datahoarder

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Who are we?

We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

We are one. We are legion. And we're trying really hard not to forget.

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Looking for emotional support: I lost all my WhatsApp chats (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago by danhab99@programming.dev to c/datahoarder@lemmy.ml

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I was so confident that WhatsApp was backing itself up to Google ever since I got my new pixel but I just wasn't. Then yesterday I factory reset my phone to fix something else and I lost it all. Years worth of chats from so many times in my past just aren't there, all my texts with my mom and my family, group chats with old friends... I can't even look at the app anymore, I'll never use Whatsapp as much as I used to. I just don't feel right with this change. There's no way to get those chats back and now it doesn't feel like there's any point backing up WhatsApp now! I really wanna cry like this is so unfair!! And all I had to do was check Whatsapp before I did a factory reset.. the TINIEST THING I could have done and prevented this and I didn't fucking do it!!!!!!!

How do I get past this?

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[–] Deebster@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago

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.