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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 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?
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
Why is it that every story that's posted here has already been on Reddit for at least a couple days?
Android backup data is just 'overburden' as far as Google is concerned.
When did that policy go away? When financial pressures overrode ethics?
Titanium Backup with the sync feature is as close to ideal as one can get on Android. Its encryption mechanism is remarkably sane, where it stores an encrypted copy of the private key with each backup file and used the public key on schedule. Plus, you can archive those huge games and get them off your phone, while keeping the saved data.
I have yet to have a usable Android backup restore correctly. I might get some stuff, but I wind up reloading and rebuilding anyway. iOS is a little bit better, but a lot of stuff doesn't get backed up either... and there is no way (outside of a jailbreak) to archive apps off with their data, or just the app data, as the backups are all or nothing.
I know it's hard because they're different units, but what do you get if you add 54 days to 2 weeks, then divide by 30 and round to the nearest integer?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Agreed. Titanium Backup is the only way I've found to actually, you know, back the entire system up.
I use that, plus a short Tasker script, to automatically generate a backup every day and copy that backup to a server. That server then gets backed up using a real backup system that does versioning -- so, in the end, I can restore my phone to what it was at any point in the past.
It's a bit convoluted, and I wish there were an easier way, but has the advantage of actually working.
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!
Downvoted by establishment shills.
Why can't we go back to using jumpers to configure slot adapter cards? Why? I say!
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.
iOS is a little bit better
Jumping in here, because I don't understand what there isn't to like about the iOS backups. They back up everything other than your passwords, and the apps themselves. All app data is backed up, all your photos and documents etc. I've restored from them multiple times, and it's always worked perfectly.
it does not back up the app itself as when it restores, it simply downloads the latest version from the app store.
What if you are intentionally using an older version of something?
Not one of their use cases so you are screwed.
But you can't use old apps forever anyway. Apple will push OS updates that will eventually break them and you will have to get new versions. So they are doing you a favor by getting you a head of the curve /s.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
It just means that you can't ever get to your own data again.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Google Pre-Delete?
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
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!
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
This is probably woefully out of date... back in the 3GS days if you did a backup via itunes, and selected encrypted, as far as I know it created a full image of the phone, apps, random settings, cache files, everything. If that is still around - read somewhere that itunes is going music only - it might work.
Say what you will about Apple and iPhone -- they don't pull this kind of shit with customers.
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 :)
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?
This is probably woefully out of date... back in the 3GS days if you did a backup via itunes, and selected encrypted, as far as I know it created a full image of the phone, apps, random settings, cache files, everything. If that is still around - read somewhere that itunes is going music only - it might work.
That was for local storage, not cloud.
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.