Deebster

This makes sense.

You’re downvoting and calling me wrong based on 30 seconds of research, so I’d say you are the instigator.

your initial points were incorrect

The backups in Google Drive are not accessible to you. The source you found doesn’t contradict me, because it doesn’t mention being able to access that backup, only delete or disable them.

You can only transfer your account, which doesn’t test the backup. Getting to the stage where you’ll be able to test the backup leaves you not logged in. The backup process needs a SIM.

As far as I know, the QR code is only for logging in to the web chat (or desktop version, I guess).

It’s possible there is a way, but I looked into it and couldn’t make it work. Feel free to try yourself, but this conversation’s turning into an unwanted argument and I’m out.

I saw your edit and replied to it - that backup is still inaccessible other than via WhatsApp, although I guess it’s a comfort to see that they’re there.

You’d linked “How to transfer your chat history”, which isn’t testing the backup. If you deleted the data in the emulator, you’d need to login again to test the backups, which puts you back needing a SIM.

You can’t do anything yourself with those backups apart from delete or disable them:

ok, but we’re talking about testing backups, which isn’t this.

The process with a new phone (I just had to do this due to water damage) is put SIM in new phone, then it logs in and asks if you want to restore from the backup (you need to enable file access first) and then it restores from a hidden area of your Google account.

I don’t see how - is from within WhatsApp? I can’t see anything by browsing on the phone (Android) or by connecting to a computer.

edit: I can see how to export a single chat from Settings > Chats > Chat backup but not how to get it all without a thousand clicks.

You need to move over your SIM to log in though…

The WhatsApp backups are stored in an area of your Google account that you can’t access, so you can’t really test without a new phone (or deleting all your data).

I just tried searching “element lemmy” and got the article Lemmy: Fans call for periodic table element to be named after Motörhead frontman

Whereas “element reddit” gives /r/elementchat/

Lemmy is indexed on Google as using the site: operator will show, e.g. “rust site:programming.dev” gives sensible results, but there’s not a way to search across Lemmy. Well, not with Google anyway (Kagi has a Fediverse lens that works fairly well).

Yup, and with @notthebees’ idea of taking photos as a backup you’ve got what you need.

Having a computer-based one that’s the source of truth (and perhaps accessible online) does make sense, although I suspect this is too niche to exist already.

I know these are famous last words, but this doesn’t sound too difficult to knock up yourself, assuming you know kung-fu coding.

It turns out that people on Lemmy are no better responsibly using a downvote button than anywhere else. I think you should have to at least select a reason why you’re downvoting to add some friction - maybe options something like “I don’t like this”, “I disagree”, “This is factually incorrect”, “Spam”, “Abusive language”, etc. Then you can filter out the first two!

This is ridiculously petty from the devs, and does make me seriously wonder about Lemmy’s future.

lackster

You mean lackluster?