OI Shopping List for Android: how to save data and transfer it to a new phone

For years I relied on OI Shopping List, little open‑source app that also let me track the prices for groceries that I buy. The app is nothing fancy, nothing bloated, just the essentials: item, unit, price, store. Then, I have decided (actually, I was forced) to replace my phone with a new one. It turned out that OI Shopping List data export is broken, and there are no other sync options. The app was not updated since 2020. My entire carefully curated shopping list with prices was trapped on my old device like a hostage. 

After being desperate for a while,  I tried something I didn’t expect to work: an old‑school ADB backup and restore. Against all odds, it actually transferred my OI Shopping List data from the old phone to the new one. Though with warnings that the method is deprecated and that it might stop working any time.

So run this command while the old phone is connected:
adb backup -f oi_shopping.ab -apk org.openintents.shopping

And this one while the new phone is connected and OI Shopping List installed:
adb restore oi_shopping.ab

Now I’m left with a bittersweet victory. I saved my data, but the app that has it is effectively dead. I also went down the rabbit hole of "modern replacements". Every open‑source shopping list app today is either too simple (no price tracking), too complex (full household inventory systems), or just missing the one feature I actually need. Even if I fork the OI Shopping List or write a new app to suit my preferences, I won't be able to transfer the data that easily. I genuinely reached the point where paper and pen feel like a more reliable technology than Android apps in 2026.

What to do with an old laptop

Posted on LinkedIn (in Croatian language), Twitter, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Your old laptop doesn't belong in the trash or needs to be "recycled". All it needs is a little attention, a screwdriver and €15 for an adapter+SSD from a popular Chinese shopping site. 🛠️

Proof? My first laptop from 2004. Today, it runs the latest Linux Debian and:

• powers the most popular Croatian Reddit bot
• generates daily sequences for my word game (which nobody plays, but I'm not giving up) 
• hosts a proxy server I use to scrape sites that think they can block me
• hosts an RSS aggregator that filters information chaos into something resembling order 
• ... what else could I add? 🤔

The original HDD gave out - it was the only part replaced. The rest of the hardware still works and serves its purpose flawlessly. We write off equipment as useless far too quickly! So this weekend, dust off your "old clunker" and spin up that home server. 😉 Bonus: fewer heavy metals and forever chemicals in the environment.

The most popular Croatian Reddit bot in action

fastfetch

Dead HDD (left) and modern replacement (right)

2026.10.23

For about a week, I have been running a daily mailer script on the machine. I wanted my own solution rather than relying on a mailing list provider.