Signal-android: Backup renders phone nearly unusable at inopportune times

[RobotCaleb]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

While a backup is active the phone is unresponsive. This is a problem as the backup seems to occur at ~noon every day. Would love the backup to be less system intensive or allowed to be scheduled by me. (I'm assuming it's at noon because that's when I initiated the action to create backups. Which would imply a possible workaround is to wake up at 0300 and tell Signal that I want backups to be created?)

Steps to reproduce

• let automatic backup occur

Actual result: Describe here what happens after you run the steps above (i.e. the buggy behaviour)

• if backup occurs while one wants to use phone, slowdown is disruptive

Expected result: Describe here what should happen after you run the steps above (i.e. what would be the correct behaviour)

• backup occurs when phone isn't wanting to be used/on a user-define schedule

Device info

Device: Pixel 2
Android version: 9
Signal version: 4.36.2

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/590f825465d9bcabfa9ba69b211386d13cf5688077a87253c88755455a2d7ba9

[CaviaPorcellus]

While I don't experience any lag when Signal is creating a backup, it can be a pretty slow process on an older phone (a Pixel 2 is pretty new though, so that seems odd to me).

As a workaround, you can change the time Signal makes a back up, as described here. The process does require root though.

1. Kill Signal.
2. edit /data/data/org.thoughtcrime.securesms/shared_prefs/org.thoughtcrime.securesms_preferences.xml
3. modify the property pref_backup_next_time to the desired value (Unix time in milliseconds)
4. Restart Signal again.

It'd be nice if there was an easy way for the user to set the backup time within the app.

[PaymonJ]

Being able to schedule backups (without root) is something that really is needed. Right now, my phone becomes really slow to the point where it is unusable when a backup is being created.

[dcormier]

This has been a problem for me, as well. For me, it would be ideal to:

1. Have backups occur at a time when the phone is plugged in
2. At some scheduled window (in my case, late at night/early morning)
3. Be cancelable; if somehow I'm still using the phone at that point, I just want it to stop

[vertigo220]

I agree with this. I didn't even realize Signal was scheduling backups, since there's absolutely no indication of this when performing a backup. I was going to come here to search, and create an issue if necessary, for the ability to schedule backups, since that's such a basic and important function I was surprised it wasn't already there. Then I found out when examining my storage due to running a bit low that it appears to be doing it daily and, as mentioned, it seems to be every 24 hours from when it was done manually.

So it really needs to make this clear when performing one, and it should also allow the backup location to be configured (so I can have it done to external storage, i.e. SD card, which is another problem since it currently says "Backup chats to external storage" which clearly isn't accurate, since it's backing up to internal storage). And it should allow the choice of a one-time backup or doing so on a configurable schedule, not only the time but how often (daily, weekly, etc). Or perhaps better yet, just add an external intent for it, so users can set up an automation app to trigger it whenever they want (of course, it would be ideal to do both, so more basic users could do it easier and more advanced users could customize it more).

[MarekPikula]

I also experience slowdown on moderately new HTC One 11, but I have a lot of messages, so I guess it's normal (backup is ~4GB).
Another nice feature would be to run backup only when the phone is plugged, as it drains battery a lot in my case.

[diogodh]

Same problem here on OnePlus 6 with 8gb ram and 5gn backup.
It backups and the app signal becomes unstable.
Would be great to choose the time of the backup since mine doesn't change even after I manually backup on a different time

[LiKenun]

To add to the above: when my phone runs out of space at these inopportune backup times, my other apps crash or stop doing their work (such as when I audio record meetings). I’d like to have more space on my phone, but it’s unfortunate that even 64GB is not quite enough for an Android phone with a lot of apps installed.

[vertigo220]

I only have 32GB, so at most I can store two backups (and I don't do much texting) before running out of space. Because of how this "feature" is set up, it's completely unusable to me and so I've disabled it. Between that and the new PIN "feature" that only serves to annoy me with an alert covering the bottom quarter of the screen every time I open the app bugging me to enter the PIN, as well as a bunch of other issues, I'm looking at alternatives to Signal.

[RobotCaleb]

This has rotated around the clock a fair bit for me and it's now back in the middle of "I want to use my device" time, rendering text entry and app opening slow and annoying. I've even taken the measure of limiting all conversations to 500 messages length in hopes that this would decrease the impact of the backup duration, but to no avail.

[greyson-signal]

I'm going to try to do some work to make sure that we only do backups when your device is plugged in and ideally inactive. Should at least be able to do this on Android 8+ :+1:

[vertigo220]

Or, here's a thought, just allow the user to set the time. The best option, though, would be to use external calls (intent), so users can set up their own schedules using Auomagic/Tasker/etc.

[sixcircuit]

Update: Nope. Doesn't work.

Leaving this for people that might have this issue in the future. As per comment in the community thread referenced above. Now the solution is:

Turn off backups for more than 24 hours, and then turn them back on at the time you would like them to happen.

[sixcircuit]

It would be awesome if you could make this feature work. Could it be as simple as resetting the counter if you manually hit the backup button? Not super elegant, but it means if I hit the back up button at midnight, it'll back up at midnight every day. And if I want to change it to back up at 10am, I just do a manual backup at 10am and every 24 hours thereafter it will back up.

I'm willing to look into making the change if you can point me the right spot.