Backup phone for travel--suggestions

In My Humble Opinion
21

Thanks for all the great ideas! Much appreciated.

To clarify, we each have HIPAA- and FERPA-protected information associated with our daily use phones that would be tedious and potentially difficult or problematic to remove and restore each time we travel internationally. We’re not trying to spend a lot of money in order to save a few bucks, but to have an inexpensive travel phone option so we can safeguard the information on/accessed via our daily use phones, for which we’re legally and ethically responsible.

22

By any chance, do you need a translator app for where you’re going? Should just be minimal data usage, but I’d double check some sort of translator will work on whatever/phone plan if you might need the functionality.

23

You can also download the language beforehand in Google Translate and use it offline.

Google Maps too. You can easily download entire cities and regions and smaller countries for offline usage.

24

Works great with Fi.

I had mixed results downloading maps to use offline, but that was many years ago (before i got Fi) so maybe it works better now.

25

I thought I’d posted this here, but don’t see it. Maybe i posted in the wrong thread?

I’m now wondering if getting a second phone but using my same Google account will actually help. Google will try to download all the same apps i have now on a new phone, abd even if i tell it not to, i suspect it’s easy to go into Google Play and download them anyway. And i didn’t know how many would even require a password to log me in again.

But I’ve never tried this. Does anyone have any experience?

26

Help with what, exactly?

If you’re just trying to copy all your apps to a second phone, I think it’s more reliable if you use a cable (probably USB-C) to connect them and copy from one phone to the other: Copy apps & data from an Android to a new Android device - Android Help

If you don’t want to do that for some reason, AND you have two phones from the same vendor (i.e., both Pixel phones, not a Pixel and a Samsung), AND if you cloud backup enabled, then you should be able to log in to your Google account on the new phone and it’ll ask you if you want to sync the stuff from your cloud backup. If you say yes, most of the stuff will be downloaded over the next few minutes & hours. It takes longer than just using the cable though. Samsung has their own procedure. If you go between different Android vendors (like Google to/from Samsung) it may not be so seamless.

Either way, you won’t get a 100% identical copy. Your apps and contacts should auto-download, and “well-behaved” apps like the built-in Google ones typically don’t require you to re-login. Some third-party apps will also “remember” your login, but others will require you to login again.

There might be third-party backup & restore apps that can do a more thorough job, but I think they typically need root access (which is harder to get on modern Android phones, and will prevent you from using bank and other apps). It’s usually better to just manually log back in to the apps that forgot you.

If you don’t use a password manager already, either the one built into Google/Android/Chrome or a third-party one like 1password or Bitwarden, this transfer might be a good time to set one up? Then it’s a lot easier to manage your logins across many devices. I use the same apps across 4-5 computers & devices and I don’t know any of my passwords; the password manager just takes care of all that on all the devices.

27

Help with privacy. I don’t want to clone my phone to travel. I want a phone that can’t access some of my stuff. I’m afraid that it will be able to, because the apps will be “well behaved” and not even require a fresh login.

28

For completeness, if you say “no” it will not download all of your apps. You’ll be logged in, and have access to your typical Google account stuff, but you’ll have to manually install any apps you want, and (I think) it will not bring over your backed up local data for the app. So you’d have to re-login to Spotify, but then it would have all of your saved playlists and stuff.

Whether you let it load your backup or not is going to depend on you exact reasons for having a separate phone.

If you say yes, at least the last time I got a new phone, you can select which apps to install. So you can install Netflix, Spotify, and American Airlines, and leave off any you don’t want to travel with.

And if you really want it unattached, create a “travel” Google account for the new phone.

29

Yeah, this is the real answer. If you want privacy while traveling (sorry I misunderstood), just don’t tie the new phone to your existing Google account. Make a new one you only use for travel. If you need to use some of the same apps, you can either log in to them individually, or create new burner accounts for them too.

If you need some of your existing contacts transferred over too, just “share” them from the Contacts app on your old phone in an email or text message to your new phone.

Basically just keep the two phones and account as separate as possible and manually copy over only what you need.

Edit: It’s always weird when Reply and echoreply start, well, replying and echoing each other, heh.

30

Yeah, i don’t want to do that. I want my address book, and my paid YouTube subscription.

There’s enough stuff that i want (including my full address book) that I’m wondering if a separate phone would even help.

31

Lol, indeed

32

Not wrong, but you’re probably thinking of the similarly themed but somewhat different emphasis concurrent thread:

And yes, you can tell Google what apps to copy over to the backup phone and what to sync, and if something does get downloaded you didn’t intend to, you can uninstall it as others have already pointed out, or create a “burner” gmail account if you’re extra worried (back to the other thread).

This was comedy gold, thank you, I needed that.

33

Yeah, i actually have several Google accounts already (including one for the straight Dope) but there’s a lot of stuff tied to my primary Gmail account that i want to travel with. I’m just wondering how obvious it would be to someone looking at my travel phone that it’s missing these apps i use on the home phone.

Because it’s it’s obvious, there’s no value in even seeing up a travel phone.

34

The matching user for @echoreply is @echorequest.

35

Just looking at the phone it won’t be immediately obvious. If the phone is in a “just setup” state, where nothing except the default apps exist, that will look suspicious in a “what are you trying to hide” way.

I think even a few obvious apps, like the one for the airline, and something to do on the plane, would just make you look like someone who doesn’t do much with their phone. Another option is to put on a whole bunch of trash apps, like stores (Target, Kroger, Sprouts, Walmart, etc.), a bunch of games, a couple apps from local TV stations, and so on. I’m just thinking about what my dad has on his phone.

If you are using your main Google (or Apple) account, someone will be able to go into the play store and see what apps you’ve previously downloaded. If you are under that level of scrutiny, the government (whichever one) will just be able to ask Google or Apple.

If all you want to do is keep Irish customs from seeing your “AI generated really offensive Irish jokes” app, then simply not having it loaded is probably enough.

36

I’m not at all concerned about Irish customs. I’m mostly concerned about re-entering the US. And I’m probably mostly concerned with my Discord accounts. I’m happy to have my 18 airplane apps, my WhatsApp app, Dropbox, Youtube, and games apps on the phone.

37

Then it really depends on your threat model – as in how big & juicy a target you think you are, and which part of “da man” is going to come after you.

If you’re just some rando white guy who may or may not be pulled aside for a random screening, really you just have to pass a casual inspection from the border agent who probably looked at dozens of other devices that day.

In that case maybe you don’t even need a separate phone, and can use something like a private space (for Pixel phones) or Secure Folder (Samsung) to just hide specific apps from casual inspection. That will probably give you enough cover from a casual search, since almost all of your apps will still be there, and realistically used, just not Discord or whatever else you want to hide. The Pixel version suggests, but does not require, that you associate a different Google account with those particular apps; you can still just use the same account if you prefer, just with a small loss in secrecy.

Of course, they can always wrench you and make you open your private space to check for anything there, so it’s not the same as true plausible deniability… but if you’re that enticing a target for the border agent, you’ve probably got bigger problems.

The government(s) can always just directly subpoena your stuff from Google, your cell phone carrier, Discord itself, to get what they need. Mainly you just have to look less suspicious and hope you don’t get pulled aside for a “random” screening… once they decide to really dive deep, you’re not going to be able to hide much.

Maybe distract their attention with something an inexperienced traveler would carry, like a water bottle with half-frozen smoothie or a semi-wet lunch (curries, etc.) or something over the 3-3-3 rule so they lecture you on that instead of focusing on your devices?

Edit: I think you can even have a “fake” version of Discord alongside the real one in your private space. e.g. The private space one will have your real account and all the chats. The “fake” one on your main home screen can be linked to another Discord account, and just join some random gaming channels there to make it look somewhat realistic. That way, if someone looks for Discord on your phone, they’ll see the fake one as a decoy. They would have to both know about private spaces and force you to unlock it in order to access the real one.

38

TSA and customs are different. TSA isn’t border control, and they look at outgoing passengers, not incoming passengers. They also don’t look at your phone beyond checking your boarding pass.

I am a random middle aged white woman, born in the US with a boring US accent. I am not a target. And they can’t subpoena Google, etc., without cause. And in a sane world, there is nothing in my life to give them cause. I’m really boring. But in a sane world, peacefully protesting the Israeli actions against Gaza don’t get students arrested. And no one is “accidentally” shipped to a prison camp in another country. And everyone gets due process before being deported. So we aren’t living in a sane world. So I’d like to have less to be found on my phone.

39

All fair enough — and no argument from me. I think the whole border zone search thing is insane, as are national security letters and the general lack of fucks given about the Constitution and privacy and all that. The rule of law is quite dead and probably not coming back. The US has never been friendly to liberal activists, especially those who conflict with the interests of Israel.

It’s not a sane world, as you noted, and we can only choose what tradeoffs we’re willing to make while we live inside it.

Anyway, I just tested the private space thing and confirmed that:

  • You don’t need a separate Google account. It’ll ask you to make one, but you can just log in again with your normal one and it’ll still work. (But it is more private if you DO make a separate Google account. Discord isn’t tied to that anyway, so you can still login to your regular Discord on the other Google account).
  • With or without a separate Google account, the private space will install a separate, private copy of Discord. You would use your regular Discord login with that private copy.
  • Then you can choose to either delete the other Discord from your regular home screen, or else log out of it and use a separate burner Discord account for that one. The real Discord account would only be logged in inside your private space. What you do to the Discord app in the private space won’t affect the one on your home screen and vice versa. (Of course messages would still show up in both if both are logged into the same Discord account, which would defeat the purpose.)
40

I just bought a new pixel 9a. It’s not terribly expensive. And my daily driver is a 9, so it should be easy to get used to it. I think it’s simpler to only bring over things i want than to remove things i don’t want. And I’ll have plenty to bring over, the phone will look used. And creating a new discord account that only accesses harmless stuff (my puzzle group, my Minecraft groups…) is a great idea.