From 979497cea31b5e7f00e937636ee6df9223d6c10a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Fedor Indutny <79877362+indutny-signal@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 17:12:27 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Improve backup export speed

---
 ts/services/backups/export.preload.ts | 33 ++++++++++++++-------------
 ts/services/backups/index.preload.ts  |  2 ++
 ts/sql/Interface.std.ts               | 18 +++++++++++++++
 ts/sql/Server.node.ts                 | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 ts/sql/main.main.ts                   |  6 +++++
 ts/util/unicodeSlice.std.ts           |  5 ++++
 6 files changed, 77 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ts/services/backups/export.preload.ts b/ts/services/backups/export.preload.ts
index bd79df0371..e93ad09678 100644
--- a/ts/services/backups/export.preload.ts
+++ b/ts/services/backups/export.preload.ts
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import {
   resumeWriteAccess,
 } from '../../sql/Client.preload.js';
 import type {
-  PageMessagesCursorType,
+  PageBackupMessagesCursorType,
   IdentityKeyType,
 } from '../../sql/Interface.std.js';
 import { createLogger } from '../../logging/log.std.js';
@@ -804,7 +804,7 @@ export class BackupExportStream extends Readable {
       this.#stats.chatFolders += 1;
     }
 
-    let cursor: PageMessagesCursorType | undefined;
+    let cursor: PageBackupMessagesCursorType | undefined;
 
     const callHistory = await DataReader.getAllCallHistory();
     const callHistoryByCallId = makeLookup(callHistory, 'callId');
@@ -821,13 +821,20 @@ export class BackupExportStream extends Readable {
       pni: me.get('pni'),
     };
 
-    try {
-      while (!cursor?.done) {
-        const { messages, cursor: newCursor } =
-          // eslint-disable-next-line no-await-in-loop
-          await DataReader.pageMessages(cursor);
+    let lastBatch: Promise<void> = Promise.resolve();
+    while (!cursor?.done) {
+      // Performance optimization: it takes roughly the same time to load and
+      // to process a batch of messages so begin loading the next batch while
+      // processing the current one.
 
-        // eslint-disable-next-line no-await-in-loop
+      // eslint-disable-next-line no-await-in-loop
+      const [{ messages, cursor: newCursor }] = await Promise.all([
+        DataReader.pageBackupMessages(cursor),
+        lastBatch,
+      ]);
+      cursor = newCursor;
+
+      lastBatch = (async () => {
         await pMap(
           messages,
           async message => {
@@ -862,17 +869,11 @@ export class BackupExportStream extends Readable {
           { concurrency: MAX_CONCURRENCY }
         );
 
-        cursor = newCursor;
-
-        // eslint-disable-next-line no-await-in-loop
         await this.#flush();
-      }
-    } finally {
-      if (cursor !== undefined) {
-        await DataReader.finishPageMessages(cursor);
-      }
+      })();
     }
 
+    await lastBatch;
     await this.#flush();
 
     log.warn('final stats', {
diff --git a/ts/services/backups/index.preload.ts b/ts/services/backups/index.preload.ts
index e28b505c53..7bd59c1c73 100644
--- a/ts/services/backups/index.preload.ts
+++ b/ts/services/backups/index.preload.ts
@@ -1174,6 +1174,7 @@ export class BackupsService {
     this.#isRunning = 'export';
 
     const start = Date.now();
+    window.IPC.startTrackingQueryStats();
     try {
       if (options.type === 'remote') {
         strictAssert(
@@ -1274,6 +1275,7 @@ export class BackupsService {
         duration,
       };
     } finally {
+      window.IPC.stopTrackingQueryStats({ epochName: 'Backup Export' });
       log.info('exportBackup: finished...');
       this.#isRunning = false;
     }
diff --git a/ts/sql/Interface.std.ts b/ts/sql/Interface.std.ts
index ceba84cb4f..e005ca8b99 100644
--- a/ts/sql/Interface.std.ts
+++ b/ts/sql/Interface.std.ts
@@ -559,6 +559,18 @@ export type PageMessagesResultType = Readonly<{
   messages: ReadonlyArray<MessageAttributesType>;
 }>;
 
+export type PageBackupMessagesCursorType = Readonly<{
+  __page_backup_messages_cursor: never;
+
+  nextRowid: number;
+  done: boolean;
+}>;
+
+export type PageBackupMessagesResultType = Readonly<{
+  cursor: PageBackupMessagesCursorType;
+  messages: ReadonlyArray<MessageAttributesType>;
+}>;
+
 export type GetAllStoriesResultType = ReadonlyArray<
   MessageType & {
     hasReplies: boolean;
@@ -876,6 +888,12 @@ type ReadableInterface = {
   pageMessages: (cursor?: PageMessagesCursorType) => PageMessagesResultType;
   finishPageMessages: (cursor: PageMessagesCursorType) => void;
 
+  // Must not be used when write access is not paused.
+  // See `pauseWriteAccess`
+  pageBackupMessages: (
+    cursor?: PageBackupMessagesCursorType
+  ) => PageBackupMessagesResultType;
+
   getTotalUnreadForConversation: (
     conversationId: string,
     options: {
diff --git a/ts/sql/Server.node.ts b/ts/sql/Server.node.ts
index 9e025bf0db..111e107535 100644
--- a/ts/sql/Server.node.ts
+++ b/ts/sql/Server.node.ts
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@ import type {
   MessageType,
   PageMessagesCursorType,
   PageMessagesResultType,
+  PageBackupMessagesCursorType,
+  PageBackupMessagesResultType,
   PreKeyIdType,
   PollVoteReadResultType,
   ReactionResultType,
@@ -573,6 +575,7 @@ export const DataReader: ServerReadableInterface = {
   finishGetKnownMessageAttachments,
   pageMessages,
   finishPageMessages,
+  pageBackupMessages,
   getKnownDownloads,
   getKnownConversationAttachments,
 
@@ -8958,6 +8961,32 @@ function finishPageMessages(
   `);
 }
 
+function pageBackupMessages(
+  db: ReadableDB,
+  cursor?: PageBackupMessagesCursorType
+): PageBackupMessagesResultType {
+  const LIMIT = 10000;
+  const [query, params] = sql`
+    SELECT
+      rowid,
+      ${MESSAGE_COLUMNS_FRAGMENT}
+    FROM messages
+    WHERE
+      rowid >= ${cursor?.nextRowid ?? 0}
+    LIMIT ${LIMIT}
+  `;
+  const rows: Array<MessageTypeUnhydrated & { rowid: number }> = db
+    .prepare(query)
+    .all(params);
+  return {
+    cursor: {
+      nextRowid: rows.at(-1)?.rowid ?? 0,
+      done: rows.length < LIMIT,
+    } as PageBackupMessagesCursorType,
+    messages: hydrateMessages(db, rows),
+  };
+}
+
 function getKnownDownloads(db: ReadableDB): Array<string> {
   const result = [];
 
diff --git a/ts/sql/main.main.ts b/ts/sql/main.main.ts
index 25f4cc735e..d22ff99070 100644
--- a/ts/sql/main.main.ts
+++ b/ts/sql/main.main.ts
@@ -276,6 +276,12 @@ export class MainSQL {
       duration: number;
     }>;
 
+    if (method === 'pageBackupMessages' && this.#pauseWaiters == null) {
+      throw new Error(
+        'pageBackupMessages can only run after pauseWriteAccess()'
+      );
+    }
+
     // pageMessages runs over several queries and needs to have access to
     // the same temporary table, it also creates temporary insert/update
     // triggers so it has to run on the same connection that updates the tables
diff --git a/ts/util/unicodeSlice.std.ts b/ts/util/unicodeSlice.std.ts
index 74c8d89b9e..1295ce7648 100644
--- a/ts/util/unicodeSlice.std.ts
+++ b/ts/util/unicodeSlice.std.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ export function unicodeSlice(
   begin: number,
   end: number
 ): string {
+  // Optimization: whole string fits into the range, return as is
+  if (begin === 0 && end >= input.length) {
+    return input;
+  }
+
   // Until https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/v8/v8/+/4190519 is merged,
   // we should limit the input size to avoid allocating tons of memory.
   // This should be longer than any max length we'd expect to slice.