[kogir]

I’m probably a little odd but I wipe my devices before international travel. All my travel documents are printed. If they want to steal a device, I’ll just replace it.

When I arrive safely I restore from backup and nothing is lost except an hour or so.

[atrettel]

This is not nearly as odd as it may seem to some people. Many federal agencies and DOE national laboratories use a similar procedure to this by issuing you separate temporary devices while on international travel. That basically requires you to only bring the files that you need if you bring any of them at all.

[illiac786]

How do you deal with banking apps, the type where you confirm a credit card transaction? They cannot be restored from backup, need to be setup fresh on every new phone…

[pubg]

How do you hail an Uber or Lyft upon arrival?

Endpoint navigation is not optional for me. I suppose you could pre-login to only those apps, but still, there is nothing that interesting on my phone that I want to spend the energy to wipe, restore, and re-login to a hundred apps.

[chmod775]

How is that a big deal? Half the time you'd have to install the local equivalent of those ride hailing services anyways - that is if regular local cabs aren't the preferred way to get around.

I use like 2-3 apps for getting around, depending on country. I don't know what you're doing with hundreds.

[IncreasePosts]

You just need to remember one password for your password manager account, and then you don't need to remember any others.

[mr_toad]

Buy a cheap phone at the airport? Or just phone a cab? It’s been a while but back in the day we used to travel without any phone at all.

There’s nothing interesting on my phone either - except keychain, which would give someone access to nearly all my online accounts.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

What I've done in the past is just buy a new phone at the airport. Just make a new account or remember your login

[bmitc]

How do you handle authenticator apps, which do not backup to the cloud, and other two-factor authentication related things?

[Larrikin]

1password works just fine with OTP across all my devices.

Using an authentication method tied directly to and dependent on my phone seems extremely risky and short sighted. A phone can be lost, fall out your pocket into a toilet, etc and those are just accidents. They also basically have a max life time of five years. What happens when you buy a new phone?

[LoganDark]

KeePassXC is a TOTP authenticator and it saves to a file. You can put the file anywhere you like. You can, given the correct master password, open the file again on any device and generate TOTP codes.

[bramhaag]

Not OP, but I use Aegis [1] for 2FA which can create encrypted backups. They're synced automatically to my NextCloud instance with the NextCloud app.

[1] https://github.com/beemdevelopment/Aegis

[haunter]

2fas backup to iCloud

https://2fas.com/

[ricktdotorg]

i like this. i've wanted to do this. but what might be the "right answer" to an inquisitive border force who ask why you have device(s) that are factory fresh?

[tzs]

If you are being asked by the border force of the country you are entering tell them you don't trust the border force of the country you came from.

If you being asked by the border force of the country you are leaving tell them you don't trust the border force of the country you are going to.

[kogir]

I’ve never actually been detained or questioned (but know people who have).

If I were I’d tell them the truth that I feel more vulnerable during the chaos of travel and don’t want any risk that a lost or stolen device could leak anything personal.

Would this satisfy them? No idea. Getting stopped at the border is legitimately a single small concern of many more likely scenarios.

[xenospn]

they don’t know your device is factory fresh unless you give them the code.

[shermozle]

"It's my company's policy for international travel"

[morkalork]

"I don't want to lose everything if I get pickpocketed"

[kazinator]

"So that I have the maximum amount of space available for downloading tons of beheading videos over the hotel Wi-Fi when I get to my room in New York."

More seriously, I would say that the wiped phone has a minimal amount of data in it, which has the advantage that if it is has to be searched, the search time will be minimized.

[shiggaz]

How do you save and restore the backup?

[j7ake]

iPhone does this with iCloud.

[datahack]

A good solution while it remains legal and backups remain unreachable authorities.

Are they unreachable? How sure are you? Aren’t you just raising suspicion and acting like a criminal by walking around with wiped devices at International borders? Seems suspicious.

[lolinder]

How is it suspicious? Buying a burner phone is one of the most common pieces of advice you'll see for traveling internationally [0]. This wiping strategy is just one small step from that, especially if OP doesn't have a current-year flagship smartphone.

For most people border patrol is not the biggest threat they face when traveling internationally, and OP's steps are very reasonable ones to take against all manner of non-state-sanctioned thefts.

[0] https://global.psu.edu/article/travel-safety-tips-know-you-g...

[analognoise]

People get stuff jacked at airports and traveling all the time; seems reasonable to me?