Google Deletes Your Android Backup After Two Months Of Inactivity?

[DroidModderX]

A reddit user who had been using an iPhone for a few months while waiting on a replacement for his Nexus 6P pointed out that when he went to his Google Drive account to check on his backup of the device it was nowhere to be found. Apparently when you back up your Android device the backup file has an expiration date. Even if you pay for Google Drive and choose to back it up there the only way to avoid the backup disappearing is to use your older device once every few months. It seems rather unintuitive to arbitrarily delete backups especially when stored on a paid service. Maybe they assume that a file older than 2 months could corrupt a device when installed on newer firmware? It doesn't really make sense to me. You can find this users full account of the situation at the link below. Has anyone else had a backup disappear?

via Reddit

 

[johnomaz]

Though an inconvenience for users, think of it from Google's stance. Do they really want to hold backups of data from phone after phone as you replace them? 2 months is an awfully short time but I'm willing to be that its rare for an Android user to use an iPhone for a few months while waiting for an Android replacement phone. I would wager a guess that this only affects a small percent of users.

At the same time, IMO, if you pay for Google Drive, it shouldn't expire. Thats your storage you're paying for.

 

[me just sayin]

thats not good...google running out of space?

 

[liftedplane]

Though an inconvenience for users, think of it from Google's stance. Do they really want to hold backups of data from phone after phone as you replace them? 2 months is an awfully short time but I'm willing to be that its rare for an Android user to use an iPhone for a few months while waiting for an Android replacement phone. I would wager a guess that this only affects a small percent of users.

At the same time, IMO, if you pay for Google Drive, it shouldn't expire. Thats your storage you're paying for.

pay for it or not, the most recent android backup you've made should be counted against your storage space and held indefinitely until a time that YOU choose to either DELETE it or create a new backup.

maybe previous backups are only good for two months but the most recent should be set in stone as long as you want it there.

 

[Vepaot]

And once again it's made very clear. Keep two backups of everything. Cloud/HDD/flash drive/phone storage or whatever else. Always have your digital stuff in two places at once.

Think about it. If God can be in two places at once and us humans can't, there's definitely some benefit to it.

 

[liftedplane]

And once again it's made very clear. Keep two backups of everything. Cloud/HDD/flash drive/phone storage or whatever else. Always have your digital stuff in two places at once.

Think about it. If God can be in two places at once and us humans can't, there's definitely some benefit to it.

I definitely agree, everything in my dropbox is also on my desktop and laptop, and all backups I make are held in all 3 places as well... some things I even throw in my box account just for a fourth level of protection.