Google’s storage service now backs up the content of your smartphone for free. Here’s how to do it.
Google announced a few days ago that its Google One storage service, which brings together storage for all Google services, would allow users to back up their smartphone content for free, even for users who do not have a paid account.
If the application is not yet available on iOS, the latest update of Google One has just landed on Android. In addition to backing up the content of your device, it will allow you to review items occupying unnecessary storage in your Google Drive or Gmail to help you free up space.
1. Download Google One
If you haven’t already, start by downloading the Google One app on your smartphone. Already available on Android, it should land very soon on iOS. This application serves as a control tower to manage all the storage of Google services: Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos.
- Download Google One for Android (Free)
If the app is already installed on your smartphone, make sure it’s up to date. The following manipulation is performed with Google One in version 1.73.324410959. This update is still being deployed and may not be available to all users.
2. Clean up the storage
If you find yourself running out of storage, especially if you’re only using the 15GB that a free account offers, you might want to do some cleaning before backing up your smartphone content.
The application incorporates a tool to efficiently manage your storage space and free up content by removing items that unnecessarily occupy the allocated space.
To do this, open the application and go to the Storage space tab. Then press the Free up account storage button. The module will then offer to delete spam and items in the Gmail recycle bin, or to empty the Google Drive recycle bin.
You can also review large items received as email attachments or stored on your Drive. Once these items have been cleaned, you will probably have recovered several GB of storage on your Google One account.
3. Back up the contents of your device
Natively, your Android smartphone already knows how to save its online content on Google Drive. The option can be found in Android Settings, under the System menu where there is a Backup option.
Then just activate the Save to Google Drive option. If it is automated, you can also choose to manually trigger the backup by pressing the appropriate button. It will include Data and applications, SMS, device settings, call history as well as Contacts.
For photos and videos, however, you will have to turn to Google Photos. If the service backs up your content for free, it limits the resolution of your files. Photos greater than 16 megapixels and videos with a resolution greater than 1080p will be automatically compressed to meet these limitations.
However, you can choose to save them in full resolution on Google One. The space occupied by these elements will then be deducted from your storage envelope.
To back up your content through Google One, open the app and scroll through the options displayed on the home page until you reach the Back up device data section. Then press Configure data backup.
The backup of Device data is in principle already activated. You can choose to include MMS, but also, and above all, to save your Photos and videos in full resolution in Google One.
You can then monitor the remaining available storage from the Storage Space tab. It is also from this section that you can manually modify and activate the backup of the content of your device.