I got myself a new iPhone 11, backed up my old iPhone 6S, and restored that backup onto the new phone. That took maybe three minutes. I also upgraded the new phone to the latest edition of the operating system, that took a few minutes more. Then I started Threema, which had somehow forgotten all about me.
Uh, what?
OK, it did find a backup of my ID, which is at least something, but also my contact list was empty. Why isn’t my contact list not part of the backup? I was able to regain access to my ID, which is great, but I can’t send messages to anybody, don’t know where my groups are, and I probably lost all the “trust” settings – those green dots I get for contacts for photographing their ID.
This makes me sad.
In addition to that, your group info is lost. When such a group is synchronized by the admin (and you are not the admin), or when somebody else sends a message to the group, you see them all again. But if somebody else sends a message to a group you are an admin in, you are immediately kicked out of the group and it is now abandoned: no admin. 🤔
The solution is to ask a group member to clone the group (making them the admin) and add your account back in, even though it is “the same account” as you used the ID export to regain access to your old ID. It’s weird. The solution is to use the Threema Safe and upload supposedly encrypted info to their server (not sure how you would set up your own server even though that appears to be a possibility).
I guess I didn’t follow the instructions carefully enough when I did my ID export:
Create an ID export on your previous device: Tap on “My ID”, then select “ID export”, and activate the option “Include in phone backup” after exporting your ID. Make sure to store this password in a safe place; without it, you won’t be able to restore the exported ID. ¹
And thus I didn’t see get to see this option as I used Threema again on the new phone:
When starting Threema for the first time, tap on “Restore from Backup”, select “Keep local data”, and tap “ID Export”. The ID-export string is prepopulated. What’s left to do for you is to enter the ID export’s password and to confirm by tapping “Done”. ²
Oh well. 😐
#Mac #Cryptography #iPhone
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Crap.
That is not good - also, the more secure, the harder is to obbey things.
You already wiped your old phone?
– Peter Kotrčka 2019-12-06 06:18 UTC
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Yes I have. It turned out not to be too big of a problem. My wife was also in nearly all the groups I was admin of and was able to clone them (making her the admin of the new group) and add me back. So now I lost admin status in a few groups and lost all the “trust” marks of my contacts, but other than that I’m back. 😅
– Alex Schroeder 2019-12-06 08:09 UTC