Database Info

Good For Enterprise

Has anyone been able to get this working with Root? I install fine, enter my pin and it goes through but since I have root it doesnt sync. Im running liberty, any suggestions

matt1313 said:
Has anyone been able to get this working with Root? I install fine, enter my pin and it goes through but since I have root it doesnt sync. Im running liberty, any suggestions
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Click to collapse
Checking for root is configurable by your IT area. My account is not setup to check for root but I have had other problems. Can you easily unroot and reroot your device so Good would work except for the rare times that you actually need root? One problem I have had is the initial setup would never complete (stops at retrieving policies) unless I go back to stock eclair, get it working and back it up via Titanium backup, then upgrade to Froyo or GB, and then restore it. Mine continues to work via root though. The other problem I have had is if I ever restore to an earlier state (using the same PIN), it will stop syncing. I need a new PIN issued to get it working again.

I'm reading that IT admins can lock your phone camera, wipe SD card, etc.
What other kinds of things can they do once "Good for Enterprise" is installed on your personal phone?

Nate2 said:
I'm reading that IT admins can lock your phone camera, wipe SD card, etc.
What other kinds of things can they do once "Good for Enterprise" is installed on your personal phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was involved in piloting "Good for Enterprise" for my company. I do know that the possible "controls" vary depending on the platform. Good for Enterprise on the IPhone will have much more control because the devices (hardware) and OS are very limited compared to Android. Keep that in mind as you read some of these items if they don't mention which platform. Also, the Good application would have to be granted root access to your phone "I believe" in order to do any of the items you mentioned. If you are running a custom ROM and have the "SuperUser" app, you would see if it had that access. I "think" it will be very hard for Good to implement some of those controls unless the Android OS provides an API for it because the underlying hardware can vary so much. I'm not a developer but I think that is correct.
Also, if you work for any decent sized company, they will be very concerned about the legal aspects of company provided software deleting (or even reading) personal information outside the "Good container". I mention the word container because Good provides encryption of everything within the app so it can not be read by anything outside the app (such as root explorer). I have successfully backed up and restored the encrypted data to another ROM but it is just bits to Titanium Backup or anything else. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions on it that I might be able to answer. I know the admin for Good for our company that I could ask other questions.

I'm reading that the installation can detect jailbroken iPhones and rooted Android devices, and if the IT admins decide, they can configure it to refuse installation on such devices to prevent compromising Good's security/integrity of its resources.
(I'm not rooted, and don't plan to root my DroidX, so it is a moot point for me)
I heard from Verizon that IT admins can remotely control hardware components, including cameras, Bluetooth and IR ports, SD Cards, and more.
Things I'd like to know... can IT admins:
Track/monitor internet usage on the device?
Track/monitor GPS usage?
Copy non-Good related resources (e.g. files) from the device or SD card?
Lock the device?
Locate the device?
Wipe non-Good related resources?
Does the Good app send device System Logs to the IT folks?
Phone call logs?
App Permissions:
YOUR ACCOUNTS
ACT AS AN ACCOUNT AUTHENTICATOR Allows an application to use the account authenticator capabilities of the AccountManager, including creating accounts and getting and setting their passwords.
MANAGE THE ACCOUNTS LIST Allows an application to perform operations like adding, and removing accounts and deleting their password.
SERVICES THAT COST YOU MONEY
DIRECTLY CALL PHONE NUMBERS Allows the application to call phone numbers without your intervention. Malicious applications may cause unexpected calls on your phone bill. Note that this does not allow the application to call emergency numbers.
NETWORK COMMUNICATION
FULL INTERNET ACCESS Allows an application to create network sockets.
YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
READ CONTACT DATA Allows an application to read all of the contact (address) data stored on your device. Malicious applications can use this to send your data to other people.
READ SENSITIVE LOG DATA Allows an application to read from the system's various log files. This allows it to discover general information about what you are doing with the device, potentially including personal or private information.
WRITE CONTACT DATA Allows an application to modify the contact (address) data stored on your device. Malicious applications can use this to erase or modify your contact data.
PHONE CALLS
READ PHONE STATE AND IDENTITY Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
STORAGE
MODIFY/DELETE USB STORAGE CONTENTS
MODIFY/DELETE SD CARD CONTENTS Allows an application to write to the USB storage. Allows an application to write to the SD card.
SYSTEM TOOLS
RETRIEVE RUNNING APPLICATIONS Allows application to retrieve information about currently and recently running tasks. May allow malicious applications to discover private information about other applications.
PREVENT DEVICE FROM SLEEPING Allows an application to prevent the device from going to sleep.
YOUR ACCOUNTS
DISCOVER KNOWN ACCOUNTS Allows an application to get the list of accounts known by the device.
HARDWARE CONTROLS
CONTROL VIBRATOR Allows the application to control the vibrator.
NETWORK COMMUNICATION
VIEW NETWORK STATE Allows an application to view the state of all networks.
VIEW WI-FI STATE Allows an application to view the information about the state of Wi-Fi.
SYSTEM TOOLS
READ SYNC STATISTICS Allows an application to read the sync stats; e.g., the history of syncs that have occurred.
AUTOMATICALLY START AT BOOT Allows an application to have itself started as soon as the system has finished booting. This can make it take longer to start the device and allow the application to slow down the overall device by always running.
KILL BACKGROUND PROCESSES Allows an application to kill background processes of other applications, even if memory isn't low.
Sent from my unrooted DroidX using XDA App

I've been using EVO CM7 nightlies for quite a while now and never had issues with Good for Enterprise. With last 3 versions of nightlies, Good hasn't worked. When trying to reinstall Good, it says there is no phone network when trying to register. When looking at Device Info in Good setup screen, it doesn't have a phone number. Tried clearing, data, all cache, etc.
Is anyone else having this issue? It's like CM7 is not sending the phone string to Good when calling it.
A coworker also uses CM7 (not nightlies) and has no issues with Good on EVO. The phone number shows up in Good device info on his EVO.

I had the same problem, but I'm luckily an admin at our company on the good software. After messing around with it... this is what I had to do.
1. Uninstall Good from your phone on CM7 (Must be uninstalled at first for this to work....)
2. Reboot into Recovery and make a Nandroid Backup
3. Wipe the both Caches and Data, Install a Sense Rom
4. Install Good Mobile and have you admin resend you the email to enroll your phone
5. After entering the code and entering a password.. the Good will try to pull emails... kill the good app before this.
6. With Titinium Backup, backup Good and its Data.
7. Reboot into recovery.
8. Wipe the both Caches and the Data... Recover your previous CM7 Nandroid backup.
9. In CM7 launch Titanium backup and restore Good Mobile and its Data.
Worked after that... this way Good would communicate with the phone during the enrollment... which for some reason with CM7 it doesn't work... and just complains about not being connected to your mobile network.

Coincidentally I've just put up another post relating to IMSI numbers which was prompted by Good refusing to activate as some devices are reporting the same 1st 6 digits of their IMSI rather than the full 15 that Good uses to authenticate the license relative to the specific SIM card the license is for. Has anyone else come across this issue with Good?

matt1313 said:
Has anyone been able to get this working with Root? I install fine, enter my pin and it goes through but since I have root it doesnt sync. Im running liberty, any suggestions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine quit syncing after the first day. I had to upgrade my personal unlimited data plan to a corporate/enterprise data plan for an additional $15/month with Verizon, and reinstall Good.
Sent from my unrooted DroidX using XDA App

Sievers said:
I had the same problem, but I'm luckily an admin at our company on the good software. After messing around with it... this is what I had to do.
1. Uninstall Good from your phone on CM7 (Must be uninstalled at first for this to work....)
2. Reboot into Recovery and make a Nandroid Backup
3. Wipe the both Caches and Data, Install a Sense Rom
4. Install Good Mobile and have you admin resend you the email to enroll your phone
5. After entering the code and entering a password.. the Good will try to pull emails... kill the good app before this.
6. With Titinium Backup, backup Good and its Data.
7. Reboot into recovery.
8. Wipe the both Caches and the Data... Recover your previous CM7 Nandroid backup.
9. In CM7 launch Titanium backup and restore Good Mobile and its Data.
Worked after that... this way Good would communicate with the phone during the enrollment... which for some reason with CM7 it doesn't work... and just complains about not being connected to your mobile network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I previously had a similar problem that I mentioned above - on custom FROYO ROMs it would stop at retrieving policies but flashing to stock eclair, I could finish the setup (and let all current emails come in) and then backup via TB, flash to custom FROYO, then restore and it would be all set. However, when I recently reinstalled Good on Continuum 5.5, I decided to try to let it complete the setup and it did with no problem. I only tried that since my IT admin setup "self-service" for me. I can access a link where I can send a new PIN for my account since it can easily stop syncing. The PIN goes to your corporate email so it is safe to allow.
@Nate2 - sorry I didn't see your post previously. Yes, there are Good policies that can be setup to detect "jailbroken" IPhones, etc. At my company, Good on Android is still not a standard offering because corporate policies are limited to what they can do on Android due to the numerous OS and hardware combinations. However, I have been pushing simply putting trust in the Good encryption (AES 256 if I remember right). Looking at the permissions of the app makes it look at first glance like it can do anything. However, I don't think it is as extensive as it seems. The only "data" outside the Good container that can be read by the app "to my knowledge" is the contact info. This is because your IT administrator can allow Good to sync corporate contact info (in Good) to your phone's contact info. This allows you to easily see who is calling (rather than a phone #) if it is one of your corporate contacts. Although it can access (modify/delete) SD contents, it doesn't say "Read". I don't think I am "reading" too much into that... For internet access, I know Good is working on adding in internet access (from inside the Good container) so browser access is allowed. I am "guessing" this is mostly for IPhones, etc. where the IT admin could stop internet access outside the Good container. That way they could control internet access on a "corporate" device. This is speculation on my part, though. I do think it can send device logs which is required "I think" to detect root access. Look over all the permissions listed keeping in mind READ access to system logs and contact info only and it seems to fit. Therefore, I think they probably can detect that you enabled/disabled GPS but I "doubt" they can detect where you went since I don't "think" that goes in system logs that they pull. If you still have any question, send me a PM since I don't frequently check this thread.

Thanks RichMD.
I once worked in a large company where a sysadmin was fired for accessing the corporate e-mail of an employee (his ex-girlfriend). She reported the incident to HR. Possible access to additional sensitive resources on the phone makes these kinds of incidents worse, and that's why we should be cautious.
Sent from my unrooted DroidX using XDA App

LectureNote Syncing

I have a Note 10.1 2014 and have just picked up a Note Pro 12.2. While I am still debating whether to keep both and if not, which one to keep, I have run across an issue I ran into a long time ago. I am trying to keep LectureNotes synced between the two devices, and as happened with my original note and HTC Flyer (used only for backup purposes), using DropSync to keep both devices in sync with each other, causes an occasional delete on one device which seems to propagate to the other device. I have again lost a couple very important notebooks.
What is the best way to keep two devices in sync with each other? Perhaps I am not setting dropsync up correctly, are there suggestions for that? Perhaps there is a better / safer app than dropsync ..... Any and all suggestions appreciated.

I use FolderSync to do this. It has more flexibility to set up multiple sync processes so you can both sync and back up.
I have two sync folders in the cloud connected to my lecture notes folder, controlled by three "pairs".
The first pair does full sync, deletes included, two way. This is echoed on my phone so everything matches.
The second pair is a one way sync from the tablet to the cloud, no delete. This is the backup folder. So if the above situation causes a loss, the backup folder comes to the rescue.
The third pair is really same target folder as the second, but is one way delete only and manual only. Every week or so I confirm that I haven't lost anything from the sync folder, then run this to delete stuff I really wanted to get rid of. This one is optional if you go with a never delete backup approach.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk

Reason for deletion - FEATURE REQUEST
Hi, I have done some tests and discovered why the sync problem occurs:
When inserting, deleting or moving pages in LectureNotes, the app simply renames the .png files in its system, but it doesn't change their "modified date".
For example, let's take the following scenario: You have pages P1, P2, P3. All created 12:00. You have used a sync program to sync these pages (two-way) to Google Drive. Their modified date in Google Drive will be 12:01 lets say, since you sync every minute as an example.
At 12:02 lets say you delete P2. What LectureNotes will actually do in this scenario is simply to rename P3 to P2, and it will delete P3. But P2 modified date will not be set to 12:02, instead it will remain at 12:00.
In the next sync cycle (let's say 12:03), the sync program will see that P2 in LectureNotes and P2 in Google Drive do not match. It will look at the latest modified date, and see that the P2 in Google Drive has a later modified date (12:01, vs. LectureNotes' P2 which has 12:00). Hence, it will copy over P2 from Google Drive and overwrite your P2 in LectureNotes.
So what you end up with is: In LectureNotes you will now have the P2 which is actually the original P2 you created previously, and the P3 you created will have disappeared.
I have attached a .png file (created in LectureNotes ) to illustrate the problem.
How to fix the problem:
The easiest way to fix the problem and allow people to seamlessly sync between multiple devices and cloud services etc. is to edit the modified date of the .png files when adding, inserting or moving pages.
(For example if I have P1, P2, P3 and move P2 to after P3, LectureNotes today simply renames the files to reflect their relative order - page2.png will be renamed to page3.png and vice versa - but no modified date is changed, which causes sync program to overwrite the files).
I have thought about various options, but there is today no automatic way (unless you want to use the previously suggested manual backup, checking etc. strategies) to create a seamless sync. The workarounds that exist today with the above limitation are:
1) Use only 1-way sync (which means you will just have a back-up system, not a sync system - meaning you can't sync between multiple devices)
OR
2) Don't use the move, insert and delete pages functions. This will make sync between multiple devices work, but is a severe limitation since you won't be able to delete any pages in any of your notebooks.

@[email protected]: You are right, LectureNotes renames files upon page deletion and insertion without updating the last modified date of the renamed file.
I am a bit surprised to hear that this causes problems with syncing. Actually, I would expect a syncing tool to be smart enough to handle cases of simple file renaming within a directory.
I could modify LectureNotes such that it sets the last modified date to the current date for each file it renames. But this could cause huge network traffic. For instance, assume that you have a 100 pages notebook and your insert a page before the first page. If LectureNotes sets the last modified date to the current date for each file it renames, all 101 pages will be sent over the network.

acadoid said:
@[email protected]: You are right, LectureNotes renames files upon page deletion and insertion without updating the last modified date of the renamed file.
I am a bit surprised to hear that this causes problems with syncing. Actually, I would expect a syncing tool to be smart enough to handle cases of simple file renaming within a directory.
I could modify LectureNotes such that it sets the last modified date to the current date for each file it renames. But this could cause huge network traffic. For instance, assume that you have a 100 pages notebook and your insert a page before the first page. If LectureNotes sets the last modified date to the current date for each file it renames, all 101 pages will be sent over the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for responding.
I understand. Is it possible to fix the sync issue in other ways? Do you know any other syncing tool which handles this? I am using the tool called "FolderSync" and I would have expected it to be a good tool.
There are some options in it, such as "Use MD5 checksums" (default checked), "Use temp-file scheme" (default checked) and "Disable file-size check" (default unchecked) in it, would you expect that changing some of these may help?
If you are not aware of another syncing tool, would there be another way of modifying LectureNotes to make sync work without causing the problem you mention.
Actually files are quite small so I would not expect there to be a large network traffic, and moving/deleting and inserting pages is a quite rare occurrence, so I think it would be a good solution anyway. Currently, not being able to use any of these functions if you want to sync is a severe limitations (however I will still keep LectureNotes because it is the best tool in the market - I have tested Samsung S Note, FiiNote, Papyrus and many others but LectureNotes is simply the best and I really don't want to leave it).
Thanks for helping, and very much appreciate your comments. I would be happy to give you a 5-star review on Android market also.

@[email protected]: I do not use this app (or any other syncing app), so I cannot say much concerning your questions.
I do not know which algorithm this syncing app applies, but syncing solely based on last modified date is not a particularly good idea (in particular under Android, where the last modified date is notoriously unreliable), as being able to handle file renaming properly is crucial.
As I stated in my previous post, LectureNotes could set the last modified date whenever it renames a file. I would not like to make this the new default behavior, but I can add this as an option. I just uploaded v2.5.3 into the app stores (and I also need to think a moment about the implications of such change), so that I have to ask you for some patience.

Thank you, having this as an option would be fantastic. Please let me know what you decide and if you do upload a new version with this option.
I have done some research, and the app developer for this sync app says that it doesn't detect renames because that is instable and would cause battery drain:
groups.google . com / forum / embed / ?parenturl=http%3A%2F%2F www .tacit.dk%2Fforum&service=jotspot&ul=1&theme=default&place=forum%2Ftacitdynamics&showpopout=true&showsearch=true#!searchin/tacitdynamics/renaming/tacitdynamics/wdeDfI1a-Ks/vA45y0a8fJMJ
[This forum prevents posting links until a new user has at least 10 posts so I had to insert white spaces into the link - please remove white spaces so the link works.]
So it seems like this is exactly what is causing the problem.
I will research if there are other apps that detect renames, but with the above comments i doubt it and your "option to update modified date" would be greatly appreciated.

Solution found!!
Hi, I have tested the app "Autosync for Google Drive" developed by ttxapps and this solves the problem!
I have tested this:
1. Create P1, P2, P3 - sync
2. Delete P2 - sync
3. Insert P2(new) between P1 and P3 - sync
In all 3 steps, Drive Autosync behaved perfectly, replicating exactly on Google Drive what happened (while FolderSync - the old app - failed both step 2 and step 3 because of the issue I described previously.
Thank you for your quick responses.

@[email protected]: OK, thanks for the feedback, glad to hear that you could solve the problem.

I know this post is a little old at this point, but I've recently been testing the same thing,trying to get lecture notes to sync between two samain note devices. I'be tested with both dropsync and drive autosync and neither seem to be able to decipher how to sync lecture notes reliably. I get all kinds of anomalies like missing pages, missing text, page additions instead of overwrites.
At this point it looks like manual backups and restores are the only option. To that end it might be handy to have an auto backup function that dumps backup files to a synced folder at least. It's not super awesome,but I don't any other way to get my notes synced up. Lecture Notes is the best note tool on android so imuch definitely not going to stop using it!
If anyone has new ideas I'd love to hear them.

I use BTSync and I have never had any problem with sync between my Note 3/ Note 10.1, plus I have a copy of files on my PC through BTSync pc app.

Has anyone tried syncing notebooks with Syncthing?

Old, but interesting thread...
Witch app(s) will sync Lecture Notes... today in 2020...?

Backup app data without root?

This is the first time I have bought a phone without a known method for rooting. I have always used Titanium Backup to backup and restore apps+data whenever I bought a new phone but unfortunately without root, this won't work. Can some one suggest another method to transfer app data from my Oneplus 3T to Pixel 2? I tried Helium but it shows "Backup Disallowed" for several of my installed apps.

Did you try using the data transfer process that is part of the initial setup on the phone? It walks you through connecting a cable between your old phone and new one and then is supposed to transfer everything.
That said, people have had extremely inconsistent results with this. I've seen people say it transferred everything no problem. Others that it didn't work. For me in transferred a lot of phone settings, but not all, wifi passwords, but not contacts or calender data; and all it did with apps was redownload them from the store and not transfer the actual data and settings at all. I had to redo settings myself, manually copy data that was on the sdcard partition, and for any apps that had a feature to export their settings to a file and then reimport them on the other phone I did that by hand.
The other possible option that I'm aware of is to use the settings on your old phone that allows Google to backup your app data to the cloud and then sync it on the new phone. I did not do that, because I don't want Google to have all my personal information. But perhaps that works. I have the sense that the whole data transfer process works best when you just let Google invade your soul as deeply as possible, because that's what they are really after.
But those less than optimal options aside, I think that transferring app data without root is pretty much impossible, since most of it resides in the /data directory which is not accessible without root.
Yeah, this sucks. Personally this is the first and last time I will buy a device at the moment of release, before root is available.

Edit: Never mind, I see you already tried Helium

Android Debug Bridge is what you're looking for. In short: enable USB debugging, install ADB, connect to computer with USB.
You can backup an app with:
adb backup -f backupfileonyourcomputer.ab packagename
You can get the packagename from the address bar if you check the application page on Play Store in a browser.
Restoring an app:
adb restore backupfileonyourcomputer.ab
You could backup all apps at once, but then can only restore the whole bulk later. (Possible to extract apps, but it's tedious)
If you need more details just search for adb backup.
Cloud save is also working really well, as stated above, but some apps don't support it. I use adb to move those from one device to another. Finally some apps have backup disabled by the developers, well.... no luck if you have some of those.

Unsolved tech...

Hello guys,
I have been searching for answers to some of the tech stuff, but couldn't find them.
Here are some of those questions. Hope some of you would have answers to these. Thanks in advance!
ANDROID
1. How to share files between multi-users on Android 11?
Before Android 11, it was possible to save files inside the Android/ obb folder, and these files were visible for all users on the device. In Android 11, this is no longer working as the 'obb' folder appears to be exclusive to each user.
I know this is possible via USB OTG or a cloud service, but is there a solution without these?
2. How to copy/ backup game data for non-rooted devices?
Helium Backup doesn't seem to work. I have played a game for long on my Mediapad, and I would like to copy that game to my phone. Unfortunately, my Mediapad is not rooted and losing all that game progress has become a nightmare. I have written to the app developer to provide some sort of backup using either Google Play Games or social media integration like Facebook/ Twitter, but haven't received any response.
3. How to force apps (esp. file managers & gallery apps) to use in-app media viewer without changing system default.
For example, I may use the stock gallery app as default for viewing media. But if I am using another gallery app or a file manager that is capable of viewing media files using its own media viewer, I would rather want it use it than open the default app. Is there a way to do it?
4. Replace stock file manager (a system app) with another app from Google Play Store or other sources. Is this possible?
I am not asking how to convert a user app into system app. I know that part. I tried replacing the apk file of the stock file manager with a 3rd party apk, even renamed it, but it didn't work.
5. Extract a system app from one device and install it on another device without root. Is this possible?
I have tried it, but apk installation fails. For example, Samsung Gallery app on OnePlus phones.
iOS
1. How to install .ipa (iPhone app) on an iPhone (not jail-broken) without a laptop (iTunes)?
2. Is it possible to have SFTP server for iPhone?
All Operating Systems
1. How to provide LAN only access for non-rooted devices as well as in Windows & iOS?
For rooted devices, we have apps like AFWall+ that can do it. But is there a way to do it for devices without root, as well as for Windows and iOS?
For non-rooted devices, we have apps like Netguard that support 'Allow LAN access' whilst blocking internet access.
Are there any alternatives and solutions for other platforms?
2. How safe is it to enter login credentials in an app to allow it access to network drives?
I use several apps (on various platforms) to connect to my laptop over SMB. This requires me to provide the app with my Windows Login Credentials, which is a Microsoft account. Am I risking my account by providing this info to the app? Is it safe to enter login credentials of cloud services in file manager apps?

Just bumping this thread as it seems to have been lost/ unnoticed.
@Ultramanoid can you answer some of these?

Sridhar Ananthanarayanan said:
@Ultramanoid can you answer some of these?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't help much, sorry. As to Android, some notes :
1. Never have used an OEM / Google's version of Android, or anything other than rooted single-user systems.
2. In addition to the previous answer, I'm not a gamer.
3. I usually don't ever set defaults with some rare exceptions, so I am always given a choice of what I want to use to handle a file. It may vary depending on many things; I may want to edit an SVG file as text, or view it as an image, for instance. There are applications / services that will intercept intents to allow you to do this sort of thing as well, but I can't recommend a specific one, never use them myself.
4. Possible, but will break Android as by now the system requires it as a file picker in many instances without recognizing alternatives and developers of most applications do expect it as well and their services will not work without it. Don't do it. With recent Android storage changes, including the scoped storage debacle, this is not a viable option anymore.
5. Depends, but not likely as a general rule, specially for OEM garbage, which relies on their own proprietary modifications of Android, their libraries, frameworks, et al. You'd have to carry those over to the destination too, which may not even be possible. Use OEM-independent and not Google Services reliant applications. ( Edit : you'll find some of those applications built to install on all devices here on XDA by single developers, "SONY camera for all devices" and that sort of thing, not recommended anyway, not well supported or long-lived experiments. )

Ultramanoid said:
Can't help much, sorry. As to Android, some notes :
1. Never have used an OEM / Google's version of Android, or anything other than rooted single-user systems.
2. In addition to the previous answer, I'm not a gamer.
3. I usually don't ever set defaults with some rare exceptions, so I am always given a choice of what I want to use to handle a file. It may vary depending on many things; I may want to edit an SVG file as text, or view it as an image, for instance. There are applications / services that will intercept intents to allow you to do this sort of thing as well, but I can't recommend a specific one, never use them myself.
4. Possible, but will break Android as by now the system requires it as a file picker in many instances without recognizing alternatives and developers of most applications do expect it as well and their services will not work without it. Don't do it. With recent Android storage changes, including the scoped storage debacle, this is not a viable option anymore.
5. Depends, but not likely as a general rule, specially for OEM garbage, which relies on their own proprietary modifications of Android, their libraries, frameworks, et al. You'd have to carry those over to the destination too, which may not even be possible. Use OEM-independent and not Google Services reliant applications. ( Edit : you'll find some of those applications built to install on all devices here on XDA by single developers, "SONY camera for all devices" and that sort of thing, not recommended anyway, not well supported or long-lived experiments. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks very much. But I wish you answered the last 2 questions as well.
If time permits, would you be interested in telling us how you use your phone? I mean which device, which OS and what apps you use. I would like to give that a try (on a spare device) and see if it is possible for me to live without Google.

Sridhar Ananthanarayanan said:
Thanks very much. But I wish you answered the last 2 questions as well.
If time permits, would you be interested in telling us how you use your phone? I mean which device, which OS and what apps you use. I would like to give that a try (on a spare device) and see if it is possible for me to live without Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't answer because it won't be helpful.
As to the 1st, I don't use LAN, and I don't keep data in any device or computer unless in use. External independent encrypted storage to be used wherever, whenever, independent of device, cables if needed.
As to the second, it's a matter of common sense, being informed of vulnerabilities and aware of reputation, and trust. Would you trust Chrome or Mozilla with data if you're online banking ? Seems reasonable -- but be aware of major vulnerabilities that may be going on. Would you trust an application released yesterday by a single developer for the same ? Probably not a good idea.
Finally, I doubt what I use and how I use it would be acceptable for you, or most people. In essence you could : Install latest firmware, wipe device, install latest security patched Lineage build for it, remove vendor / Lineage applications, get full root, remove anything you don't need or use which could have vulnerabilities; frameworks, libraries, binaries, etc ( Bluetooth, SMS, Android system-wide downloader, system-wide WebView, NFC, and on and on .. ), install your own binaries, fonts, hosts file, and applications where appropriate ( /bin /etc et al ), install Termux and all Linux packages required for your use, everything open source whenever possible, and stay away from any Google services / Play / applications with ANY trackers, analytics, data mining or even crash report capabilities; zero tolerance. Internet permission only for a secure web browser -- and terminal if / when needed. Half of what I do or use goes through terminal to be honest. In short, for me an Android device is a full Linux laptop replacement with added perks : Always on and on me, camera, GPS, pedometer, unlimited LTE data, and emergency calls for medics / police. ( Edit : And Japanese EEW alarm of course ! Only notification I use. We learned our lesson well in 2011. )

You can use ApkExport to extract any apk including system apks. I've transferred apks between other devices devices with it.
Never had need of doing that though with a system apk.

[HELP THREAD] export Whatsapp Key crypt14 Android 11 - decrypting database

Hello dear xda users,
I wanted to transfer my WhatsApp to a new phone. I have created a local backup and transferred it to the new phone. Though WhatsApp doesn't want to recognize it and just prompts me for the google drive backup. The number stayed the same and in the past I never had problems with that. The same things happens on my old phone. So now I have all the data, but I cannot use it. It would be sad for me to lose all my chatlogs (6 years). So I wanted to decrypt the database with the help of https://andreas-mausch.de/whatsapp-viewer/. Though I haven't found a recent and decent manual on how to get the WhatsApp Encryption Key from the newest app version and newest Android (crypt 14). I can root my phone if necessary. So if someone knows how to do that, may you please provide a manual or point me in the right direction?
Kind regards,
sollo477

Ordinarily, you should be able to restore WhatsApp chatlog from your local backup.

I have the same problem... i can´t restore from local file, i spent all my SMS verification codes, i have to wait til tomorrow to try again... ;(

James_Watson said:
Ordinarily, you should be able to restore WhatsApp chatlog from your local backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, it always worked before. But now WhatsApp is just stupid. I also contacted the WhatsApp Support. They were like: "Well...tough luck. We can't help you." Maybe they should just give people an easy way to make an unencrypted export of all chats. I did everything according to the manuals and then the restore of the backup doesn't work. You don't even get any pop up, if something was wrong with the backup file or that WhatsApp cannot find any back ups on the phone. I have Threema as well, but most people I know don't use it.

I am also facing the same problems since yesterday.. And i am losing almost 3 yrs of my important chats due to this careless whatsapp bug. Anyone please help me in this..

mayur9890 said:
I am also facing the same problems since yesterday.. And i am losing almost 3 yrs of my important chats due to this careless whatsapp bug. Anyone please help me in this..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My backup database file is having crypt14 extension.. (usually it was crypt12) i already tried installing older Whatsapp version, rooted my phone and tried getting the key as well but whatsapp viewer saying invalid key as the file got skipped while authentication and activating whatsapp. Now i am stuck with a database file which i cant use and whatsapp is not at all concerned to help me with their system.

That really sounds like a bug. So maybe I should just keep the backups for now till they are old enough to be opened or WhatsApp fixes the problem.

I saw this fix on another thread and it works
Copy the files ("msgstore.db.crypt14", "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt14"...) in "internal storages/WhatsApp/Databases" on your old Android smartphone
Create the path "sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases" on your new Android smartphone and paste the copied files there
Install Whatsapp via Google Play Store on your new smartphone
Open Whatsapp and verify your phone numer (you have to use the same number as on your old smartphone)
When it asked you to grant access to your files for Google drive, ignore the message and instead close the app (press □ and wipe Whatsapp away)
Activate airplane mode
Open Whatsapp again and wait until you see the message that scanning is taking longer than usual. Press "skip" (don't know the English word, I'm also using Whatsapp in german) and in the new message also press "skip"
You should now see your local backup, press "restore backup"
Disable airplane mode and activate Wifi
Ignore the message regarding Google Drive and, when your backup has been restored (look at the progress bar at the bottom in the background), close the app
Open Whatsapp again and you should see now your old and new messages alltogether!

Oddking said:
I saw this fix on another thread and it works
Copy the files ("msgstore.db.crypt14", "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt14"...) in "internal storages/WhatsApp/Databases" on your old Android smartphone
Create the path "sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases" on your new Android smartphone and paste the copied files there
Install Whatsapp via Google Play Store on your new smartphone
Open Whatsapp and verify your phone numer (you have to use the same number as on your old smartphone)
When it asked you to grant access to your files for Google drive, ignore the message and instead close the app (press □ and wipe Whatsapp away)
Activate airplane mode
Open Whatsapp again and wait until you see the message that scanning is taking longer than usual. Press "skip" (don't know the English word, I'm also using Whatsapp in german) and in the new message also press "skip"
You should now see your local backup, press "restore backup"
Disable airplane mode and activate Wifi
Ignore the message regarding Google Drive and, when your backup has been restored (look at the progress bar at the bottom in the background), close the app
Open Whatsapp again and you should see now your old and new messages alltogether!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can u give the thread link to this fix?

hansdok123 said:
Can u give the thread link to this fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WhatsApp cannot detect local backup file
I did a backup for my messages then uninstalled WhatsApp. The next day, I reinstalled it for a quick thing and it restored locally without problems then I uninstalled it again. 2 weeks later, when I
stackoverflow.com

@sollo47..Did you tried any of the methods above.. My WhatsApp is stuck for verification for next 48 hrs and i wont be getting sms codes to verify.

I just wanted to chip in to say that I am hitting exactly this issue right now. I wonder if it's a new bug in WhatsApp because just a couple of months ago I migrated really smoothly from my old Huawei P10 Lite to Pixel 4a and everything was fine.
Now I'm trying to migrate my wife from her Honor 9 (very similar to the P10) to a second Pixel 4a and WhatApp is being a nightmare! There are successful local and Google Drive backups on the old handset and all the messages are still present on that one, but when the new one restores from Google Drive, it only seems to retrieve the media files and none of the Chat history.
I've copied over the latest msgstore.db.crypt12 file but WhatsApp didn't seem to detect it and went back to Google Drive again. Now I've exhausted my verification options for a couple of hours so will have to wait (seriously! I've used 2-3 SMS codes and about 3 phone verifications trying to sort this out!!)
One thing I've noticed, which I really hope isn't going to be a big problem is that when it creates its own new database when restoring from Google Drive it's got a `crypt14` extension.
When I'm able to retry the verification I am going to try as above and put it into flight mode before attempting a restore so that it is forced to look at the local files for options.
Every other App on the damn planet includes menu options for both Backup and Restore, so what does WhatsApp only have Backup and make it damn near impossible to do a proper restore. :-(
I'll update with any progress.

Well... I'm no further forward :-(
I tried downgrading the App to 2.21.8.17 and then following these instructions: https://stackoverflow.com/a/67756993/4915304
By putting the phone into flight mode and skipping the internet checks the application _did_ then discover a local backup file however it then failed to Restore it :-(
There's a possiblity this failure was my fault... I've discovered that on my wife's phone there's an old Directory from 2020 containin backups, and then the external SD card has more recent ones... I'd accidentally copied the wrong ones, which I realised when it offered to restore the newest backup from nearly a year ago :-( So before accepting, I thought I'd try my luck and I replaced the msgstore.db.crypt12 via adb push to be the up-to-date one. I was hoping that it might not care. The reason for it failing was not displayed but now there's no option to restore unless I reset the app, which means waiting another 4+ hours before they'll give me a new verification code :-(
I also tried purchasing WonderShare MobileTrans as it claimed to be the only option to enable restoration of messages without reinstalling/resetting the installed application. Unfortunately that's of no use to me because it required the Source Phone to have WhatApp verified and active in order to capture the backup that it needs! Under the hood it's entirely reliant upon 'adb' access to the phone and I'm sceptical as to whether it will even work with the newer versions of WhatsApp.
On both the Android 8 source phone and A11 destination phone, it pops up with a warning that the application was built for an older version of Android and might not work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm sooooo annoyed about this now. If it wasn't for the fact that so many friend and family are only using WhatsApp I'd uninstall it now and use something more open instead.

I had the same problem yesterday! Spent ALL DAY trying to restore my WhatsApp local backup (I've done it before a million times and no problems).
Looks like there is a problem with the latest version (2.21.10.16) restoring local backups.
I downloaded an older version apk (WhatsApp Messenger 2.21.6.17 from apkmirror) and copied to my internal storage.
Went through the normal process of instaling and verifying my number... IT FOUND MY LOCAL BACKUP!!!!
I thought I had lost all my chats from the last 4 years or so!
Try it and good luck!

@groovy909 and all others. Many thanks for help and all the hints here. After 24 hours of using hating speak, I was able to restore least 2 years old back up.
- the downgrade of Facebook Whats-app helped and I have least something.
Many thank for awesome community and please keep the great work.

sollo477 said:
Hello dear xda users,
I wanted to transfer my WhatsApp to a new phone. I have created a local backup and transferred it to the new phone. Though WhatsApp doesn't want to recognize it and just prompts me for the google drive backup. The number stayed the same and in the past I never had problems with that. The same things happens on my old phone. So now I have all the data, but I cannot use it. It would be sad for me to lose all my chatlogs (6 years). So I wanted to decrypt the database with the help of https://andreas-mausch.de/whatsapp-viewer/. Though I haven't found a recent and decent manual on how to get the WhatsApp Encryption Key from the newest app version and newest Android (crypt 14). I can root my phone if necessary. So if someone knows how to do that, may you please provide a manual or point me in the right direction?
Kind regards,
sollo477
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My suggestion is to root your phone...it's way much easier to get the key.
Concerning whatsapp-viewer...I suggest you another parser for crypting/decrypting/viewing whatsapp databases: https://github.com/B16f00t/whapa
It works very nicely...one you have the key of course.
L

Anybody can decrypt msgstore.db.crypt14 ???

Hey guys, I was very busy the last few month and couldn't afford to lock myself out of WhatsApp again due to the limitation on the 2FA. So I have tried it as well with an older WhatsApp version from February 2021 and it still didn't work. I will go for the solution of rooting my phone once get the key and then unroot it again. Then I can use the offered Whapa Extractor to extract the old backup. Although since I can't merge the new database with the old one I will just keep the encrypted old database one for references. It's sad and I wish there would be another solution, since I am now forced to use google drive to backup my data for the future.
Unless you know a better solution to backup Whatsapp locally and can guarantee that a restore will be possible in the future. I would even pay for that.

Certainly, titaniumbackup is the best option.

VD171 said:
Certainly, titaniumbackup is the best option.
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Click to collapse
Does it also work when I restore it to a different android phone?