[GUIDE] How to restore / import Line chat history!

[xAxB]

Guess it's worth to skip-read back in forum posts once in a while as fast forward to June 2022, this did it for me, so you shall be my saviour!

After spending about two days with this piece of crap software what Line technically is (unfortunately extremely widespread and popular in Asia and especially in Japan) with force close here and splash screen doodling there despite copying myself clumsy and stiching obscure SQL-databases together, finally the braindead patient could be sucessfully reanimated.

Uargh, I really wonder what kind of retarded developers at "Naver" are responsible for this mess. Not only are they apparently still incapable of providing a decent backup function (which one would actually expect to be provided system-wide by Android itself to be fair, however Google isn't much better here), but they also make it especially difficult and painful to backup anything beyond a few recent chats in the first place. That in conjunction with tenshousands of distributed files in even more subfolders after some years of usage which one can manually copy and shift around, totally insane.

I wish the Line developer team to lose their phones, all their content while being in urgent need to lookup some chat or images from the past. Maybe then they may get a glimse of how ****ty and moronic it is.

Alas, they might be using the iPhone version of the app. My iPhone using friends mentioned they can backup everything, photos and all. Not sure if it is because the iOS do backup better (TBF, I think they do, LINE isn't the only app where Google's backup is half-assed), or Naver did a better job with the iOS version.

One thing I wonder is how are chat saved on their server and for how long. I noticed some "interesting" behaviour recently. Basically, if you manage to restore LINE on a new phone, it is sort of possible to run LINE on two devices. LINE sometime detects it and will try to wipe one of the phone, but you can usually force close and void that from happening. You can also avoid this from happening by not having both phone switched on at the same time. Any recent messages will also be received on the backup phone once you switch it on. I used to take that as evidence that LINE basically store everything anyway, but it seems like that is not the case.

Recently my main phone suddenly died without warning. At that point in time I hadn't switched on my backup phone for a while, and left it in a different city. Several months later, when I finally got hold of my backup phone and switched it on, LINE was still working, but 1. Messages from my main phone received after I switched off the backup phone are forever lost, LINE did not bother pushing those messages to the old devices. However, those messages can still be viewed on the PC version which I used in conjunction of the main phone when it was still working. 2. A number of messages sent between the time my main phone died and switched on my backup phone were also forever lost somewhere. LINE won't deliver messages that are several months old if if you don't log into LINE either via phone or PC within a time period (if your device is off for a few days that is fine, but a few months is NG - I am not sure what the cut off time is). This behaviour is quite different from other chat I have used.

What this means is that while I can keep LINE installed on older devices to keep as backup in case something happens to my main device, if I don't periodically switch it on to allow the backup devices to receive recent messages within a timeframe, the backup will be incomplete.

(Not sure if this information will be of any use to anyone, but lesson here is to either periodically switch on the backup device or regularly backup your LINE if you don't want to lose anything if something happens)

 

[Pcsl]

Hello there!

As per my usual routine, whenever I find myself doing a full wipe on my Android device, I always make sure to come back here and consult the steps and recommendations shared to avoid those annoying limitations when it comes to restoring the LINE app without a proper backup system. Seriously, it's quite frustrating how they make it so complicated!

But hey, I've got some great news to share with you. In the past, I used to rely on the outdated Titanium Backup, but it's difficult to make it work for most of the apps nowadays so I switched to this app called Swift Backup. And the good news is, with the proper configuration, Swift Backup seems to be capable of restoring LINE as well.

How to do it? It appears that if you check the box labeled "Restore app SSAIDs" in Swift Backup, LINE opens up without any additional hassle. This nifty feature restores the app's original ID. Although I personally believe it may not be necessary, just to be on the safe side, I recommend activating this option when creating the backup, not just during the restoration process. Oh, and one more thing, after restoring LINE, it's essential to restart your device; otherwise, you might encounter some troublesome issues.

Initially, when I tapped on the LINE icon, nothing happened. You know, that all-too-familiar symptom where the app detects that you're using a different device. Even after restarting, the app still refused to open. However, I stumbled upon a little trick that did the trick for me: I uninstalled the app and then restored it again. Voilà! That did the trick, and I was able to use LINE without any additional fuss. Hence, I wholeheartedly recommend considering Swift Backup for your backup needs. While there may be other apps out there with similar functionalities, I haven't come across them just yet. If you happen to know any, I'd be delighted to hear your recommendations. All I can say is that Swift Backup works like a charm and can save you from the laborious steps that this amazing community has managed to decipher. Of course, if a direct restoration method exists, all the better!

To sum it up, here's a quick rundown of the steps to restore LINE, as I mentioned based on my personal experience:

1. Opt for Swift Backup or other backup app with SSAID restoring capabilities
2. When you restore LINE using Swift Backup, make sure to turn on the "Restore app SSAIDs" option. I think It's not required, but it's a good idea to enable this option when you're creating the backup, not just when you're restoring it.
3. Once the restoration is complete, it's crucial to restart your device. Trust me, this step is vital; otherwise, LINE may not open.
4. After restarting your device just opening the LINE app should do the trick and you could continue using LINE in your new device (actually I think that probably could let you keep using LINE in 2 different devices)
5. If the LINE app still won't open uninstall the app and restore the backup once again (actually most of the time I had to uninstall before I could make it work).

Please bear in mind that these steps might vary depending on the specific device and software versions you're using. If you happen to stumble upon any additional tips or alternative methods, feel free to share them with the wonderful folks in this forum.

I sincerely hope this information assists you in restoring LINE after a full wipe without causing you unnecessary stress.
Best of luck!

 

[_raydroid]

Hello there!

As per my usual routine, whenever I find myself doing a full wipe on my Android device, I always make sure to come back here and consult the steps and recommendations shared to avoid those annoying limitations when it comes to restoring the LINE app without a proper backup system. Seriously, it's quite frustrating how they make it so complicated!

But hey, I've got some great news to share with you. In the past, I used to rely on the outdated Titanium Backup, but it's difficult to make it work for most of the apps nowadays so I switched to this app called Swift Backup. And the good news is, with the proper configuration, Swift Backup seems to be capable of restoring LINE as well.

How to do it? It appears that if you check the box labeled "Restore app SSAIDs" in Swift Backup, LINE opens up without any additional hassle. This nifty feature restores the app's original ID. Although I personally believe it may not be necessary, just to be on the safe side, I recommend activating this option when creating the backup, not just during the restoration process. Oh, and one more thing, after restoring LINE, it's essential to restart your device; otherwise, you might encounter some troublesome issues.

Initially, when I tapped on the LINE icon, nothing happened. You know, that all-too-familiar symptom where the app detects that you're using a different device. Even after restarting, the app still refused to open. However, I stumbled upon a little trick that did the trick for me: I uninstalled the app and then restored it again. Voilà! That did the trick, and I was able to use LINE without any additional fuss. Hence, I wholeheartedly recommend considering Swift Backup for your backup needs. While there may be other apps out there with similar functionalities, I haven't come across them just yet. If you happen to know any, I'd be delighted to hear your recommendations. All I can say is that Swift Backup works like a charm and can save you from the laborious steps that this amazing community has managed to decipher. Of course, if a direct restoration method exists, all the better!

To sum it up, here's a quick rundown of the steps to restore LINE, as I mentioned based on my personal experience:

1. Opt for Swift Backup or other backup app with SSAID restoring capabilities
2. When you restore LINE using Swift Backup, make sure to turn on the "Restore app SSAIDs" option. I think It's not required, but it's a good idea to enable this option when you're creating the backup, not just when you're restoring it.
3. Once the restoration is complete, it's crucial to restart your device. Trust me, this step is vital; otherwise, LINE may not open.
4. After restarting your device just opening the LINE app should do the trick and you could continue using LINE in your new device (actually I think that probably could let you keep using LINE in 2 different devices)
5. If the LINE app still won't open uninstall the app and restore the backup once again (actually most of the time I had to uninstall before I could make it work).

Please bear in mind that these steps might vary depending on the specific device and software versions you're using. If you happen to stumble upon any additional tips or alternative methods, feel free to share them with the wonderful folks in this forum.

I sincerely hope this information assists you in restoring LINE after a full wipe without causing you unnecessary stress.
Best of luck!

Thanks for this guide, Pcsl. Would your Swift Backup guide work for non-rooted devices or if you use something like Shizuku with Swift Backup?

 

[Pcsl]

Thanks for this guide, Pcsl. Would your Swift Backup guide work for non-rooted devices or if you use something like Shizuku with Swift Backup?

Unfortunately it seems that even Shizuku is not enough. Root is required according to Swift Backup FAQ

Data
The private app data in /data/data/ or /data/user/*/ that stores your app preferences, login info, databases, etc. This is the most important part to restore apps potentially with their state preserved.

Requirements:
Root required for backup & restore
Shizuku mode (ADB access) cannot read/write at these path