signalapp
[Data/Transfer] Signal on iOS and Android data transfer
On both Signal iOS and Android, you should be able to transfer your data between both versions, no questions asked.
This has been asked from Signal multiple times for a couple years now and this is still a problem even when it shouldn't be.
SimpleX, WhatsApp, Session, and other encrypted messengers have a way to do this, yet Signal continues to lag behind in such a basic feature.
Even in newer competitors, this simple feature is available.
Not to mention, Signal iOS doesn't allow backing up and restoring data at all, while you can do so easily on Android.
To make sure all developers of both mobile versions of Signal have this clear, I've duped this issue on both signalapp/Signal-iOS and signalapp/Signal-Android.
This issue is only going to worsen as you add more features, since you'll need to account for more at once, so if you finish this now rather than later, this will be easier to continue in the future.
I'll add my +1 to this as I've lost conversation history so many times in iOS when I've changed phones or had to restore from a backup. I also use Android so having both options I could backup to the other phone.
This is a significant pain point and lost signal a user when they lost their messages during migration.
Hey team, /cc @harry-signal @pete-signal
When will the Messages Remote Export feature make it out of development and into some form of public build? I can see from the commits that since Pete worked on it early in the year it's been slowly progressing.
This seems to be a really important step towards being able to switch devices while continuing to use Signal. I was an early user (back from TextSecure days) and financial supporter for many years, until I encountered this about a year ago when making the decision to switch platforms. It was such a jarring experience that instead I've forgone Signal until I could ensure that this wouldn't occur again.
While the act of switching platforms (and technical minutiae of the data transfer process) will likely always inherently incur risk and impact the user's security posture in that moment—I believe that alternative actions a user could take by registering a new account or other haphazard methods of data transfer, would likely incur significantly more risk as they try to regain contact with people. (I'm more than happy to provide some example scenarios on this if requested, some theoretical and some from firsthand experience)
I'm unsure if it was a similar ethos that in part, led to the development of Signal Desktop, but I would bet on it being somewhat related. Signal is built for people: privacy is not optional, and should be accessible. Where the behaviour of the user often results in a greater risk to their accessibility and privacy, I think it's valuable to build a solution to reduce this risk where it is within our means.
I'd really appreciate an update on the Messages Remote Export and its intent, or at least, some more transparency. There's been a few threads over on Signal Users forum on this, and some other issues over the years, so at this point the radio silence probably hurts rather than helps.
All of that said, attackers will continue to attempt to undermine the security of Signal (as they have always done), and this feature is no exception. I understand that the impact of these changes need to be considered carefully, and know that the team is probably spending a lot of hard work on this. ❤️
Thanks for your time!
I understand this could be a significant attack vector, but I believe such a feature is a matter of sovereignty over personal data, of freedom of switching platforms with least friction, and of safety for users currently attempting workarounds.
Mine (from iOS to Android) has been to move Signal to an iPhone that can easily be jailbroken—e.g. A11 chips like the iPhone X with Palera1n, I got one for 100 bucks—and to dump the Signal database along with the encryption key stored in the iOS keychain, credits to this incredible tutorial.
I haven't worked around visualizing the data, except for simple sanity-check queries, nor around importing them into the android app, but it already feels great knowing I've archived them. I would be grateful for an official cross-platform transfer feature.
I understand this could be a significant attack vector, but I believe such a feature is a matter of sovereignty over personal data, of freedom of switching platforms with least friction, and of safety for users currently attempting workarounds.
Mine (from iOS to Android) has been to move Signal to an iPhone that can easily be jailbroken—e.g. A11 chips like the iPhone X with Palera1n, I got one for 100 bucks—and to dump the Signal database along with the encryption key stored in the iOS keychain, credits to this incredible tutorial.
I haven't worked around visualizing the data, except for simple sanity-check queries, nor around importing them into the android app, but it already feels great knowing I've archived them. I would be grateful for an official cross-platform transfer feature.
I had to deal with the exact same thing just to archive mine, and the database is barely legible. I can find specific messages, but it's hard to find out where I sent them or who sent them to me. Signal Android backups are easier to read than this.
@annyanich @ProdigyMaster Just wanted to update you all that something like this is in the works. There is no timeline but they are currently working on it. On the 29th of January Greyson (a signal developer) announced that desktop history syncing would be going to the wider public beta.
This isn't exactly what this issue is about, but below you'll find a link to Greyson stating that this feature "is a way for [them] to test [the] cross-platform backup format, so copying data from Android to iPhone will be possible in the future, if all goes according to plan."
Desktop history syncing public beta: https://community.signalusers.org/t/help-us-test-desktop-history-syncing/65452/151
Answer about iOS and Android data transfer: https://community.signalusers.org/t/help-us-test-desktop-history-syncing/65452/92
@annyanich @ProdigyMaster Just wanted to update you all that something like this is in the works. There is no timeline but they are currently working on it. On the 29th of January Greyson (a signal developer) announced that desktop history syncing would be going to the wider public beta.
This isn't exactly what this issue is about, but below you'll find a link to Greyson stating that this feature "is a way for [them] to test [the] cross-platform backup format, so copying data from Android to iPhone will be possible in the future, if all goes according to plan."
Desktop history syncing public beta: https://community.signalusers.org/t/help-us-test-desktop-history-syncing/65452/151
Answer about iOS and Android data transfer: https://community.signalusers.org/t/help-us-test-desktop-history-syncing/65452/92
I've been referred to these before, and I'd like to forward that it's garbage.
They have been mentioning that they would do this for YEARS and it still hasn't happened.
The fact that they have only gotten desktop syncing together now is insanity.
Even on the Signal Android issue I made, they buried it using the same thing, even though they've never shown their implementation in any of the apps.
If it was working and stable, they would add it, they wouldn't be sitting on it the way that they have.
@lukasitaly thank you very much for the update! That's very cool. I'm looking forward to the feature reaching general availability :)
@lukasitaly thanks for sharing this, but signal should definitely have like a public roadmap or something (not just for the data-transfer)
The desktop sync seems to be limited to 45 days, so while this is a step forward, it doesn't seem to really be addressing the issue of migrating all history.
At least that's how i read this.
I have years of messages that I don't want to lose and this is currently the only stopping my wife and I from switching.
At the very least, having a backup viewing tool to allow me to search history on my desktop would even be ok. I just need someway to ensure i'm not losing all my data.
@wesleyscaldwell 100% agreed, i have two years of chats
that i don't wanna lose
If you want to move to Android from iOS, and already linked you Signal iOS to Desktop in the past, it's already possible. You can import your history from Signal desktop into a Signal Android backup file and restore that on Android: https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools?tab=readme-ov-file#desktop
Wow. Guess I can't recommend Signal to anybody anymore.
Well, if you check the recent commits (last ~7 days), you'll see that the Signal team is working on a Backup feature, let's give them some slack?
Wow. Guess I can't recommend Signal to anybody anymore.
Well, if you check the recent commits (last ~7 days), you'll see that the Signal team is working on a Backup feature, let's give them some slack?
My friend, who I got to use Signal in the first place, and we do all our chatting on, just went from a Pixel 7 to an iPhone 16. I'm like "I'll help you transfer", so she comes over and we get started and I look up how to do it and don't find instructions on how to do this, but instead find this issue. There is no path to transfer our 2 years of messages to her iPhone. And if she uses Signal on her iPhone it leaves behind all those messages with no path to merge them into the new iPhone Signal app. And last time we upgraded her phone for her, Pixel 6 to Pixel 7, she missed a step and as soon as she setup Signal on her new Pixel 7, it locked her out of her Signal messages on her old Pixel 6. There was no step to merge in the old messages to the newly setup Signal with same number, because she started using Signal without restoring from a backup.
So, we just decided to use the messages app to communicate now over RCS, because maybe, someday, there will be a migration path and we can use Signal on her iPhone with all our old messages. Until then, there is no way I am recommending Signal to anyone else.
Also, I pledge $100 donation to the Signal Foundation once a migration path from Android to iOS is officially supported. I know it isn't much money, but it does speak for how much I want Signal to succeed.
@ElijahLynn I'm personally in the same situation. Just switched to iOS. As a stopgap, I'm using Beeper on my iPhone and waiting till this gets fixed. Pixel sits at home plugged in and connected to wifi.
@mattkang @ElijahLynn Same here. Just switched from Android to iOS this week and I have lost not only the whole chat history, but also the safety number changed. Its a pitty that this path is not supported. :(
Now under iOS I can't make any backups. If my phone breaks I can't do a restore, because Signal can't be backed up to iCloud (even if advanced data protection is enabled). Under Android I setup automatic encrypted backups in the app and uploaded it to a cloud provider.
From the messengers I use the only app which did flawless migration was DeltaChat. Just add the new iOS device as new "secondary device" - worked like a charm. Technically its not even a migration, you can use unlimited devices in parallel.
Threema has a builtin backup capability to store chat history, but when switching systems like between Android / iOS it can't be restored. So with Threema you also loose your data.
Also WhatsApp is kind of limited: The only way (without 3rd party software) to do a migration is directly after a factory reset of the iPhone with the iPhone migration assistent - kind of weird that you have to reset your device to migrate data for a single application...
Wow. Guess I can't recommend Signal to anybody anymore.
Well, if you check the recent commits (last ~7 days), you'll see that the Signal team is working on a Backup feature, let's give them some slack?
This should've been done forever ago. This issue has been open on Signal's forums for multiple years before I opened this issue here. The fact that this is being "worked on" still makes no sense. If everyone agreed on one database structure too in the first place, the debt this issue is trying to solve wouldn't exist either (see SimpleX Chat, one database structure for all apps). I myself am a fellow software developer, if each team could communicate properly what they're doing, this should be already fixed. I'll give them some slack because some of the people working at Signal do truly care about this, I don't doubt, but this still shouldn't be a problem, it should've been fixed forever ago.
@mattkang @ElijahLynn Same here. Just switched from Android to iOS this week and I have lost not only the whole chat history, but also the safety number changed. Its a pitty that this path is not supported. :(
Now under iOS I can't make any backups. If my phone breaks I can't do a restore, because Signal can't be backed up to iCloud (even if advanced data protection is enabled). Under Android I setup automatic encrypted backups in the app and uploaded it to a cloud provider.
From the messengers I use the only app which did flawless migration was DeltaChat. Just add the new iOS device as new "secondary device" - worked like a charm. Technically its not even a migration, you can use unlimited devices in parallel.
Threema has a builtin backup capability to store chat history, but when switching systems like between Android / iOS it can't be restored. So with Threema you also loose your data.
Also WhatsApp is kind of limited: The only way (without 3rd party software) to do a migration is directly after a factory reset of the iPhone with the iPhone migration assistent - kind of weird that you have to reset your device to migrate data for a single application...
Yeah. I just moved to iPhone and my pixel 9 pro that I could sell is sitting at home just for archive purposes. To try ensure I don't lose anything again, I'm keeping the app open on my windows machine so that it stays up to date. It's far from perfect, but at least if I switch back I'll have one place still building one central and up today date archive.
Looking at recent commits it appears that they're working on a subscription plan where you can backup and restore your signal stuff. Free tier includes 'texts + 45 days of media', and i assume paid tier is everything
Oh yeah!!!
Take my money! (Soon)
An independent backup format that is readable by all clients, so that you can do things like backup on Android and restore on iOS.
https://community.signalusers.org/t/public-signal-backups-testing/69984
So my friend uses iPhone but sometime in April this year, the app stopped connecting to the internet.
Until today I thought they deleted the app, but they had it on their iPhone all along!
I found this out because the chat with them showed "This person is no longer using Signal."
I asked them and they showed me a screenshot of our chat with "Send Failed"
So I assume it's been over 120 days and their account has been deleted?
My question is how can they reregister without losing the chat history? Thanks in advance.
So my friend uses iPhone but sometime in April this year, the app stopped connecting to the internet. Until today I thought they deleted the app, but they had it on their iPhone all along! I found this out because the chat with them showed "This person is no longer using Signal." I asked them and they showed me a screenshot of our chat with "Send Failed"
So I assume it's been over 120 days and their account has been deleted?
My question is how can they reregister without losing the chat history? Thanks in advance.
on iPhone it doesnt seem to be possible
all they can really do is delete their data and register again (Signal Android allows you to restore your chats, iOS isnt so lucky afaik)
This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.
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This feature is nearly here but has not yet been released on ios on the stable channel. It is released on android (beta) and ios (beta). So the issue should not be closed yet.
source: https://signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups/ (android beta) and https://www.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/1nrl9py/signal_backup_arrives_on_ios_beta/ (ios beta)