Direct transfer android-android broken

[mziehm]

Guidelines

• I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

Bug description

I trying to tranfer my signal account from my old android to a new android phone, but without success.
Old Phone: Samsung A41 Android 12
New Phone: Sony Xperia 10VII Android 16

I've tried:
On the new phone select "Restore or transfer" then it get two options "I have my old phone (Scan a QR code from your current Signal account to get started quickly)" or "I don't have my old phone (Or you're reinstalling Signal o the same device)". This differs from https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007059752-Backup-and-Restore-Messages#android_transfer_steps which says select "Continue" and also from and https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/10066808631066-Android-to-Android-Device-Transfer.

Using the "I have my old phone" option I tried on the old phone
A) selecting "Transfer account" and "Continue" und Account which resulted in "Searching for new Android device" and nothing more.
B) As instructed by the new phone scanning the QR code with the signal camera, which showed a "Transfer account" screen with a button "Transfer account", after selecting that button it says "Unlock to transfer account" and "Enter your current PIN". I had set a alpha-numeric (not just numbers PIN) but only get a keypad with numbers, so could not enter it. Thus I aborted the transfer on both devices. Changed the PIN on the old device to a numeric PIN. Verifying the new PIN via switching of the PIN reminders worked, but in the transfer entering the PIN resulted in "try again".

All permissions for Signal on both are given.
Both phone are connected to the same private stable WiFi.
No VPN is running either both phone.

I had used transferred a signal account with friend successfully between android devices last winter, without such problems.

So the online documentation does not seem to be in line with the current software and more importantly the direct transfer between Android devices is not working for me, which I can only assume to be a bug.

Screenshots

No response

Device

Samsung A41 (old phone); Sony Xperia 10VII (new phone)

Android version

12 (old phone); 16 (new phone)

Signal version

7.68.5 (both phones)

Link to debug log

No response

[xxx00w0]

I had the same problem recently transferring from a Pixel 7 to a Pixel 10 Pro. I had to restore from backup to be able to get signal working on the new device.