This is how you make a manual backup with Google Drive
It is possible to manually backup your Android device via Google Drive. Android Planet explains how that works.
Manual backup with Google Drive
Backups are important, also for your Android device. This prevents you from losing important data if your smartphone breaks down, you lose the device or if you switch smartphones.
There are several ways to make a backup, but as a Google user, uploading your backup to Google Drive is the most logical (and easiest) option. That has been possible for years, but for a long time Google did not let you manually create a backup. Fortunately, that changed a while ago.
To manually back up via Google Drive, complete the following steps on your Android smartphone:
- Go to the settings of your Android smartphone;
- Choose ‘System’;
- Choose ‘Backup’;
- Under the text ‘Back up to Google Drive’, press the button ‘Back up now’.
It is possible that the option on your Android device is in a different place in the settings menu. Once you press the button, a backup of your data will be uploaded to Google Drive. You don’t have to do anything else. With such a backup, your device settings, conversation history, contacts and apps are stored in the cloud.
More backups
Note: This backup will not save your photos and videos (if you don’t have a Google Pixel smartphone). That’s why we recommend using Google Photos to keep your photos and videos in the cloud.
You should also separately back up messages from WhatsApp. Creating a WhatsApp backup is also done via Google Drive. These backups no longer take up space on Google Drive.
To find your backups again, use the Google Drive app and go to ‘Backups’ in the menu. There you will find both the backup of your Android device and the backup of WhatsApp. By tapping on the three dots next to the backup, the backups can be deleted.
