Feature request: Push history from Signal Desktop to Signal Mobile

[hyiltiz]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug description

After uninstalling Signal Mobile and reinstalling it into several other devices, then linking it with the same Signal Desktop account, Signal Mobile pulls neither conversation history nor contacts from Signal Desktop. Also no way to export from Signal Desktop to manually import to phone.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Signal Mobile to android A and Mac Book Pro M. Link M to A.
2. Add friends Alice and Bob in A and talk to them in A. See that conversation is synced to M.
3. Get new mobile device (or reset to factory). Add Alice in B. Talk to Alice in B. See that new conversations are shown in B as expected.
4. Now link to M. See no contacts or conversations are synced from M to B, but new conversation with Alice is appended to the old history with Alice in M. Still, old history with Alice or anything about Bob is not pulled from M to B.

Actual result:
Upon linking B with M, previous history and conversation in other devices did not sync to the new device.

Expected result:
Upon linking a new device to an old device, previous history and conversation should be merged based on time so all devices are actually synced (share the same content, distributed content syncing). Alternatively, could have options to manually import/export contacts and conversations.

Screenshots

Not about UI. Rather not share.

Platform info

Signal version: v1.14.1,

Operating System: macOS 10.13.5
Linked device version: linked to Signal iOS 2.26.0.26 (device A mentioned above) then Signal Android 4.23.4 (device B mentioned above).

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/f50d733333d75ead6b1944608b14b7ef8a5c337f9ad4e087d7a1f068db56a945

In most cases, a log from your other devices is also useful:
Android: https://debuglogs.org/d564d52323e83a1f8701515b9b987bb4a915947e48ecb755650175e6c613bd59
iOS: (lost the link once B is linked to M).

[derWalter]

this would save my ass right now ://

[patrikhuber]

This would be really great to have.

[MCluck90]

I'd really like to have this. I didn't realize I had to manually backup my messages before upgrading my phone yesterday. I've got months of messages on my desktop that I can't access on my phone.

[strugee]

All - please stop commenting "+1"-style comments. Each time you do everyone who's subscribed to this issue gets a notification that wastes their time.

Instead you could consider using GitHub's emoji reaction feature.

[patrikhuber]

@strugee As a project lead/maintainer, I'd appreciate hearing "user-stories" of whether and when users would actually like to use a certain feature, and for what purpose. From the comments here, I don't just see "+1" comments but users who would really benefit immensely from this functionality, it would literally "save their ass" and be immensely beneficial for their daily use of Signal.

If you don't like to hear about your users, maybe you can just unsubscribe from the notifications if they're bothering you too much?

[puzzlled]

I'd like to be able to clone message history between my phones and desktops. I have conversation history on my phone but my new desktop install doesn't have any of that. Similarly, when I switch to a different phone I'm assuming that it will have no history.
It would be good to have something that's simple and convenient, being able to push or pull history across installs or perhaps having them all synchronize automatically. That way when switching to a different phone for a weekend trip or something the history would be pulled from the desktop or the other phone, or from both if perhaps the desktop wasn't active when some messages came in.
Perhaps this already is implemented? But I can't see anything in the menus.
Thanks

[tromlet]

To add to this, it would be really nice if we could perform regular, scheduled backups that just backup everything to a single file, and delete the previous file. I could take care of the rest via my own backup solution (and, indeed, at that point I feel MOST users are on their own - your app is a texting app, not a full backup solution).

[edmechem]

Some odd issue happened with Signal on iOS - a conversation thread got lost. I deleted it on iOS, & re-installed. Naive me thought somehow re-linking would propagate history between devices. (Because, that's kind of like... 'expected behavior' in this day & age.) It didn't (of course; I searched & found this thread, and am now here commenting to up-prioritize this issue). All media & conversation threads that were on iOS are no longer. I'm in the same boat as the "save my ass right now" commenter above. Great that I (still) have conversation history on one device (laptop), terrible that there's no way to propagate that to another device. "If you care about data, make sure it lives in at least two places..."

[hyiltiz]

Almost one year since this issue was opened, and still got no official response on whether/how/when will this feature be implemented.

[edmechem]

It's not like it would be that hard. Via a trusted connection to the new device (the phone), just walk thru the message & attachment database on Desktop, & copy the items over. Right?

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

I'm going to lock this issue, since we already have the information we need from the community about this request. You can use the forums if you'd like to continue discussing it: https://whispersystems.discoursehosting.net/