Is it a good idea to use an Android phone as an external SSD for backing up my home folder?

Submitted ⁨⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sbeak@sopuli.xyz⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I would like to distro hop to EndeavourOS, and it has been suggested that I use rclone to copy my home folder to an external SSD. Unfortunately, I don’t have an external SSD at the moment, but I do have a phone that has plenty of free space. Is it a good idea to back up my computer files to an Android phone? My gut says it’s not a very good idea, but I’m not sure why.

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Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
Doesn’t have to be a USB drive. You can also backup your data to a network storage if you have any.

Good choice with EndeavourOS btw., using it since over a year now and I am very happy.

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Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Short answer: No.

Long answer: absu-f-ing NO. Whatever you put on a smart phone should be considered compromised.

Buy an external harddisk (Not! an SSD) for that.

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- Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Why not an SSD?
  
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  - tiramichu@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Not the original commenter, but possibly because SSDs are eventually volatile.
    
    SSDs store data by trapping electrons in cells to represent your ones and zeroes, and when the disk is unpowered those electrons can eventually escape, causing data loss.
    
    This may take years to happen though, so if you use the disk frequently you are unlikely to experience it.
    
    That said, the time to unpowered data loss gets worse the more cumulative data you have written to the disk over its life. SSDs that are extremely badly worn out could lose data in months, not years.
    
    Traditional spinning disks don’t have this issue as the magnetic storage doesn’t depend on power to stay magnetised, so it’s a better choice for archival storage.
    
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  - Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Because SSDs (and other flash-based drives) are bad backup media. If not powered for longer time, they can lose data.
    
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  - Successful_Try543@feddit.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    IIrc, because unpowered SSDs loose data on the long term. Yet, simply for backing up and restoring some days or weeks later, they should be fine.
    
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hexagonwin@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
yeah i do this quite often. tar gz the home folder and pushed it to the phone with rsync/termux

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over_clox@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Follow your gut instinct…

Modern phones are fragile eggs anymore, you might as well be putting all your eggs in one eggshell…

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  hey that’s a new one
  
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hansolo@lemmy.today ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

at the moment

Get the proper tools to do the job right. There’s no gun to your head making you distrohop, so this isn’t an emergency. Just wait to get a real SSD first.

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  that’s probably a good idea
  
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InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I used to back up important files into my phone for a while. Its an okay move for things you want to have all the time on you, but you should get a proper ssd/hdd with a backup tool (like deja dup/timeshift) sooner than later.

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Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
There’s usually a lot of private data in the home folder. I feel compromise or loss of my phone is a greater risk than loss of my home folder. I’d use an SD card before I’d use a phone.

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NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
What about a cloud option instead? I do this for stuff that I consider important but don’t want to lose. Upload to a “backup” folder and then download once you set up your next distro?

Though I wouldn’t do this with anything terribly important like my social security number or taxes or something. But stuff like a book I’m working on, game projects I have, music library, etc., general stuff I don’t want to lose.

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- dan1101@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I think at this point we can consider anything in the USA cloud subject to DHS/government subpoenas and AI scraping. I really don’t want to have to sanitize my backup data, I’d rather just keep it offline and not worry about it.
  
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  - surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Encrypt on site. Don’t share the keys
    
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vext01@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Is your /home on a separate partition? If so, no need to copy anything.

If you really need to backup, I’d get a proper external disk, or failing that, backup to backblaze (or similar) and restore later.

At a pinch, you could tar it all up and copy it to a usb stick, if you have a big enough one to habd, but it’ll be slower.

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  /home is not on a separate partition, no. Yeah an external disk will probably be better
  
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  - vext01@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Next time make a partition ;)
    
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