Maybe that’s it. My dad’s current phone does run an old Android version, so that might be why local backup restore worked. The WhatsApp version was up to date though. I can confirm local backups work on Android 8 and Android 11.

So did I, about 2 weeks ago, for my dad. It worked. It’s unlikely that anything changed in a week

They do, but they don’t explicitly allow restoring from local backups directly within the app anymore. However, if you manually move the backups to a new phone or whatever and then fresh install WhatsApp on that phone, you will be prompted to restore messages from the local backup that’s present.

I don’t try to mess with their cloud backup scheme, I import the local backups manually instead. Their cloud backup is so slow and their chat transfer feature is so buggy.

People did report that, there was some “error” on CMF’s side that swapped people’s custom watch face backgrounds leading to this. It never happened to me though. I don’t think this happened due to malicious intent. Of course they do store everything that you give them, including uploaded watch face backgrounds. This might just be their gross incompetence than anything, which led to this mishap.

Here’s a statement from CMF regarding the bug along with a reply for the fix: https://x.com/cmfbynothing/status/1758348870889959625

I use Nova Launcher because I’m used to it and there’s really nothing that still can replace it. There are plenty of similar launchers, but none that’s as feature rich as Nova. People love to hate it because it has been acquired by an analytics company, but I have data disabled for Nova Launcher, so it can’t really do anything. Even on other older phones that don’t have the option to disable data for Nova Launcher, it hasn’t sent a single KB of data in months. I don’t think it’s a problem.

That was amazing

It’s apparently a McDonalds employee form, not sure what form

The Xperia XZ1 Compact as another person suggested seems like a great fit. But I’d also like to throw in the Pixel 2 as an option. They are actually the only actually capable devices I could find. If I have to guess, the Pixel would be much more widely available than the Xperia. The Pixel probably also has better custom ROM support.

This is not mildly infuriating, this is extremely infuriating

Yes indeed, it seems like a silent promotion to build hype, but it’s more awkward than anything else.

Custom ROMs for phones with Dimensity processors (or really phones with anything other than Snapdragon processors) are almost non-existent

Ahh, didn’t notice that

Nougat had the best easter egg imo

Yep, exactly. But that doesn’t mean MediaTek is all that bad. If you’re looking for a bang for the buck phone in terms of performance, odds are that it uses a MediaTek SoC. I’d say MediaTek is still the midrange and low end leader. Many Dimensity processors sold in certain price points are faster than the Snapdragon equivalents sold in the same price points. For example, the Dimensity 920 and rebadges are almost Snapdragon 778G level fast, and they usually sell for around 20k, where you’ll mostly see Snapdragon 695 phones. Their processors are pretty efficient too.

I read your other post, here are my suggestions!

I’d mainly suggest the Poco M6 Pro 5G/Redmi 12 5G (they’re both extremely similar). They have a Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 but the software may not be of your liking. It’s a really great value for it’s cheap price though. Their 6GB/128GB variants cost around 13k. Other honorable mentions (that cost a little bit more):

• Moto G73 - Costs 17k for the 8GB/128GB model. It has a Dimensity 930, which is pretty good performance for the price. It has very nice cameras for the price and also has a stock-ish Android UI called MyUX. It is probably the closest phone to meet your expectations.
• Samsung Galaxy M34/F34 (F34 is a complete rebadge of the M34) - Costs 19k for the 6GB/128GB model. It has a Exynos 1280, which isn’t all that bad. It’s marginally faster than the Snapdragon 695, which is available in more expensive phones. Exynos itself doesn’t mean the phone is all bad. The display is also top notch, a SAMOLED 120Hz display. The cameras are also pretty good. The long term software support is basically unbeatable by any other manufacturer selling phones in the same price segment. It will get 4 years of major Android updates and 5 years of security patches. Only big con is the exclusion of a charger in box. You have to purchase it separately. A 25W Samsung original charger costs around 1000 rupees in local markets. They sell for way much more online, which is almost a scam.
• POCO X5 Pro - Costs 20k for the 6GB/128GB model. If you want a well rounded overall great phone, this is it. It has a Snapdragon 778G, which is pretty much the most performance you can get for the price. It has a AMOLED 120Hz display, a 108MP main sensor, 67W fast charger and possibly the best custom ROM support out of all of these phones since this is a very popular phone and has a Snapdragon SoC. The only real con is that there’s no SD card slot, if you mind about that.

I’ll be happy to mention other options if you tell me what your needs are. I recently bought myself a new phone myself very recently, so most of my research should still be up-to-date.

Both Qualcomm and MediaTek have gotten greedy. It’s not the chip shortage or whatever as other people have been suggesting in your other post (that I also saw). At least Qualcomm seems to be making some progress now with their newer processors. MediaTek has gotten incredibly lazy and they’ve been rebranding old SoCs as new SoCs. Looking at your other post, you seem to have high expectations for the price. There’s no phone with stock-ish Android, newest SoC, root-ability and widespread custom ROM support, at least at 15k. Mobile phone SoCs have made almost no progress, except at the flagship end. And just now is the performance trickling down to upper midrange and mid-range lineups. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 is a great example of this.

MediaTek has been rebranding their mid-range SoCs since at least 2020. For example, the Dimensity 900 was rebranded to Dimensity 920 and then again to the Dimensity 930 with some overclocking. This was then rebranded to the Dimensity 1080 with more overclocking. Now, the Dimensity 1080 is rebranded to the Dimensity 7050 with a minor overclock again. The roots of their current midrange SoC is already about 3 years old. They’ve been doing the same with their other lower end SoCs too.

I’ll suggest you some phones on your other post.

As someone else said, it’s mostly satire but some people do get genuinely concerned about a random app that they never installed or heard about be on the Play Store. Many call it bloatware and some even call it a malware in the reviews.

You can use LADB, but it is not free unless you compile the app yourself.

You can use Bugjaeger instead, which can achieve the same thing (just a bit trickier to use). It is free on the Play Store but has ads. You can use an ad blocker in the background though, it’s not a big problem.

It seems to be an app issue. Liftoff doesn’t really seem that smooth to me either, and my phone is not a bad phone.