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PSA: Google Will Delete Your Android Backups If Your Device Is Inactive For Two Months (vernonchan.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the for-your-info dept.

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.

19 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. The joy of a cloud service by Teun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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."
    1. Re:The joy of a cloud service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This seems about right. Phone user is not the customer, he's the product. Since the product isn't in use, Google purged the data. Since they give away the storage space, they need a short retention time or it gets too big and unwieldy. This is why I don't make myself the product. I pay for things like email and backup storage. With this model, my ISP has a financial incentive to keep my data online and not remove it. Which is why I still have files from 1995 in my ISP account, and why that ISP has cloned and moved that data from system to system for the last 20+ years. It's not foolproof, but it definitely prevents dumb ass policies that nuke data after only a few months.

    2. Re:The joy of a cloud service by crunchygranola · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wish I could mod you up to "6"!

      Seriously - anything in the cloud is volatile storage and unless you are paying for it you can expect one day the service "provider" will decide to stop providing. Even if you do pay for the service, you are entirely at the mercy of their competence and the durability of their business model.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    3. Re: The joy of a cloud service by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      Not the person who is paying for storage?

      --
      bickerdyke
  2. So much for 'don't be evil' by sgage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?

    1. Re:So much for 'don't be evil' by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 2

      Let's hope Google doesn't notice what you just posted about Gmail.

      Never mind, actually. The value of your Gmail archive as a data mine is far greater. They probably have ethical issues regarding our Android backups. We clicked right through a specific agreement when we signed up for Gmail.

    2. Re:So much for 'don't be evil' by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      On the flip side it makes it a lot harder for governments or hackers to get old data on a person. I'd personally be much happier if the amount of time companies kept information was something that I could have a say in.

    3. Re: So much for 'don't be evil' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ohhhh you think they delete everything? How silly of you. They still retain everything they mined, it's just the useful bits you needed that were deleted. Silly user.

    4. Re:So much for 'don't be evil' by Kaenneth · · Score: 2

      What crime were you in prison for?

  3. Just two months? by gurps_npc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Just two months? by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      Meh. Keep in mind that the data we're talking about is "device configuration, such as wallpaper, WiFi passwords, and default apps." We're not talking about your contacts, which are synced with Google Contacts, or your emails, which are synced with GMail, or your docs, spreadsheets, presentations or Drive files, which are synced with Drive, or your photos, which are synced with Google Photos, or... I could go on, but you get the idea.

      Each of the Google apps backs its own data up independently, using your Drive storage, and all of that is separate from this "phone backup". The only thing the phone backup really does is streamline the process of setting up a new device, so all of your apps are auto-downloaded, WiFi passwords are auto-configured, etc.

      OTOH, we're talking about such small amounts of data that I don't know why it's only kept for two months.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  4. Whatever happened to "Do no evil"? by Jerrry · · Score: 2

    When did that policy go away? When financial pressures overrode ethics?

  5. Re:Slashdot: It's like reading Reddit on delay! by mean+pun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why is it that every story that's posted here has already been on Reddit for at least a couple days?

    Slashdot is only making backups of stories from other sites.

  6. Re:Android backup is worthless anyway by ctilsie242 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  7. Not to worry by ma1wrbu5tr · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!
  8. Re:Android backup is worthless anyway by brantondaveperson · · Score: 2

    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.

  9. Re:Slashdot: It's like reading Reddit on delay! by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those of us who don't use Reddit?

  10. vs. by supernova87a · · Score: 2

    Say what you will about Apple and iPhone -- they don't pull this kind of shit with customers.

  11. Re:PSA? by cmdr_klarg · · Score: 2

    Public Service Announcement

    --
    THE SOFTWARE, IT NO WORKY!!!