I stumbled into a potential privacy problem involving how Samsung Cloud does not allow the deletion of data previously synced with other Samsung devices with the apps S Notes and Samsung Notes.
I had a galaxy S4 in 2014 with which I created a bunch of notes which were synced into the Samsung account data cloud. I now bought a Note 8 and started reusing the apps S Notes and Samsung Notes. Upon first use of both apps I noticed in the settings that there was the possibility to import data from Samsung cloud, and so I did. I found 14 notes sitting there since 2014. Imported them, deleted them and re synced the data to cloud. Reopened the app to check if they were gone, but they were still there and available for import. Btw the notes are image file not text editable. Anyone with the same problem with suggestions on how to get rid of them for good ? I tried any solution possible with the apps, cloud storage management and backup and restore routines but nothing worked. Samsung support couldn't suggest a working solution either. This is a blatant breach of privacy and if not solvable it should be signaled all over. Thanks in advance
fpavoncelli said:
I stumbled into a potential privacy problem involving how Samsung Cloud does not allow the deletion of data previously synced with other Samsung devices with the apps S Notes and Samsung Notes.
I had a galaxy S4 in 2014 with which I created a bunch of notes which were synced into the Samsung account data cloud. I now bought a Note 8 and started reusing the apps S Notes and Samsung Notes. Upon first use of both apps I noticed in the settings that there was the possibility to import data from Samsung cloud, and so I did. I found 14 notes sitting there since 2014. Imported them, deleted them and re synced the data to cloud. Reopened the app to check if they were gone, but they were still there and available for import. Btw the notes are image file not text editable. Anyone with the same problem with suggestions on how to get rid of them for good ? I tried any solution possible with the apps, cloud storage management and backup and restore routines but nothing worked. Samsung support couldn't suggest a working solution either. This is a blatant breach of privacy and if not solvable it should be signaled all over. Thanks in advance
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Hey there, tava tou tried deleting tua data thru their website?
I've never actually had such an issue... I was and am capable of deleting data created from my note 8 (tablet) on this mobile and also from the note 3... but then again I still own the devices and use them fairly regularly still...
Edit: disregard the above... it's as if it just flags them as deleted and won't auto sync... after forcing a manual sync the notes I thought I could delete are now back... this is indeed a great privacy flaw... let's hope we find a solution, I'm gonna dig Samsung's account website once I get home... hope there's a way to delete them there...
Thx for the heads up OP!!
|mickey said:
Hey there, tava tou tried deleting tua data thru their website?
I've never actually had such an issue... I was and am capable of deleting data created from my note 8 (tablet) on this mobile and also from the note 3... but then again I still own the devices and use them fairly regularly still...
Edit: disregard the above... it's as if it just flags them as deleted and won't auto sync... after forcing a manual sync the notes I thought I could delete are now back... this is indeed a great privacy flaw... let's hope we find a solution, I'm gonna dig Samsung's account website once I get home... hope there's a way to delete them there...
Thx for the heads up OP!!
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Thank you for trying. I'll keep digging myself and post updates if any, but for now it seems an impossible task, and Samsung support is no help with their proposed solutions. I've posted again the question with more details and we'll see what their answer is.
Update : no good news. The same exact thing happens with the S Note app for Windows (downloaded from the Microsoft store)
No way to erase the old notes from the cloud. Imported them again, edited them to erase the note, saved blanc, renamed the note as "delete" and synced with the Samsung account cloud. No changes whatsoever. They were there again available for import exactly as before the above work !
I would suggest people to look into the behaviour of the Samsung Cloud and if they are able to delete data at will be it notes or pics or videos. I think the problem is not only with notes but that was all I used to sync on their cloud. I disabled all sync and backup options to the Samsung cloud for safety.
I've managed to delete my notes from Samsung cloud [emoji848] even after re-syncing or importing my data from Samsung cloud it's gone.
Are you sure you deleted your notes from the recycle bin?
Sent from my SM-T820 using Tapatalk
Yes I did but just to make sure I'll give it another try and see what happens.and update the thread. Thanks
del1701 said:
I've managed to delete my notes from Samsung cloud [emoji848] even after re-syncing or importing my data from Samsung cloud it's gone.
Are you sure you deleted your notes from the recycle bin?
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I opened the app on my note 8, went to the trash can and found the ones edited before using the windows app and that I had renamed to make sure not to mix them up with the original ones. Obviously they hadn't been synced with the cloud. I deleted them from trash and synced again.
Then I went to settings-import data from cloud and the old notes were still there unchanged. Titles and content unchanged, so I imported them again, deleted them and they didn't even show in the trash can of the app. Did another sync but nothing changed.
They're still there available for import
More weird behavior. I imported 1 of the old notes stored on the cloud. Edited content and renamed it. Deleted it and in the trash can it appeared with the old title. The rest behaved as before. Emptied trash and synced but no change
Btw... the whole thing seems to work fine with notes created with the device you try to delete them with. My problem is that these notes are years old and I don't have the device anymore
fpavoncelli said:
More weird behavior. I imported 1 of the old notes stored on the cloud. Edited content and renamed it. Deleted it and in the trash can it appeared with the old title. The rest behaved as before. Emptied trash and synced but no change
Btw... the whole thing seems to work fine with notes created with the device you try to delete them with. My problem is that these notes are years old and I don't have the device anymore
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Please blur or scribble over this for safety as when I zoomed in I can easily read everything , WiFi passwords, cafe password , tyre sizes etc or delete the screenshot. Don't want it to get in the wrong hands
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
---------- Post added at 06:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 AM ----------
fpavoncelli said:
More weird behavior. I imported 1 of the old notes stored on the cloud. Edited content and renamed it. Deleted it and in the trash can it appeared with the old title. The rest behaved as before. Emptied trash and synced but no change
Btw... the whole thing seems to work fine with notes created with the device you try to delete them with. My problem is that these notes are years old and I don't have the device anymore
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Click to collapse
Also a possible solution would be to delete your cloud account or s note account either manually if possible or get Samsung to do it and just make a other one using the same or different email address. Surely deleting your account would delete all data on that account in the process
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
Thanks for the tip. I'll take them down even if it is old and surpassed data and that's why I want them deleted from the Cloud. Changing account doesn't solve the problem as the data would remain on their servers. I'm waiting for a response from samsung support hoping they finaly understood the problem and don't give me another useless solution or answer as they often do
fpavoncelli said:
Thanks for the tip. I'll take them down even if it is old and surpassed data and that's why I want them deleted from the Cloud. Changing account doesn't solve the problem as the data would remain on their servers. I'm waiting for a response from samsung support hoping they finaly understood the problem and don't give me another useless solution or answer as they often do
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Click to collapse
Deleting you're account would solve the problem as I already stated. Delete not change
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
jacksskinz said:
Deleting you're account would solve the problem as I already stated. Delete not change
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
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You meen from the smartphone settings delete the samsung account ? But then I would have to create a new one and if I use the same credentials it's all back as before, isn't it ? And how can I be sure that the data is removed from the cloud ?
fpavoncelli said:
You meen from the smartphone settings delete the samsung account ? But then I would have to create a new one and if I use the same credentials it's all back as before, isn't it ? And how can I be sure that the data is removed from the cloud ?
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Honestly I would give it a go, realistically if you delete the account surely it deletes all data with it so I'm sure you could make a new account with same credentials and won't have the data back. Can always ask Samsung if you delete the account do they delete cloud data also, usually they do
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
jacksskinz said:
Deleting you're account would solve the problem as I already stated. Delete not change
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You meen from the smartphone settings delete the samsung account ? But then I would have to create a new one and if I use the same credentials it's all back as before, isn't it ? And how can I be sure that the data is removed from the cloud ?
jacksskinz said:
Honestly I would give it a go, realistically if you delete the account surely it deletes all data with it so I'm sure you could make a new account with same credentials and won't have the data back. Can always ask Samsung if you delete the account do they delete cloud data also, usually they do
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
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I did on the smartphone and now looking how to do it on their website as, off course it's still present and I don't think that just doing it from the smartphone would work otherwise I should have lost all my data already when passing from one phone to the other and resetting to factory standards before selling the old one. I never pass data with their apps and always configure new phones from scratch. I need to delete the account from their website to hope that they delete data from the cloud. Plus without a Samsung account on the phone I can't update the basic apps of the phone
jacksskinz said:
Honestly I would give it a go, realistically if you delete the account surely it deletes all data with it so I'm sure you could make a new account with same credentials and won't have the data back. Can always ask Samsung if you delete the account do they delete cloud data also, usually they do
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
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Done. Thank you ! It took me 4 days of various tries of dumb solutions proposed by Samsung Support.
Thank you again
fpavoncelli said:
Done. Thank you ! It took me 4 days of various tries of dumb solutions proposed by Samsung Support.
Thank you again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries glad I could help you! Silly Samsung aha
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note8 using XDA Labs
Samsung apparently flags sync data with a unique device identifier. To delete sync’d content from Samsung’s servers, you must have access to the device where the content in question was created. If that device has been sold, lost, stolen, or broken, then it's not possible to delete that data. Have you had a reply from Samsung yet?
Related
Hello everyone. Happy Humpday
I got a new note 5 from T-Mobile
now I wanted this cause it has excel and word and power point.
problem is when I try to use either app it will not launch it will flash the screen and go back to my home page. I tried factory settings and dumped dev cache and I cant remove the apps as they came with the unit.
when I do try to find it in the play store I cannot find any of them but one note.
I need excel and word to work. HELP
Some people (including me) can't download them from the play store.
If that is the case, download or update them from the Samsung App Store (aka Galaxy Apps). You usually need to log into Samsung account to do so.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
What @apd said. Look in galaxy apps to see if there is an update for those apps. I remember about three updates to the Microsoft apps. Also maybe clear cache and data under settings / apps then try again. It could be a T-Mobile thing so you might search the t-mobile threads. Good luck
I have a big problem I am hoping some other fellow flashing know how to deal with. I recently had to contact Google support because I had too many authorized devices in my Google Play Music. They did a 1 time courtesy removal of all devices. Not something I want to have to do again and being a 1 time courtesy I don't know that they will do it again....
As many of you may know you can only authorize 10 devices per account and only DE-authorize 4 per year...WTF?
The problem I have is I only actually have 3 devices but everytime I flash a ROM Google Play Music marks it as a new device. So my account had my Mac, 7 OnePlus Ones and 2 Oneplus3T's authorized.
I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid this problem again. After having them remove all devices just a few weeks ago I already have 4 new authorized devices. Not cool.
For a while I was using Titanium backup to restore app/data of JUST the Play Music app. I absolutely hate restoring system data so this is not ideal and depending on the ROM the restore often fails . So I created an update.zip that I can flash in recovery but then it often boots with Play Music still not installed.
How do you guys deal with this problem? It has become very aggravating and I pay $15.92 a month for our Google Play Music family subscription and I would really like to retain the ability to actually use it.
Any ideas?
GrandMasterB said:
I have a big problem I am hoping some other fellow flashing know how to deal with. I recently had to contact Google support because I had too many authorized devices in my Google Play Music. They did a 1 time courtesy removal of all devices. Not something I want to have to do again and being a 1 time courtesy I don't know that they will do it again....
As many of you may know you can only authorize 10 devices per account and only DE-authorize 4 per year...WTF?
The problem I have is I only actually have 3 devices but everytime I flash a ROM Google Play Music marks it as a new device. So my account had my Mac, 7 OnePlus Ones and 2 Oneplus3T's authorized.
I'm trying to figure out a way to avoid this problem again. After having them remove all devices just a few weeks ago I already have 4 new authorized devices. Not cool.
For a while I was using Titanium backup to restore app/data of JUST the Play Music app. I absolutely hate restoring system data so this is not ideal and depending on the ROM the restore often fails . So I created an update.zip that I can flash in recovery but then it often boots with Play Music still not installed.
How do you guys deal with this problem? It has become very aggravating and I pay $15.92 a month for our Google Play Music family subscription and I would really like to retain the ability to actually use it.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You go into Google play music and go to settings scroll down and click on manage devices. It will only manage your linked email.
cameljockey1 said:
You go into Google play music and go to settings scroll down and click on manage devices. It will only manage your linked email.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the reply.... but you lost me. I know how to deauthorize devices. The problem is Googles hard limit on only being able to deauthorize 4 per year.
I'm looking for a way to stop Google Play Music from thinking its a new device every time I flash a new ROM.
GrandMasterB said:
Thank you for the reply.... but you lost me. I know how to deauthorize devices. The problem is Googles hard limit on only being able to deauthorize 4 per year.
I'm looking for a way to stop Google Play Music from thinking its a new device every time I flash a new ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well every time I flash a ROM I never restore the data of the music app. I haven't had your issue before. I just deauthorize when I get a new phone. Never had to do it for each ROM.
Restoring the app used to.solve this issue for me. But lately it always gets recognised as a new device
Anyone found a solution?
Like restoring device ID etc?
candiesdoodle said:
Restoring the app used to.solve this issue for me. But lately it always gets recognised as a new device
Anyone found a solution?
Like restoring device ID etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As of Oreo, you can no longer change or restore the Android ID. See https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/04/changes-to-device-identifiers-in.html
Sent from my OnePlus3T using XDA Labs
BillGoss said:
As of Oreo, you can no longer change or restore the Android ID. See https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/04/changes-to-device-identifiers-in.html
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Wow this is helpful
So Android ID is different for each app. So how does play music app keep track of the device? Because even though the serial number is same, it still gets recognised as a new device? I tried keeping ro.buid.fingerprint same as well.
Could it be the GSF id?
When doing a factory reset, it asks about restoring apps, etc. I check yes.
Then it seems it's doing it again through Samsung when I login to Samsung during setup.
Are redundant restores happening? Should I should one and not the other?
Any thoughts?
Yes they are basically redundant. I do both to restore as much data as possible and save myself some effort setting everything back up.
I use both also, often feel I'm wasting time but who knows.
Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
its all about freshness.
so appart from apps, one thing samsung offers that goofle dosent is if u use stock launcher, homescreen layout and wallpaper and aod get restored. same goes for keyboard and related custom data associated to it if you use stock input.
wifi and bluetooth pairings would also be restored too, not to mention alarms also.
So in essence if one believes their next device is going to be another Samsung then perhaps best disable most if not all of the Google backup and restore options? If anything perhaps more added battery life perhaps.
bober10113 said:
its all about freshness.
so appart from apps, one thing samsung offers that goofle dosent is if u use stock launcher, homescreen layout and wallpaper and aod get restored. same goes for keyboard and related custom data associated to it if you use stock input.
wifi and bluetooth pairings would also be restored too, not to mention alarms also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk
Limeybastard said:
So in essence if one believes their next device is going to be another Samsung then perhaps best disable most if not all of the Google backup and restore options? If anything perhaps more added battery life perhaps.
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Click to collapse
well knowing google, apps are tagged from the playstore as being installed.( app library vs installed).so backups arent done on/from your device. when restoring they check last device ID and match the associated installed app from your library.
anyways thats what i think. so all in all not sure if disabling it would help or not.
BUT again, its all about the freshness.
which service offers the very last apps you installed?
but one thing to rhink about is: samsung will restore google play and samsung store apps.
where as whit Google, i think would only restore playstore apps(since they just check playstore library associated to device ID).
I was also referring to other things Google also backup. Turning these off.
bober10113 said:
well knowing google, apps are tagged from the playstore as being installed.( app library vs installed).so backups arent done on/from your device. when restoring they check last device ID and match the associated installed app from your library.
anyways thats what i think. so all in all not sure if disabling it would help or not.
BUT again, its all about the freshness.
which service offers the very last apps you installed?
but one thing to rhink about is: samsung will restore google play and samsung store apps.
where as whit Google, i think would only restore playstore apps(since they just check playstore library associated to device ID).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
View attachment 4684506
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Limeybastard said:
I was also referring to other things Google also backup. Turning these off.
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Click to collapse
oh ok yeah maybe it el help.
Limeybastard said:
I was also referring to other things Google also backup. Turning these off.
View attachment 4684506
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Click to collapse
so this just in, samsung backup dosent restore app data where as google does. so this means apps are restored but none of the custom data)settings) is actually restored (like rooted people do with titanium backup).
edit i should mention that i was on android pie doing a backup using smart switch. it asked me where i wanted it and i chose my ext sd card. unpon flashing a new rom and setting it up, i used again smart switch to to restore this time, so i chose the sd card logo at the the top right of the screen and it took a while. so not sure how this backup /restore method differs from the regular samsung cloud ...but it did not restore app data. since it was local i am a bit flabbergasted by these findings. would have expected data since google restores it from the network and does include it....i wont try the other regular method via Samsung cloud since the space allotted is limited to around 10 or 15 gig.in comparison my local backup with smart switch took over 25 gb(got 400+ apps) so thats why im not expecting any better viaa regular cloud sync... but we never know. maybe someone with a smaller volume of content can offer some results.
oh and on the flip side, samsung restores more apps than googles does. i suspect it dosnt check for the playstore app signature and just blindly backups all user apps.. just a darn shame about the data part...(not user settings data like passwords and for wifi and bluetooth pairing but acctual applicaion data)
just wanted to share my findings with you guys
google play back will restore all apps downloaded from the play store but it will not restore any app downloaded from other sources like galaxy apps or aptoide
samsung backup and restores all the apps that are installed on your devices regardless of where it came from
so usually i will let google restore my apps so that i will get the latest apps from the store then i will restore from samsung cloud to get the extra apps i installed from other sources plus my apps folders
BuHaneenHHHH said:
just wanted to share my findings with you guys
google play back will restore all apps downloaded from the play store but it will not restore any app downloaded from other sources like galaxy apps or aptoide
samsung backup and restores all the apps that are installed on your devices regardless of where it came from
so usually i will let google restore my apps so that i will get the latest apps from the store then i will restore from samsung cloud to get the extra apps i installed from other sources plus my apps folders
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Click to collapse
wow this is news to me !
Dear feiends
As i remeber from Note 3 and 4 times,
SNote had windows application which was syncing from device to cloud.
Cureently i use note 8,
SNote is just polished yesterday with better text recognation
How ever i wish i could have seen all notes that i took from windows computer. Like "one note"
Any recommendations?
I can only think of one eventually syncing SNote with Evernote (so that you can view Evernote on a PC like OneNote)
https://support.samsungcloud.com/#/sync
Samsung's Cloud solution is becoming limited like Apple's iCloud (in my opinion).
You can give this a try:
https://www.xda-developers.com/get-samsung-notes-windows-10-app/
Anonymously_Unknown said:
I can only think of one eventually syncing SNote with Evernote (so that you can view Evernote on a PC like OneNote)
https://support.samsungcloud.com/#/sync
Samsung's Cloud solution is becoming limited like Apple's iCloud (in my opinion).
You can give this a try:
https://www.xda-developers.com/get-samsung-notes-windows-10-app/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello friend,
thanks so much.
I dowloaded link you gave, notes application was installed to windows, how ever, when I was trying to login, it warned me to update the app to continue login.
So now on thanks, windows 10 application store, do not need online account , to update, existing apps.
and so when I clicked update, note app was updated to latest, was able to manage to login.
The interesting thing,
my trash is empty in Snotes in phone.
how ever,
online.
I had reach even 2015 notes.. somehow, from note 3 , note 4 times..
it was little suprising.
thanks so much @Anonymously_Unknown
I am used to having my phone auto-install all the apps that I am using whenever I add my account on a new device. Of course it has to be the same account, but it has worked seamlessly for more than 10 years.
Today I got a shiny new S21 Ultra and added my Google account and unfortunately it is not auto-installing my apps.
Is there a button somewhere I can use to prompt it to start doing this or am I going to have to manually add each and every app back one by one from the play store?
Thank you!
It's Samsung trying to forces us to use there apps and ecosystem.
sillycat said:
I am used to having my phone auto-install all the apps that I am using whenever I add my account on a new device. Of course it has to be the same account, but it has worked seamlessly for more than 10 years.
Today I got a shiny new S21 Ultra and added my Google account and unfortunately it is not auto-installing my apps.
Is there a button somewhere I can use to prompt it to start doing this or am I going to have to manually add each and every app back one by one from the play store?
Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you made a backup of your last phone and included apps, you could restore it... If not, one by one...
I think I know what is different.
In the past, I used to remove my account from my old phone before I added it to my new phone.
This time since I keep the old phone, my account is still on it. I think Google is trying to be clever and not automatically transfering all my apps because the old device is still active.
You have to restore a device (device a to device b) for the restore to install the current apps. Nothing to do with signing into the phone, only does it on a restore of a backup. I have hundreds of "installed apps" across devices from current to destroyed. Thankfully google play store does not try to reinstall them, that would be a nightmare deleting them all.