Signal-android: Cannot export media anymore

Created on 15 Oct 2017 · 18Comments · Source: signalapp/Signal-Android

I have:

[x] searched open and closed issues for duplicates
[x] read https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports

Bug description

Since the latest update, I cannot export all media of a converstaion anymore. In earlier versions, this was possible, but now I would have to save each and every photo and video by hand.
Since the plaintext export also does not contain media (#1619), I cannot comfortably back them up.

Steps to reproduce

Open a conversation in signal
in the dot menu, choose "all media"

Actual result: There is no button "Save all"
Expected result: There should be a button "Save all" that saves all photos, videos etc to disk.

Device info

Android version: 7.1.2
Signal version: 4.11.3

Source

fdw

👍31

Most helpful comment

@jeremymasters I too would also rather have to click two buttons to save all media instead of saving hundreds of pictures and videos manually. (Ideally, it would be part of the unencrypted export.)

fdw on 27 Oct 2017

👍16

All 18 comments

I have the same problem. Signal version 4.11.5.

~Opting out of the Signal Beta program will restore the version of the app with this.~
Opting out means you have to uninstall Signal, which will wipe history and media from your phone. This means that currently there is no way to export media.

finnoleary on 17 Oct 2017

This is a serious issue for me. I've got tons of photos in signal and for security reasons I need to reinstall the OS. Not being able to export puts me in the awkward position of either deleting all the photos or going without security updates.

d4l3k on 26 Oct 2017

👍9

@d4l3k Can you just save the files? Too many to do so?

jeremymasters on 26 Oct 2017

@jeremymasters There's hundreds of files.

d4l3k on 27 Oct 2017

👍5

fdw on 27 Oct 2017

👍16

What was the rationale behind removing this feature? Imho there should be a way to reliably backup all media and messages from Signal.

wngr on 29 Oct 2017

👍6

OMG! Please return the "Save All" button in next update. Saving one by one is a nightmare

VTCop on 30 Oct 2017

👍7

@fdw do you recall a justification/discussion for removing the feature? Is there a PR which we can try to revert to bring it back?

breznak on 31 Oct 2017

@breznak No, sorry, I just noticed that it was gone.

fdw on 1 Nov 2017

Just for reference: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/commit/8ce914a344ee6edced169d74fe5bae1b81ed7b4a#diff-978497c8da0623480ac14da5b105d5fbL124
This is the commit which removes the code for this functionality.

FeuRenard on 8 Nov 2017

👍10

@moxie0 is this planned to come back in future?

char32 on 13 Nov 2017

👍7

It is not possible to "default" save media to the device (global, per group or per contact), so it can be accessed by the normal file browser. The 'Save all' was the only quick/efficient way to get all media exported from a conversation. Chat (text) can be exported via the global export feature. Please re-enable "Save all" since saving (exporting) every piece media one by one is suboptimal.

sebastianschauenburg on 14 Nov 2017

👍10

...can somebody please make (any working) fork, PR with this feature available? I'll soon be switching phones, and this is a showstopper :/

breznak on 14 Nov 2017

👍8

FWIW, downgrading (via "adb install -r -d oldVersion.apk") as a workaround does not help: v4.11.0 has the problem, whereas v4.10.12 fails to run due to a "database downgrade" that fails:

AndroidRuntime: android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: Can't downgrade database from version 45 to 43

Happy happy joy joy...

jaimet on 16 Nov 2017

@crbble @breznak @Oisins @dschrempf I fully understand your wish to express that you really miss this feature. But I think it is more constructive to express your wishes and opinions at the community forum. For example at this topic: What is your most-missed-feature-ranking. But please, do not bump issues.

janvlug on 27 Nov 2017

👍4

Should this issue really be closed? I still would like to be able to export media to _regular files in a directory_, as was previously possible. See my use case on the discussion boards.

janvlug on 14 Mar 2018

👍6

FYI: To get the encryped backup to work I had to clobber my chat history down to 4000 messages. Before doing this I saved 10,182 images by hand, I was glad to have done so. This functionality should exist alongside the encryped backup functionality in my honest opinion.

finnoleary on 20 Mar 2018

😕1 👍1

GitHub Issue Cleanup:
See #7598 for more information.