Android Will Get Option to Manually Back Up User Data Via 'Future' Update

While Android has the option to back up your data onto Google Drive for a long time, Google is now set to enable an option to let users manually save their backups. The new option, which is likely to ease the backup process especially if you instantly need to preserve your personal data, will be a part of a future Android update. Unlike Android, Apple's iOS is already offering the way to manually back up the on-device content with a tap of a button in addition to allowing the automatic iCloud Backup feature.

As shared on Reddit, Google through its public issue tracker confirmed the development of the manual backup option that is likely to sit alongside the automatic backup function that we spotted even on devices running Android 4.4 KitKat. One of the early testers of Android 9.0 Pie highlighted the absence of the option to manually start a backup on Android devices. The beta tester said that while the official support document for Android Oreo confirms the availability of the manual backup setting, it doesn't exist in reality. This causes the inconvenience as users need to plug in their devices to trigger the automatic backup functionality.

"We've deferred this issue for consideration in a future release. Thank you for your time to make Android better," Google said in response to the issue raised by the Android Pie beta tester on the public issue tracker.

It is unclear whether Google will be able to push the manual backup option to Android 9.1 that will be an upgraded version of Android Pie or bring it to Android Q. Nevertheless, there is a way to start manually backing up your data by rooting your Android device. But for the unofficial method, you need to set up ADB (Android Debug Bridge) and then pass the command "adb shell bmgr backupnow --all" each time when you want to manually back up your data onto Google Drive.

Notably, we don't recommend you to root your device to manually back up your data. It is, therefore, better to wait until the official debut of the manual backup option.

As we mentioned, Apple is already offering a way to manually back up user data on iOS devices alongside offering the option to automatically back up the data onto iCloud. You just need to go to your Apple ID profile from the Settings menu and then navigate to iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now.

The manual backup option requires your device to be connected to the Internet, either using a data connection or a Wi-Fi network. Also, your handset must have enough battery charge to perform the backup process flawlessly.