Submitted via IRC for SoyCow5743
Google will automatically [begin a delayed - Ed] delete all of a user's Android backup files — stored in his Google Drive account — if the user does not use his phone for two weeks. After Google detects this period of inactivity, it will start a 60-day counter for old Android backup files. After that counter reaches zero, Google will delete the backup files from the user's Drive account.
The auto-delete function was discovered this week by a Reddit user who used it to create backups for a defective Nexus 6P. The user sent back the phone, and while he waited for a replacement, he saw that his Nexus 6P backup files stored were marked for deletion.
[...] People who rely on Android's built-in Drive-based backup system should keep an eye out on the Backups folder. Storing backups offline or using specialized backup & restore Android apps is an alternative.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday September 18 2017, @09:11AM
Precisely. Google's backup will be there unless you actually need it!
It took me about three months after my tablet broke, trying to have it fixed in various repair shops, figuring out with what to replace it, from where to buy the replacement and, finally, going through the appropriate channels at work, so that they would buy the device for me, instead of having to pay for it myself. It certainly was longer than two weeks plus sixty days, so Google's backup, had I had one, would have been useless.