Drive update makes managing backups a little easier

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Published 8 Dec 2016

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It wasn’t a feature advertised all that well, but your Drive has been dutifully keeping backups of the data on your devices since Marshmallow introduced Auto Backup for Apps. Now it is making it easier to find them.

A new update to the Drive app adds a hy Backups section to the sidebar. Open it you can see which of your devices have backups which apps are being stored within them. From there you’ll be able to delete any unwanted or outdated backups, keep an eye on how much data is being kept. The update also delivers easier previews of Excel other spreadsheet files.

If you’re not seeing anything in the folder, you’ll need to turn on backups. Head over to your phone’s Settings, tap Backup reset, then Backup, toggle the Back up to Drive switch (your interface might be a bit different depending on your phone model). The update is currently rolling out to devices, so go check the ay Store for the latest version. And as usual, if you’re not seeing the update on your device, you can sideload the -signed A using AMirror.

The impact on you on home: Backups on Android are a perennial work in progress, while this is a subtle change for sure, it keeps hope alive that is committed to developing a clear, simple backup system for Android. And maybe one day we’ll be able to restore our entire Android system when we switch to a new device.