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: 5, Insightful) by bornagainpenguin on Sunday September 17 2017, @07:38PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @09:11PM
https://nextcloud.com/ [nextcloud.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Sunday September 17 2017, @07:51PM (4 children)
If you store your data on someone else's servers you should expect this.
Back up your mobile devices to your own storage. That way, as long as you don't change your retention policies (as Google has done), you won't lose your data.
Most phones/phablets/tablets have proprietary (and non-proprietary) syncing apps that will back up your user files to the storage of your choice (contacts, photos, music, etc.) that will work via USB or wirelessly.
It's also a very good idea to do Nandroid backups [trendblog.net] (more info on these can be found here [xda-developers.com]) on your device(s) as well.
NANDroid backups are extremely useful in the scenario presented in TFS. Once a replacement is received (assuming the replacement is the same make/model), a simple nandroid restore will get everything back just how it was at the time of the last backup.
What's more, the NANdroid backup format recreates the folder structure of the device, so even if you get a new/different device you can, after installing your preferred apps, generally copy the application data (which includes settings, customizations and data) from the backup to the new device, et voila! your app is configured as it was on your old device.
I'd put a tl;dr section, but if you're that ADHD or stupid to read the few sentences above, you deserve whatever you get.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday September 17 2017, @11:23PM (3 children)
You should WANT this.
Abandoned data is subpoena-able data.
Just because you lost the phone in the lake is no reason to have google retain backups for the police to scoop up after you've moved to a new phone.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Monday September 18 2017, @12:06AM (1 child)
Two Words: Very long passphrases [aescrypt.com].
After two whole weeks, no one will remember such things. ;)
Strong encryption and plausible deniability are a powerful combination.
Besides, using some automated spying tool from Google to back up your unencrypted data, rather than strongly encrypting the data yourself and (only if necessary) uploading to Someone Else's ServersTM is rather dumb, don't you think?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2017, @12:58PM
Hmmm … seems one of us has troubles counting. ;-)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday September 18 2017, @06:54PM
> Just because you lost her phone in the lake is no reason to have google retain backups for the police to scoop up after you've moved to a new target.
Fixed that for ... a friend who was asking.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by looorg on Sunday September 17 2017, @07:54PM
How come they'll keep my emails, 15 GB worth, forever (not quite sure if it's actually forever but sometimes I forget to check the gmail account for months at a time and it's still there) but they will only keep phone backups for two weeks? There should be just as much "interesting" data for them to snoop on and target advertisements to as in my emails or? Probably even more since people tend to use their phone for more things then just sending emails. Most of the data on a phone should just be text to (sms, calendar things, searches, all the apps you use ...), I guess size will mostly depend on if they backup all photos etc -- then the size of backup could increase massively.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Sunday September 17 2017, @08:08PM (2 children)
So according to Google, two weeks is a "long" period of time?
Granted, it's a good idea to back up your devices regularly, but in my universe two weeks is most definitely "short-term," with six months to two years being "medium-term" and anything more than that "long-term."
I suppose that if/when I'm diagnosed with a terminal disease that gives me a year or so to live, I might consider two weeks a "long" period of time. That said, under those circumstances, methinks I'd have more important things to worry about than the status of my mobile device backups. Just sayin'.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Sunday September 17 2017, @11:17PM
That reminds me of the "long" periods of time banks store electronic records for you. A few numbers and a few words, and they are racing to offline-archive them as quickly as possible.
One bank I use a lot restricts the account transaction list on the site to 90 days, but you can go back and view pdf copies of the statements for 2 years. Anything older than 2 years and I hope you already downloaded a copy.
They must be saving tens of dollars by still using the hard drives they bought in 1993 for the website launch!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday September 17 2017, @11:54PM
Well for a device that normally connects to google continuously (push notification sockets have a time out of somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes and need to be refreshed after that time), two weeks is an eternity.
Your phone is stolen, lost, confiscated, broken, or replaced. You will probably not be coming back on line with that phone after two weeks.
I bet they (google) have statistics to prove it.
Still two weeks seems way too short. I can go on vacation for two or three weeks and leave my work phone switched off at home. I suppose when it reconnects, it will again back up all settings to Google, but any settings lost from apps on the phone would be , well, lost.
I wonder if they do this to active duty deployable service men/women , like Navy sailors out on ships or submarines for three months at a time. There are specific laws about that sort of stuff.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @08:27PM
YOU just won't be able to get to it.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday September 17 2017, @08:52PM (1 child)
So this means when your device breaks and you have to have an extended battle to get it fixed or replaced, they will delete the backup if you aren't aware of this policy and go get a local copy first. And if somebody croaks, by the time the estate can get the paperwork in place to get access to an account there won't be anything left in cases where a phone goes with the owner to the afterlife. Not that it matters anyway, because unless you prepare and leave your security credentials with a lawyer, with the security measures they are building in, nobody else is getting access.
Yup, this certainly proves that Diversity is our Strength, and that replacing the older "Talosians" with big throbbing brains with Affirmative Action 'engineers' has no impact on quality. Can you wait to see how degraded the quality is going to be by the time we are all riding around in cars with "Powered by Google" emblazoned on the side? It is gonna be great!
(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.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 17 2017, @09:06PM
I read "google" and "delete" in the same sentence. Is it April 1st yet?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Monday September 18 2017, @12:33AM
if your only back-up was google cloud, then nothing of value could be lost.
If it is important, thenyou have a local back -up, a second local back-up, and an encrypted off-site, off-line back-up in a trusted friend's safe.
What people sometimes call paranoia is just the flip side of awareness of fragility of storage media.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex