Migrating Android app data

Transfer Signal using Signal-native Backup and Restore
The best source to install Signal is always direct from the website https://signal.org/android/apk/#target   

 Export on the old phone 

 Open the Signal app and go to the settings. Navigate to Chats and then Backups (at the bottom). If they are disabled, turn them on. 

 

 

 

 Note down the passphrase, you'll need it for the restoration! 

 Data transfer 

 Import on the new phone 

 Starting Signal the first time, it asks you if you want to set it up newly or restore from a backup. 

 On the next screen you will be asked if to restore from another device or from a file. Chose the latter: 

 

 On the next screen click the button "Choose backup": 

 

 This opens the native Android file chooser. With the button top left you can switch between internal storage and memory card. 

 

 Choose your backup file. 

 The next screen will show you a few meta information on the file (age, size): 

 

 Tapping on "Restore backup" will ask you for the passphrase: 

 

 Now, the restoration is in progress: 

 

 Guide to be continued.....

Transfer WhatsApp by copying the internal app files
As of 2025, the default method of WhatsApp to Backup and Restore requires a Google Account and Chat data transfer using local Wifi requires Android features that are not available on Sailfish OS. 

 You will need to have the developer access enabled (access via SSH) and system administration experience is of good value. 

 We start on the old phone: 

 

 Turn off Android: As a first step, open the Settings App, go to System , and select Android™ AppSupport . Tap the Stop button and wait until he action is completed. 

 Open Terminal or Login using SSH 

 Enter devel-su 

 Run tar -czf /home/nemo/whatsapp.tgz /home/.android/data/data/com.whatsapp/ 

 Transfer the resulting file to the new phone 

 

 Then, continue on the new phone: 

 

 Start WhatsApp once and stop it again 

 Open the Settings App, go to Apps , select WhatsApp and delete the data and clear the cache. 

 The, still in the settings switch to System , and select Android™ AppSupport . Tap the Stop button and wait until he action is completed. 

 Open the terminal and enter devel-su 

 Run ls -ld /home/.android/data/data/com.whatsapp/ and remember the owner and group ids. They both are the same and likely look like 100XX. 

 Delete the existing directory rm -r /home/.android/data/data/com.whatsapp/ 

 Run cd  / && tar -xzf /home/nemo/whatsapp.tgz 

 Reset the permissions as read before:  chown -R 100XX:100XX /home/.android/data/data/com.whatsapp/ 

 

 Now start WhatsApp and enjoy!

Transfer Threema/ThreemaLibre data with native backups
Either Cloud backup or local backup 

 The cloud Backup does not include the chat contents! 

 Just transfer the archive from one phone to the other.