this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Data Hoarder

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We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.

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Seeking Advice on Preserving an Old Android Phone with Sentimental Value (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Recently, a beloved family member of mine passed away, and they left behind an Android phone that's approximately 4-5 years old. This device holds significant sentimental value to me, and I'm concerned about its longevity, fearing it may stop functioning in the future.

Currently, the phone operates on a prepaid plan, and I have been regularly topping up its balance. Additionally, I have access to the phone's PIN, allowing me to unlock and use it.

My main question is: Is there a way to effectively preserve this phone, including all its data, in a virtual environment? Essentially, I'm looking for a method to create a virtual replica of the phone that retains all its contents. I'm open to the idea of not using the physical SIM card if this facilitates the preservation process.

Any advice, tools, or methods that could assist in this endeavor would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Assuming you don't have an unlocked bootloader or custom recovery, the best shot you have is an adb backup. It can backup app apks and app data to some point. Apps like Whatsapp and Facebook cannot be backed up this way as it requires a specific data migration method and login.

If you do have root/custom recovery, it can make a full backup but the image would have difficulty booting on other phones/emulators. Don't attempt this route if you see a locked bootloader as the process of unlocking will wipe everything

No perfect solution. The best you could do is to migrate/recreate the phone in an emulator and backup the emulator