It does indeed ask for recovery, but fails. It calculates the backup to presumably be the right size (1.1 gb), but then sends an error. If I use airplane mode, the process starts at 0 %, 0/100, but soon sends an error.
On top of this /android_storage/android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp folder (this one had msgstore.db.crypt14 file, dated back in 2021, that I’ve used as a backup, but now I realized it really has no media beyond 2021, as if there had been no activity beyond then), I also had another WhatsApp folder directly at /android_storage/, that only has msgstore-increment-4-2025.db.crypt14 and msgstore-increment-3-2025.db.crypt14 in the folder /databases/, and /backup/ with similar files as the other WhatsApp folder at /com.whatsapp/. It also has all the new media.
Shouldn’t WhatsApp only be located at /android_storage/android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp? How come all the newer files are directly at /android_storage/WhatsApp, but have no msgstore.db.crypt14 file?
I only used USB and normal Windows file system to transfer files from and to Sailfish file system. What I attempted now was to merge both of these WhatsApp folders.
It’s been like 3 years since I really messed around with SFOS and Terminal and developer mode and all that, so I’m very much out of the loop. All because of doing the mistake of updating the OS after 3 years… It’s incredibly frustrating, because I had so many chats with people whose numbers I haven’t saved, and it’s impossible to get back in contact with them. I should be leasing a student sauna tomorrow, but I have no idea about the person’s number anymore 
Although a good side is that this unfortunate turn of events really reinforced my desire to get rid of a smartphone altogether. If this technology would not exist and I would not take it for granted, I would’ve had all the important information in a notebook or letters or whatever. It’s just an uphill battle for humanity to “keep up” with this ever accelerating digital transformation, that will only introduce more hoops and loops to manage the same things that we were able to manage just fine 80 years ago with a lot simpler technology.