You Can Finally Back Up Your Android’s Local Files
Although Android has automated, built-in backups for many data, including photos, apps, and settings, local files have been excluded. To ensure you don’t lose PDFs, documents, and other files stored on your device, you need to manually download or copy them to the cloud or another location. But that’s changing, at least in part: Google Play Services’ February update includes a new feature that will copy and upload your Downloads folder to Google Drive.
This is a significant update to Android’s backup system, but it has some limitations. Here’s what you need to know before activating it.
How Android will backup your files after updating
As Android Authority describes, the local file backup feature only applies to items in your Downloads folder. It will not cover the entire internal storage of your device. The backup will be transferred to Google Drive as a static copy, which means the files will not be permanently synced and if you make changes in one location they will not be reflected in the other. Backups will likely occur occasionally, such as when your phone is idle, charging, and connected to Wi-Fi.
Android handles videos and photos the same way with backups to Google Photos. Other device data, such as your call and text history and system settings, is backed up to Google Drive.
What do you think of it so far?
How to Check Your Android Backup Settings
While automatic local file backups are useful for anyone who doesn’t already have a comprehensive backup plan in place (and if you don’t, you should), they could potentially take up a significant amount of space in your Google Drive storage. If you keep a lot of invoices, tickets, documents, or installers in your Downloads folder, you may want to be more selective about what you save and where, especially if you’re already paying for additional Drive capacity and need it for other purposes.
Fortunately, file backups are disabled by default. To activate them, go to Settings > Google Backup and select Downloads. You can also change your backup preferences for photos and videos and “other device data” from this menu. Note that this feature is expected to roll out gradually and may not be available immediately on your device.
