Yes, 90% of my contacts use Whatsapp. I am therefore trying to remove my main Google account from my GrapheneOS daily profile. I also plan to move over to Proton too, so there is no need for Google Drive.
To clarify, I’m fine keeping sandboxed Google Play with a dummy Google account for downloads/updates. I just don’t want my main Google credentials signed into Android at the system/profile level.
WhatsApp backup is one of the last blockers. On a new phone, restoring a large Google backup can take ages, and in my experience WhatsApp wouldn’t become properly usable until a significant part of the restore had completed. During that time I couldn’t reliably receive WhatsApp calls/messages, which makes migration pretty painful. If your internet drops during that time? Start over !
Has anyone successfully relied on WhatsApp’s local backup instead? Can I periodically copy it to Proton Drive/Linux and later restore it onto a fresh Android/GrapheneOS install if needed?
Especially interested in anyone who has actually tested a full restore from a manually preserved local backup.
Whatsapps local backup are a bit of a pain because the way the round robin databases work. I tried it with nextcloud but because the file names stay the same it keeps conflicting. But for a one time trannsfer the local backups are fine. I just zip the whole com.whatsapp folder copy it over and extract it on the new device.