If you have OSMand, you would be interested to know about the Live Updates feature, which lets you download newer versions of maps on top of your existing downloaded maps, kind of like a software patch. The feature states that you can download map updates as recent as one hour, but I’ve personally seen the “patches” reflect the changes as soon as 15-20 minutes into upload.

To view live updates, assuming you didn’t heavily customise your OSMand interface:

1. Open the drawer through the hamburger icon button on the bottom left corner of the screen
2. Select ‘Maps & Resources’ from the drawer
3. Select ‘Updates’ tab from the tab list below the ‘Maps & Resources’ title bar on the top of the screen
4. Select ‘Live Updates’ just below the ‘Device Memory’ graph
5. Enable the toggle below the ‘OsmAnd Live’ title bar on the top of the screen
6. Select a map of your choosing among the list displayed under ‘Available Maps’
7. Select the ‘Update now’ button in the bottom sheet to manually update the map and wait for a moment

Once the steps have been followed, you show see something like this below the title of the bottom sheet:

“Updated: Today - <current time>. Includes OSM changes made until <current timestamp>.”

If you see this, you can go back to the map and verify that the changes have been included without downloading the entire map of the location from scratch. The “patches” are only a few MBs at most and you can set the live updates to happen automatically on an hourly, daily or weekly basis.

How exactly is this rendering artifact generated?

Is there really that much advantage to isolating these apps in a work profile? I’ve been using them under a work profile for a while now and I see not much point to it since I never practically disable them for concern over missing out on important notifications. They have as much access to device APIs as they do in the personal profile anyways so they can track my phone just as well. It just becomes inconvenient moving content between both profiles.

I guess I’ll start backing up my stuff like you told me. At least could you point me in the right direction by recommending a suitable backup solution that preferably is compatible in both Windows and Linux and is beginner friendly?

You’ve got no choice other than to grind it out and get your shit organized.

I didn’t want to believe it, but sadly it’s true. It’s going to take a long time for me to search for all my files, but if it’s the only right way to go, then so be it.

Despite the poor name, File History is actually a legitimate backup solution offered by Windows.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/backup-and-restore-with-file-history-7bf065bf-f1ea-0a78-c1cf-7dcf51cc8bfc

I’m stating that the vendor lock-in nature of this backup prevents me from directly importing this backup from Windows to Linux.

I think I have misued the word ‘critical’ in my comment. I wish to correct it by stating I simply have documents and photos important to me that I wish to preserve like any other person. It’s just that I am not in a financial situation to keep three separate copies of my data, excluding the hard drive I’m lending only for the migration.

I also want to state that I am not looking for a backup solution in this post. I simply wish to transfer my files from Windows to Linux and was hoping for a tool to automate the process of doing so.

The only backup solution Windows readily gives me is made in a manner that locks me in their ecosystem so I can’t really use it to migrate to Linux. Could you suggest a different solution perhaps?

My only viable backup strategy for Windows so far is to use the File History option in the Control Panel to create incremental backups of my system. There are two issues with this approach with regard to using it for migration:

1. Not all directories to be backed up are accounted for. I’ve set the backup so that only the most important files in the default directories are saved in case something happens to the system. I could consider manually including the missing entries if not for the second issue:
2. The backups can only be read within the File History menu. The backups themselves are stored in a semi-gibberish manner so it is impractical for me to have it read in Linux, unless there is already a solution for it. Otherwise these backups force me to continue using Windows.

I understand the importance of backups and regularly practice doing so, even if not to the fullest extent. However this scenario is different, where I am actively migrating all my data to a different platform. I need to make sure no data is left behind in the process, including data that I normally don’t back up separately, like user configuration for applications or game saves.

What I am looking for is a program that readily makes my Windows data ready for migration to Linux by fetching the files from directories where user data and application data is stored and stores it in a platform-agnostic manner in some external location.

‘Anthropomorphous’ is still like a tongue twsiter for me