What I really really REALLY need is an android file extraction tool that, when it hits a permission error on trying to download a file, will skip that file and download everything else instead of hard aborting

Failing that, what I'd really really REALLY like is a way to back up my Element/Signal keys/conversations without uploading them to the Element or Signal server. And also ideally without my phone having a screen

@mcc Not a general solution, but Signal Android has “export backup to file”, at least. (Only Android, for the time being, for historical reasons that are probably cold comfort to someone whose phone fell in a lake. :-/ )

@jrose That's great. Question: Does this feature require your phone to have a screen

@jrose I found a screen solution can you confirm that this "chat backup" is also going to back up my contact list? i care more about that than the chat transcripts

@mcc I…would like to say yes, but there’s the contacts in your system address book and Signal only kind of manages those? …but on the flip side, it’s a file. You can try restoring it somewhere else, and if it doesn’t do what you want, nothing lost.

@jrose Hm. I don't know what this means. I have a list of people in Signal who it's verified has Signal and who I can/have keyswapped yet, and when I restore my phone this screen is blank. There is a feature where I can create a server backup by "creating a PIN" at which point it will be uploaded to their server and encrypted with some "secure enclave" snake oil, but I'm on tilt and I don't wanna upload shit to their servers, so… idk

@mcc There’s the main chat list and there’s the “New Message” list (pencil icon). But if you restore from a file I’d expect both to be repopulated. Certainly anyone who you have actually ever exchanged messages with and/or marked a key as verified should be there, even if the messages were disappearing.