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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, 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.