asked 2016-09-19 16:17:49 +0300
When I go to Parameters > System > Saves (not sure about the translation, "Sauvegarde" in french), I cannot access to my previous saves, nor create a new ones, since Jolla now require to stock the saves either on a SD or online. Furthermore, I suppose that my old saves are still present, so they consume a lot of space but they cannot be restored.
answered 2016-09-20 13:11:18 +0300
Apologies for the inconvenience caused by the design change of the backup utility of Sailfish OS.
It is no more possible to save the backup data to the device storage. The available options are the memory (SD) card and cloud services (e.g. Dropbox). The reason for the change was that keeping the backup data in the device itself was not a secure way to protect the data. Should something severe have happened with the device, such that there is no access to the memory system or the memory gets corrupted, then the backup kept in the device would have been lost. At a repair service they re-flash (wipe out) the whole memory... Furthermore, backup files are often quite big, consuming the precious storage space of the device. For these reasons it is better to save the backups outside of the device. We warmly recommend you to acquire an SD card - they are not very expensive these days. A 16-gigabyte card costs about 10 euros.
Do your previous backup files, which are now not reachable, contain something valuable that you would like to restore? If not and if your device is in good shape, then delete the old backups from the device by using command "Clear backup storage" in Sailfish Utilities (see https://jolla.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203837576). This would save space on your device.
Should you have something valuable in an old backup, then there may be ways to access it using the command line.
I think there is a point to be made for saving a backup on the device so the user can manually move it over the their computer afterwards, but I also agree that it makes more sense to just insert an SD card. A big problem here is probably that the two kinds of backups are incompatible, so if someone factory resets, they have to restore their old backup before updating to the latest Sailfish OS release, which is strange. Another big problem is that it's now no longer possible to choose what you want to backup, and what you don't. This was very useful if you just want to make a backup of your contacts and messages because you already keep your photos backed up somewhere else. If the fine grained selection of what to back up won't come back, it should at least be possible to make the 'cloud backup' to an SD card as well, so not including any photos or videos.
nthn ( 2016-09-20 16:08:00 +0300 )editIf I wanted an OS that made choices for my good, I would have used iOS or Android instead. There are a lot of situations where the old backup was enough to save you, and I recall that it already happened a few times to me. If this new super cool feature was implemented before I wouldn't even been able to still use my phone!
At least, it should be an option, and if you're not confident with it, require the dev mode to enable it.
Vivien ( 2016-09-21 10:12:29 +0300 )edit"We warmly recommend you to acquire an SD card" is false if you want to make a backup. You force users to get one. I can understand that there has been many cases where backups are lost due to access to the original file system was lost. But removing the functionality altogether is a bad decision imo.
Mohjive ( 2016-10-02 21:09:08 +0300 )editanswered 2016-10-01 14:37:57 +0300
Moreover, on my phone the system has problems to migrate from the old backup variant to the new one: after upgrade to 2.0.2.51 I opened backup app, and was prompted to choose a backup date to be used as basis for the new design. It then starts with "Upgrading backup" (or similar in english, translated from german), and then fails. Leaves the user alone with what to do now :-(
Me too. I flashed the update onto my OnePlus X and same problem of current OS (2.0.2.51) reading backups created on older platforms. I was able to read in Contacts by transferring the all.vcf to Downloads and using Settings->Apps->People to bring them home. Looking further into the tarball I think we could copy data for Browser, Notes, and Messages to the relevant file paths, just don't know where they are yet. I think Accounts will be too hard. Haven't done a camera backup but reckon that could be easily transferred to Pictures->Camera. PS use Cepi's Filecase app in Warehouse.
rmitchell006 ( 2016-10-01 15:10:45 +0300 )editAsked: 2016-09-19 16:17:49 +0300
Seen: 591 times
Last updated: Oct 01 '16
