unable to enter RedReader

I would recommend ReadReader for accessing Reddit. It is a FOSS app that for some reason still works fine even over orbot (tor). Never had an account on Reddit only used it to lurk through these types of apps.

Good?

Did you have a question?

Yes, it was bad habit.

Do yourself a favor and stop going there, it's almost as bad as Facebook

That garage door app and every app that conglomerate foists upon its users is a poorly-coded huge POS made more for their ability to show you ads than anything else

My comment was not specific to GrapheneOS. Although I do use it and trust them when it comes to security assessments. It's not perfect functionality, but it should provide most of the basic functions. I would have to imagine if you're using Shizuku that it can install it with the proper permissions. Someone mentioned checking the XDA forums, which is probably a good idea before you make any serious changes.

I wish Graphene was my case but my phone is unrootable. My best is just deleting googleware via shizuku and installing microG instead. That's what I think is dangerous: not microG, but installing it like this

The only app I've ever had trouble with on Graphene with no GS in main profile is the myq garage door app oddly.

Everything else has been fine

If I need something that requires play services I can run it in the private space

Yeah go for it

I had only one app that used some obscure map API that would work only with Google Play, and crashed with MicroG. All while even Google's own Maps worked OK.

If you can root the phone, you can do it after an install. Did it on a OnePlus that didn't have a LineageOS image at the time. It worked fine, all apps stopped complaining about Play Services being off.

I don't think you can do that. But if you can, go ahead, it's not unsafe in the sense that your phone will catch fire or anything.

But you should always have backups of anything you can't afford to lose.

Yeah. I've been using it for years.

GrapheneOS prefers using sandboxed Google Play instead for security and functionality reasons, but they are pretty obscure. In theory, microG could be used to install a malicious app with elevated permissions, since it has the ability to bypass security checks. If you trust the apps you install, then it's a non-issue. It's potentially less functional as an open-source implementation, since it is not a perfect 1 to 1 replacement of Google services. You may find that there are certain functions it just can't do. I don't know of any specific examples.

i actually don't even use microg, there's no problem at all. you don't get push messages, and some apps might not run tho i havent encountered any yet. (i don't run banking, drm, anything like that)

Don't quote me on this since I haven't done it, but IIRC that's something that you can only do during a fresh install

You can run many custom ROMs on the fairphone

There are matrix bridges that allow you to use it through an open source messaging app, but they're a bit of a pain

I unfortunately can't help, but I wanted to suggest that you may want to also try posting on the LG G2 section of the xdaforums about this. It'll help it get more eyes on it - especially of those that are familiar with and interested in that model and may be interested in the same thing and/or able to help with what you're wanting to do. They're all about stuff like this over there!

I wish you luck! I have a different phone, but I also have to stick with the old stock firmware for the same reason, so I feel for ya!

Other comment lists the procedure to restore a local backup but in my experience that doesn't work since at least 3 years. Now it involves some finnicky procedure and you not only need your .db.crypt? file but all the contents from your data/com.whatsapp folder so it has some chance to work. I have some backups sitting around since 2021 and this is the time I haven't been able to even read their conctacts because now whatsapp seems to force people into using the google drive backup method.

I so wish there was a way to use it without giving numerous permissions and without tracking. Self-hosting option exists, of course, but what about a regular app or web interface without these elements?

I have managed to ditch WhatsApp (thankfully) and it has been years since I last had to migrate to a new device. The process was quite simple, at least as far as I can remember.

First, navigate to the backup menu (in WhatsApp) where you are supposed to choose a Google account and backup frequency. I think there should be a button named "backup now" or something. This will create a local backup located at Android/data_or_media/whatever_whatsapps_app_id_is. Browse the directory and you should see your backup in a nested folder.

Then, migrate this folder to the new device and put it in the same location before installing WhatsApp. After you install and open WhatsApp, it should prompt you to import your old messages from the 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.

Yes, I found out today. Stupid android....