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PSA: Google Will Delete Your Android Backups If Your Device Is Inactive For Two Months (vernonchan.com)
New submitter Vernon Chan writes: It was discovered that Google will automatically schedule to delete your Android device backups if it is inactive for more than two months. The issue was discovered by a Reddit user after his Nexus 6P was sent for a refund claim. He was using an old iPhone while he waited for an Android replacement device. When he glanced at his Google Drive Backup folder, he freaked out when he noticed his Nexus 6P backup was missing. He then stumbled upon this Google Drive help document regarding backup expirations: "Your backup will remain as long as you use your device. If you don't use your device for 2 weeks, you may see an expiration date below your backup. For instance: 'Expires in 54 days.'" Once a backup is deleted, there is zero chance for recovery.
That's why I do my own back ups, both local and remote.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
This is the first time in history that, "It's a feature, not bug" is actually true.
This is really unbelievably crap behavior by Google. You can have a trillion emails on your gmail account forever, but you phone backup goes away in 2 months? WTF?
Which do you think the cloud offers?
By this point, Google has already mined your backup data. Time to make room for more!
Seems radically low. Some people go on foreign vacation for that long and don't use their phone.
One year would be reasonable.
If you don't use your phone for one year, you should have no expectation that the data is still there.
But two months = idiots that only looked at most common usage patterns.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I don't know about anyone else, but the Android backup has been less than useless.
All it does is install hundreds of apps I uninstalled ages ago, and restore wifi, which I already did during sign-in anyway.
This is on a Oneplus 3T, but I've used HTC One M7 before that, and Samsung Galaxy S2 before that. App data is never restored.
Titanium Backup is all I need.
All it says is exactly whats in the summary. If you don't use your device for 2 weeks, you may see an expiration date below your backup. For instance: 'Expires in 54 days.'. I'm curious how much space the reddit users was using on his Google Drive (and what % it was of the limit).
Google deleting information about a marketing target without a court order? Yeah, go on and pull my other leg.
That's what you get when you store your backups on someone else's computer.
Why is it that every story that's posted here has already been on Reddit for at least a couple days?
You don't have a backup unless you have physical control of that backup. Sometimes you get lucky, but that's not the way to bet.
When did that policy go away? When financial pressures overrode ethics?
Backups are supposed to be good *forever*, i.e., be reliable.
They should rename it Google Cache instead.
And this is one of those times. If you are so dumb as to believe that we should all hop on the same bandwagon be it government or corporations you deserve what you get when it bites you in the ass. Relying on the "cloud" of all things is asking for trouble regardless of who you use.
What blows my mind is even people who think more like me do stupid shit like this even though many are more aware of the risks they are taking. I'm in New Hampshire as a participant in the Free State Project- a migration of people who prefer liberty and freedom over "safety". Many people here tend to lean toward making more logical decisions. Like sometimes too much "safety" is dangerous. Too much government is dangerous.
But.. when you depend on entities like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, HP, government, etc whom have positions of influence, finances, and power you do yourself a disinterest by eliminating choice and options in the market place. Like the dangers of government so to are there dangers of always picking the seemingly "best" product in the market place (ie like those who choose an iPhone, though I'd disagree Apple's producing the best product in the market anyway, but assuming they were it's a threat to us all should they become dominate and out compete everybody else). That then comes round to bite everyone in the ass later. I avoid these entities like the plague. I use a few sparingly. Mainly Google search when Start Page and Duck Duck Go fail me and HP for printers because every other printer manufacturer sucks even more (not that all HP printers are created equal, some suck equally as much, but at least with HP and sufficient knowledge you can pick out the ones that suck less).
With the amount of devices that just get trashed and people switching to the other side, lots of backups are wasting away and taking space.
I have an old Android tablet that I haven't used in about a year. I fired it up the other day and it told me to log into my gmail/google account again. Ok, done.
Next I get an email from Google: You just activated a new device on your account.
Really? It's a device that I had activated on my account before.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
Backups will still be available via FOIA from the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
Free Dead-Man's Switch for Everybody!
Ditto with Google off-line maps. 2 months is all you get, then your maps disappear from your phone. Really sucks when you're in the boonies for a couple of months and your map disappears.
I am sure it isn't "completely gone".
All my dick pics!
CAPTCHA: impress
PSA: Google Will Delete Your Android Backups If Your Device Is Inactive For Two Months
Qhat does "PSA" stands for in this context?
Google actually deletes stuff? permanently deletes them? with an expiration date?
This is GREAT! For once data are deleted as expected instead of being 'hidden' in the cloud for future ads tracking! (unlike FB)
This is a moment for celebration!
Coming from a data hog like Google who saves everything, why can't they at least notify you better of the impending doom of your backups?
Yet another reason to stop using Google in any form. I know it is difficult at first, but it gets easier with time. Google has demonstrated they are evil to a sociopathic degree over the last few years, and now that we all know, it is time to clone the good parts and cut the head off of the snake as it were. Let Google wither and die after treating their customers like shit and other businesses can feed off whatever is left. Without customers, Google just like any other business goes belly up.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
Say what you will about Apple and iPhone -- they don't pull this kind of shit with customers.
Google is running a Disaster Recovery Backup, not an archive backup.
They should explicitly say what the duration is however. I was managing the day to day operation of a disaster recovery system for a global company, and we pounded the data retention (90 days) limits into the users heads. However, we had many, many people think we were a archive backup service, not a disaster recovery service.
on a Nexus 5X, on the "select the backup to restore from" screen, the only control that reacted to tapping was the "skip restore" button. Observed on two different handsets, with different OS patchlevels. After that, the device created a new backup, letting the old one expire. So the guy possibly just avoided getting Google-trolled :)
When Apple introduced app "thinning" a couple of years ago the iTunes backup process stopped copying app code from your device for the simple reason that devices no longer had a copy of app code that could run on anything but that specific model of device. Too likely to induce WTF moments if someone wanted to restore the backup to a newer model device etc.
But until this week's iTunes update you could still download the equivalent of a fat binary using iTunes that could be used to restore that app version to any device even if that app version was no longer available from the App Store.
Carbonite bills itself as a way to backup your data. But if you actually trust them and your hard drive fails it will delete all your data after a time period as well.
How do they delete backups? Send a guy to break in?
You said backups, right? The things you use to restore your data the day you cloud provider somehow loses your data...
I have a legitimate question: How does one back up Android, actually? (yes, I googled it, repeatedly, over a period of time)
My experience so far barely backed up anything besides the list of apps I had installed. On iOS all my banking apps and Google Authenticator are ready to use after a restore. On Android I get that only if I root my device and actively copy the app's data myself. And it's not just banking apps. With few exceptions It's pretty much every app that I have to set up all over again.
I had to reset my Nexus a while back because it had a database corruption that prevented Photos from displaying and backing up pictures, and the experience was as described above. Even with a Helium desktop backup.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
Here's another gotcha: If you use google takeout to back up your google drive, your android backups are not included.
I finally took the nuclear option and deleted the entire Google account that had published the app. Google left the app in place and is continuing to offer it for sale. I think I have a case for a lawsuit, but who bothers suing a behemoth like Google?
surely there's a backup SOMEWHERE ;)
At least with Google, using their app store is not mandatory for releasing and distributing an app.
Nobody will ever treat your own data as responsibly as you.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
I have friends in the armed forces and sometimes their devices go kaput after an IED.
They're assuming their backups will still be there when they finish their tour.
Lol, joke's on them.