Auto sync between devices.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

Checklist

• [X] I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• [X] I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• [X] I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
• [X] I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• [X] This issue contains only one feature request.
• [X] I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.
• [ ] I optionally donated to support the Fossify mission.

Feature description

Allow the user to sync their messages between devices.

Why do you want this feature?

I lose my SMS, MMS, and RCS communications when I factory reset the OS and/or switch devices.

Additional information

It's certainly possible, with myriad implementations (per https://android.stackexchange.com/q/77520/311449) but I don't know of any exist FOSS implementations. However, I wonder how applicable they would be to this codebase anyway.

[chesio]

Messages app (as all other Fossify apps) has no Internet access (*) and I cannot imagine automatic syncing that would work without it.

(*) This is a feature, not a bug.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1954703047

@chesio, does a discussion of that principle exist? I'd like to vote for it to be reverted. The codebase is public, so I've no reason to worry about internet access.

[Aga-C]

Fossify apps (and SMT before) never had Internet access, and we don't plan on adding it. If these feature requires Internet, I'll close it as out of scope for this app.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1954807125

@Aga-C, then instead, perhaps https://forum.syncthing.net/t/splitting-syncthing-into-a-library-and-a-file-sharing-tool/1277/4?u=beedellrokejulianloc would be of interest? Although I suppose the present export feature can already daisy-chained in that manner anyway if it's able to notify Syncthing of an export, or ST has poll functionality.

[Aga-C]

@RokeJulianLockhart There is already a possibility to manually export all messages to JSON and import them.

[inson1]

@RokeJulianLockhart what about automatically exporting messages? and you could save it in some folder with sync software etc., that could solve it

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1954919350

@inson1, I believe that what you ask about is what I have described in https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1954853390 (although I fail to understand what you're actually asking me with “What about 𝑥?” — apologies).

[Aga-C]

Ok, after reading this discussion and also a bit more about how the feature works in Google Messages, I am closing this issue along with #113, since these can't be done without Internet access.

If you'd like automatic messages backup, so they can be picked up by any other file synchronization service, here's the feature request for that: https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/1.

[inson1]

@RokeJulianLockhart No, I think that is different I meant that every hour messages could be saved into some folder, that could sync it with cloud/pc etc. and the app wouldnt need internet permission, because you would have another app for it, this one would just save it the app will probably get internet permission anyway (rcs), but things with that should be really limited

[RokeJulianLockhart]

https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1955136482

Again, @inson1, that appears identical to https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Messages/issues/112#issuecomment-1955136482 — Syncthing, for instance, is a P2P synchronizer, which (to my knowledge) is able to watch an inode (for instance, a directory) and transfer out to a specified location, whether networked or local, any added content.