Restoring from a SeedVault backup stored in Nextcloud

On Android there’s a nice open source backup tool written by the cool folks at The Calyx Institute, called SeedVault. It backs up your apps and all of their settings, and re-installs your settings when you re-install an app. It’s cool, it’s good.

You can store your backups in a few different places: the phone, a usb stick plugged into the phone and Nextcloud.

On CalyxOS, GrapheneOS and LineageOS there is a section of the install process that offers to let you restore from your Seedvault backup. However, you don’t have Nextcloud installed yet when you’re at that part of the install. The installer promises to let you install Nextcloud, but it seems to try to do that using Google Play, which you don’t have. So instead it just crashes. And when you continue the install you can no longer restore from the back-up — going into the settings and selecting Backups starts the process of creating new backups.

So, here’s the process:

Install GrapheneOS
Skip restoring from backup
Download and install F-Droid
Install Nextcloud from F-Droid
Log into Nextcloud
Enable Developer Options on your phone
Enable USB Debugging, and allow your phone
From computer: adb shell am start-activity -a com.stevesoltys.seedvault.RESTORE_BACKUP
On the phone: tap Nextcloud
Watch “Looking for backups” for a while
SeedVault appears to exit, but do this again: adb shell am start-activity -a com.stevesoltys.seedvault.RESTORE_BACKUP
Now you should be able to enter your backup passphrase and enjoy all your apps coming home again