expectations set by UX vs what successfully restores

[eighthave]

I've been through a few rounds of backup/restore on Seedvault across multiple ROMs, storage methods, etc. Each time I'm quite surprised that many things do not get restored, even though Seedvault showed a green check mark. Is it too be expected that DAVx5, Element, Nextcloud, Signal and AntennaPod do not get restored? That surprised me, especially because Seedvault showed them on the list of apps that were restored.

I understand that some apps, like Element and Signal, have separate backup methods. What remains unclear is why they show up in Seedvault as if they will be backed up, but then they do not restore.

[grote]

This is unfortunately due to how the Android backup API works. We ask the system to back up app X and we get data from the system or something fails. If we get data, we need to assume the app provided whatever is needed for restore although often it doesn't.

One solution would be to build up a huge database of apps and their actual backup behavior, but who wants to do this.

For now, we try to include hints in the UI for the user to make them aware that we can't control the data apps do provide us for backup. If you use the app backup verification feature, you may have noticed such a hint.

[grote]

One could probably also add a (dismissable?) warning about this to the backup status screen.

[eighthave]

We have the knowledge here to make a much better UX. Right now, it is barely functional for anyone but highly technical people who actually want to understand the backup mechanisms. For key apps, I think Seedvault really can track it itself. It doesn't seem like much work. This can start with the core apps like the ones I listed here

[grote]

PRs welcome!