Scheduled encrypted backups to WebDAV / SFTP

Feature Proposal
1

Hi,
I’d like to add support for the existing proposal on automatic backups to SFTP, WebDAV or Samba.
Use case
I use Delta Chat on a single main device and already have a Nextcloud / WebDAV server. Manual “Export backup” works, but I forget to do it regularly. A second always-on device is not always realistic. I would like Delta Chat to create a backup on a schedule and upload it to WebDAV (or SFTP) itself.

Expected behavior

Optional setting (off by default) to create a backup on a schedule (daily or weekly) and upload it to WebDAV or SFTP.

  • Destination: WebDAV URL + credentials, or SFTP
  • Backup encrypted with a user-chosen passphrase before upload
  • Keep only a few recent remote copies (e.g. last 3–7)
  • Notify locally if a backup or upload fails
  • Desktop first would already help; Android/iOS later if feasible

Actual behavior

Backups can only be created manually via Settings → Chats → Export backup.

There is no scheduler, no WebDAV/SFTP upload, and no built-in way to send the backup file to a remote store automatically. Multi-device sync is not a replacement for a regular offline backup file.

2

See related:

So I’d say this is two parts:

  1. Automatically periodically create backup files (like Signal does).
  2. Upload the file somewhere.

IMO the first would be nice.
But the latter might not have to be something integrated into Delta Chat. Instead, this could be managed by a third-party app that simply syncs the contents of a directory to wherever. Well, maybe that would be OK to have, but not necessary.

3

Related: