sent free only if on the same network. But how could someone know if it was on the same network??? Exactly, it was designed preying on the fact that it was possible to change network …
Is there no way to block MMS/SMS?
I remember my girlfriend back in like 2004 used to blast me with text messages whenever she got mad at me. It was like $0.12/msg and there was nothing I could do…but that was a long time ago.
MMS yes, by deleting all the APN profiles. Always did it since 20 years ago
Can disable SMS sending by changing the “SMS center number” but I don’t think can disable reception
Luckily in my country the carrier in the early 2000s they decided to scam users with MMS and the “internet button” nearby the “OK” button and not with the “SMS double dip” where both sender and receiver would be charged for texts - too prone to abuse from assholes with large plans
“Internet button scam” explained for young people: in the early 2000s some carriers charged 1-2 euro each time you started an internet session. This for two main reasons:
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To block new chat apps. We had “jar” apps like ebuddy, IMO or jacksms that could let the user chat spending much less. They were super optimized for data saving and even at the astronomical 20 euro per MB that they were charging at the time, it meant a chat session with a friend would cost 8 cents instead of 3 euro of texts. I would make two short calls to my friend, it would mean “go online and check the chat”
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Get free money from people with fat fingers. Opening the browser would immediately charge the user 2 euro. There was a competition between phone makers to place the “internet button” in the most asshole position. Nearby the “call” button, or as a dynamic button, like at the home screen, the “ok” button would open the internet, while in the menu would be “ok”. I had a Motorola where they placed it in the middle or the D-pad and I always accidentally pressed it. This could be mitigated by avoiding the purchase of a “carrier branded” phone because it could be toggled off. If you bought a phone with Vodafone branding instead every button had a way to let you spend money
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I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you. Everyone, and I mean everyone, uses WhatsApp here. Friends, family, work, doctors, landlords, etc. Not using WhatsApp will make you miss get togethers with friends, make it way harder to communicate with colleagues, take away a lot of convenience when talking to your doctor or landlord or something.
I have Signal groups with friends, but you’re never going to be able to fully lose WhatsApp here unless you’re prepared to be “that person” everywhere and miss a lot of convenience.
It’s the iMessage outside US
Interesting.
Android 12 with syncthing-fork from fdroid does not allow access to the /android/data folder.
I want to backup my downloaded podcasts and whatsapp, but it can’t do it.
Do you have an earlier android version?
when adding a new share, you press on the cog, then it allows to choose /storage/emulated/0
but without root it can’t access Android/data or /android/obb, it can only access Android/media
That’s it, indeed it isn’t rooted
The simplicity of Google Photos has me still rolling with that.
But for all my music, syncthing is the best. In my case it’s synced to my phone though, and also backuped up from that to the cloud.
If you self host, or want to try it out, Immich is amazing. It feels very much like Google Photos, but you can run it completely locally. Great integration with desktop and mobile, both Android, and iOS.
I’m not affiliated at all with the project.
I’ll never understand the people that have their photo archive linked to a chat app.
Where I live, line is the de facto standard. Soooo many people don’t use any backup and just count on line to manage their pictures. Some dude went viral for losing 10years worth of family pictures when he went from iPhone to android. Line is a shit all that doesn’t do any migration past 14days when changing os.
Just use Google photos and never think about it again? Or use self hosted stuff if you don’t like the cloud. But for the love of God, don’t count on the chat app…
In my case it’s just temporary. Every once in a while I’m supposed to take the phone, delete all the useless shit, archive the photos in the computer. Problem is last time I did that was over a year ago because procrastination
if you are fed up with juggling between whatsapp and the likes you could use beeper I won’t recommended using beeper with signal because that would defeat the purpose
The new Beeper app has Signal on-device.