Backup old steam app chat logs no root

Hello, for anyone who hasn't updated yet I have found a method to, at the very least, recover your chat logs without root on android (Using samsung A50 android 11, should work on other androids I imagine). This is for a windows PC but it should be similar for linux.

1) Install android debug bridge (adb) ( https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools )

2) Enable developer mode on phone by going to settings > about phone > software information > tap the build number 7 times

3) Setup a "Desktop backup password" in developer options. Due to a bug it will create empty backups on some android versions if the password isn't set.

4) Download steam 2.1.4 ( https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/valve-corporation/steam/steam-2-1-4-release/ ) and place it in the same folder as where you installed the adb/platform tools. Rename it to something shorter like steam-2-1-4.apk (in the following commands I will be using this name, replace it with your name if you chose something else).

5) Connect your phone to your computer (phone should be unlocked).

6) Open command prompt and cd to the platform tools folder. Since I installed mine on the E: drive I had to do [code]E:[/code] first and then [code]cd E:\Program Files\platform-tools_r34.0.3-windows\platform-tools[/code] You can get the location easily by right clicking the address in file explorer and copy as text.

7) Type [code]adb devices[/code] This should prompt your phone to allow debug access, obviously allow. Type the command again and it should list your phone.

8) Type [code]adb push steam-2-1-4.apk /data/local/tmp[/code] This will move the old app onto the phone.

9) Type [code]adb uninstall -k com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community[/code] This will prompt you with an "are you sure" message about how you cannot delete the remaining data unless you reinstall the app. This is what we want! Confirm the uninstall with [code]adb shell cmd package uninstall -k com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community[/code] Note: We have to uninstall before downgrading due to permission differences. -k option keeps our data.

10) Install the old version by using [code]adb shell pm install -r -d /data/local/tmp/steam-2-1-4.apk[/code]

11) We can now backup the app with [code]adb backup -noapk com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community -f steam.ab[/code] This will prompt you on your phone to enter the backup password from step 3 and will save the backup to steam.ab in the platform tools folder. Note: We could not perform a backup with any version after 2.1.4 because valve disabled non-root backups after that point. Trying to create a backup without downgrading simply creates an empty file.

12) Almost there! To unpack the backup we need the android backup toolkit to convert it into a .tar https://sourceforge.net/projects/android-backup-toolkit/ After downloading, extract the contents of the zip and find the adp.jar file, move it to the platform tools folder.

13) You will need java installed to use the adp.jar Back in command prompt type [code]java -jar adp.jar unpack steam.ab steam.tar <password>[/code] Replace <password> with the password you used in step 3 or the custom one you used in step 11 (if applicable).

14) You now have a .tar of your steam data which can be opened with something like 7zip! The chat database is in the /db/ folder. Not sure how to open it yet :bl3shrug: You can see some of the text if you open in a text editor.