Google is changing how Android backups affect Google Drive account storage, with all backed-up phone data now counting toward a user’s Google Account storage allowance.
The new policy takes effect on July 7 for people setting up Android backups for the first time. Google will gradually apply the change to existing users over the coming months.
Under Google’s previous policy, most Android backup data did not count toward the account’s storage limit.
Only media uploaded separately to Google Photos and photos or videos included in MMS backups used the available storage allowance.
Under the updated policy, all Android backup data will count toward the storage shared across services such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.
Android backups allow users to save phone data to their Google Accounts so they can restore it after switching devices, resetting a phone, or losing access to the original hardware.
A Google spokesperson told Engadget that the policy change should only add around 40MB to the average user’s storage usage.
The company said the increase should remain relatively small because Android backups generally contain settings, messages, and app information rather than large collections of photos or videos.
Google is also introducing additional controls that allow users to choose which information they want to include in their Android backups. The options will appear in the device’s backup settings.
Users will be able to exclude device settings, call history, SMS messages, and MMS messages. They can also continue choosing whether data from individual applications should be backed up.
These controls will allow users to reduce the amount of storage consumed by backups or prevent certain categories of information from being saved.
The Android backup policy follows another change Google began testing in May.
Under that regional experiment, some newly created Google Accounts receive 5GB of free storage instead of the usual 15GB. Users can unlock the full 15GB allowance by linking and verifying a phone number.
Google described the reduced allowance as a test for new accounts in selected regions rather than a permanent worldwide policy. Existing accounts were not affected by the trial.
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