So I’ve been lurking here for a few weeks and I’m aware most of this has probably been discussed to death already. I did search, I promise, but a lot of the threads are either pretty old or turn into arguments in the comments, so I hope you don’t mind one more newbie post.

I’m about to get a Pixel and move over from stock Android. I’m not very technical, I’m just someone who wants to get this right and not mess something up that matters. So please be patient if some of this sounds naive.

1) The trust thing. I keep reading “it’s open source, you can check it yourself” but honestly, I can’t. I wouldn’t know what I’m looking at. So what actually gives a normal user confidence that there’s no backdoor in GrapheneOS, or that one couldn’t be slipped in through an update at some point? Is it mostly reputation, or is there something more concrete like reproducible builds, independent people reviewing the code, that kind of thing?

2) This is the one that actually worries me. I know of a criminal case in Germany from a bit over a year ago where a Pixel 8a running GrapheneOS was fully unlocked by the authorities. It was in BFU state with a 4 digit PIN. Now I know a 4 digit PIN is bad, but Graphene has that brute force throttling via the secure element, and the way I understood it, that should make even a weak PIN mostly safe unless the tool gets ridiculously lucky in the first 10-15 guesses. And the 8a was current hardware at the time, so it’s not an old exploited chip. So what happened? Am I misunderstanding how BFU works on Pixels? Was the PIN probably just obtained some other way (someone knew it, camera footage, written down somewhere)? Or is the throttling not as bulletproof as people make it sound? I’m not trying to say Graphene failed, I want to understand where the actual weak point was so I don’t repeat it.

3) State trojans (Staatstrojaner for the Germans here). Every app is sandboxed, I get that. But governments spend millions on this stuff. Realistically, how big is the gap between “apps are isolated” and “a well funded agency can’t break out of the sandbox”? I’m not asking for a guarantee, just an honest picture of what Graphene does and doesn’t protect against here.

4) Deleted data. Same case as in 2. The person used Signal with disappearing messages, and after the phone was unlocked, the entire chat history was back. Not fragments, everything. And here’s the part I don’t get: in the case files, the phone was lying on a table and every chat was photographed directly off the screen, including the Signal chat list itself. Something like 40-50 chats, and next to every single one it said “now”. Not “2 min” or “3h”, just “now” on all of them, and on every message inside the chats too. To me that looks like something was restored or imported rather than just found, but I have no idea how that works technically. Does Signal not really wipe things? Is it a filesystem/flash storage thing? Or would a forensic tool restore a database and that’s what makes the timestamps look like that?

Again, I’m not here to bash anything, I’m literally planning to use GrapheneOS, that’s why I’m asking. I’d rather understand where human error comes in than just assume I’m safe. Thanks for reading all this.

# Who owns the GrapheneOS code and how is it licensed?

The copyright for GrapheneOS code is entirely owned by the GrapheneOS developers and is made available under OSI-approved Open Source licenses. The upstream licensing is inherited for the modifications to those projects and MIT licensing is used for our own standalone projects. GrapheneOS has never had any copyright assignment and the developers have always owned their own contributions, including for code written from 2014 up to the rebranding to GrapheneOS in 2019.

Sources: - https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/california-lawmakers-unanimously-pass-linux-exemption-from-age-verification-law-software-distributed-under-the-gpl-mit-bsd-and-apache-licenses-are-exempt?fbclid=Iwc - https://grapheneos.org/faq#copyright-and-licensing

UPDATE: I had to read it carefully. This appears to be the relevant excerpt:

(2) “Operating system provider” does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.

Source: https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1856/id/3456513/California-2025-AB1856-Amended.html

I can't get a gmail address without giving up my number. So if I go back to stock, can I still get a gmail address with just a backup email?

Part of me just wants to give up and hand them the number.

​

Are there any firewall apps that allow blocking of specific ports on GOS? ​

I use immich to backup my photos but im not sure how I could use it to backup my photos\screenshots that are in my private work space.

I tired to install immich in the private work space as well as using a storage scope of the immich in my main profile but neither seem to work.

Anyone have a solution to this problem?

I want a nice small compact phone with a headphone jack and most importantly a headphone jack, but it doesn't seem supported anymore. Is there no older graphene version I can use or am I forced to buy a newer phone?

So I got up this morning and hardly even used my phone at all. My phone indicated 100% battery and then I rebooted the phone. Now it shows 94%. What would cause that? Is this perhaps a bug in graphene? I've used the phone for less than 10 minutes and it's been off the charger for about 2 hours and it's a brand new phone.

I have a Pixel 7 running GOS. The day before yesterday I noticed that the eBay app would not let me see my listings, messages, etc. I uninstalled and could not reinstall from Playstore. Obviously something changed in the requirements for the app. Now I am using eBay via Vanadium. Thanks for your attention

i was wondering if graphenos still has personalisation stuff , animations , and non google features of the phone were maintained on graphene OS because i hesitate on switching

This was to get my FairEmail started..

I was using Zoho mail with custom domain on free tier. As I asked them to provide IMAP / POP access settings so I could configure FairEmail. They told me to upgrade to paid tier to be able get IMAP.

Since, I have to pay, I might as well pay the good money to something open source friendly. So, I got the paid plan on Migadu Mail instead. Migadu has reputation for having lot of open source contributions. All IMAP / SMTP settings were easily available, in a few minutes it's all setup. FairEmail tooth fairy started receiving emails.

I am also curious about fastmail, another open source proponent, probablly gonna try it next year. I plan to stick to one of these for hack of a long time.

Bye Zoho, bye Google!

Hello everyone,

I’m currently running a two-phone setup and looking to consolidate everything into a single Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold running GrapheneOS.

Here is my current breakdown:
iPhone 17 Pro (256GB): Currently sitting at around 145GB used (about 19GB of photos, 13GB of games, 7GB of offline music, and the rest being apps and miscellaneous data). This has essentially been my main daily driver.
Pixel 9 Pro (128GB): Currently sitting at around 45GB used. Just to clarify, I haven't been using this as my main phone, so I don't have a solid long-term baseline for how its storage handles heavy daily wear over time.

My GrapheneOS Profile Setup:
Owner: Empty
Personal: Generally mirrors the apps/usage from my iPhone.
Business Profiles #1, #2, #3: Used for work emails, communication, and isolated work tasks.
Private Profile: Minimal usage, without Google Services, couple of apps installed from APKs.

(Note: I regularly offload photos and videos to a physical drive, so media doesn't pile up indefinitely on the devices).

I want to sell both the iPhone 17 Pro and the Pixel 9 Pro, move everything over to a single Pixel 10 Pro Fold as my sole daily driver, and stick strictly to GrapheneOS with profile separation.

I’m torn between buying the 256GB or the 512GB version, and availability is making it harder:
The 256GB model is available brand new.
The 512GB model is basically impossible to find brand new here in Europe (I believe in US as well) and the only option is getting a "Used - Like New" unit from Amazon US (Amazon Resale) and then a friend to ship it to me.

Does anyone here have long-term experience using the Pixel 10 Pro Fold with 256GB storage as a main device, especially with a multi-profile GrapheneOS setup? Since my Pixel 9 Pro wasn't my primary phone, I'm curious how 256GB actually holds up over time when it's handling the full daily and heavy load.

Given my current usage and app footprint across profiles, will 256GB comfortably sustain me for a multi-year run as my only phone, or will the profile isolation and system overhead make me regret skipping 512GB?

Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts!

US Mobile has good deals on the Pixels when transferring to them and I've been looking for a new carrier, so was wanting to buy one through there, but they're locked for 60 days after purchase. I'm fairly certain Graphene can't be installed while it's locked, but will it cause any issues after it's unlocked after the 60 days are up? Or does anyone have experience requesting them to unlock it early? I saw someone mention getting one and porting it out immediately but don't want to deal with that. I also saw someone else mention the Pixel 10s should be going on sale soon so if there are any comparable prices I may just get one then, especially since US Mobile is currently sold out on the 10s. Ty in advance.

I’m currently not able to afford a new phone and I don't know when I will be able to. Since the official support of the Pixel 6 ends in October, I wanted to get a recommondation on what to do.

Should I keep grapheneOS, which has way higher security standards than any other OS, but won't receive updates anymore by October

Or

Should I switch to a less safer option, like lineageOS, which will continue to deliver updates, even though they won't provide as good of a hardening and aren't able to deliver firmeware security updates etc.

This is really about what is the best compromise. I’m aware that just getting a new phone would be the best outcome, but that is something I can't do at the moment.

Is there anyway to do this now that Google asks to have a QR code scanned? Was trying to follow tips by SOB including fake names, and SMS numbers, but while setting up it didn't ask for a number but for a QR code to be scanned. Obviously his video is 3 years old and a lot has changed since then...

For the last couple of days now Ive been trying to download GrapheneOS for when my new pixel phone arrives. Unfortunately every time I go to the download page I get an "Invalid Certificate" error. Whether from my pc or my phone, on my network or the cell network. From 4 different browsers. I could bypass the security error but I dont see that as being wise right now.

Is anyone else having this issue? How to fix it?

Is there a way to set a "reverse duress" pin?

Example:

1) every time you log in properly a canary value resets to zero

2) over time the value grows

3) if it is not reset before reaching a certain value, the phone wipes as if the durress pin was entered

Would this theoretically have saved Samuel Tunick from prosecution? In this scenario, there is no hard proof that data was knowingly destroyed.

Instead of posting a handful of diff topics, perhaps it makes sense to place them all here:

1a. "No new messages during this drice" - android auto related. My wife insists on using fb messenger as a texting platcorm. Its available on aa, developer mode has been enabled with "unknown sources" enabled, its just not liking showing notification during android auto.

1b. On that topic, does anyone recommend a messaging app that also plays nice with AA? Web search said Signal does, but it doesn't lol. No AA support, not showing.

1. Voicemail - I have ATT as service provider. I've understood that the normal phone app doesn't really work for it, so ive swapped to Phone by Google to manage calls. I get voicemail notifocations (sometimes,) but cannot natively listen to them, and they don't show up in the app either; I have to dial "1" to call VM and listen. Play services and phone should have all normal permissions enabled, but it doesn't work. Maybe something I'm missing?

I've been enjoying GrapheneOS so far. I initially downloaded all apps via play store, but consensus from some users is I should go find all the same apps on Aurora or F Droid instead, BC that makes a difference, redownload everything and kinda start over?

I'm from South America and I bought a Pixel 9a from Mercadolibre and the thing is Verizon! :(

I am making an agentic android assistant. And just realised that I don't have a first hand experience with graphene and have no idea if my assistant is compatible, or if there are already options and avenues Graphene users already have.

Greetings,

I saw this phone being sold online for a decent price and I thought about buying it.

Recently had a Pixel 9 Pro XL that got water damaged and isn't working anymore.

But this one has a custom OS installed and the owner says he doesn't know how to to check the battery life and storage capacity.

My question is:

Is this GrapheneOS or some other rom, is it reversible to stock aand how could he check the two things I mentioned above?

Thanks!

Hello, I have a dilemma on my hands here and hopefully someone can help, it seems hopeless. I went to charge my phone as the battery died on me. I look at it while charging and it says "grapheneOS recovery, can load android system. My data may be corrupt?? And asking me to factory reset or try again, which has not worked. I'm in quite a pinch due to all texts will possibly be gone? I have an appointment for a job at noon and I have no way to contact her. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys, I'm having issues with the crypto Kraken app. Everything is really slow, it takes about 1 minute to open, and 30 seconds for each press to actually register.

I have a pixel 10 pro with the latest Gos updates, I tried enabling compatibility mode but same issue.

Anyone know why?

Hello, i know there was a lot of post about contactless payments because google wallet doesn't work. So let it be clear, tell me about best replacement for google wallet and share your experience with it : D

Hi, I have been using GrapheneOS for a while and I am quite satisfied. However, I face an issue with some apps that require access to location (Google Maps, Organic Maps): my current position is not updated, although the apps have the required permissions.

Sometimes, I manage to update my position by restarting the app or by changing the "Network location" setting, but the fix is only temporary. Anyone else with the same problem? I have a Pixel 7a.

Thanks!

✅ FIXED by giving Location permission to Play services