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Google has a nifty backup feature backed into the Android operating system that maintains a secure backup of your device settings, app data, call history, and much more on Google Drive and helps quickly restore it when setting up a new device. But it comes with a major flaw – the backups are created automatically mostly when the device is being charged and there is no option for the users to manually trigger the process. While many users have been reporting about the missing feature on various online forums, Google has finally confirmed to bring the said manual backup option with a future Android release. The confirmation was provided in response to a user who had reported the issue on Google’s Issue Tracker platform earlier this month. Last Thursday, Google’s representative gave a final response confirming the feature’s availability with the next Android version after it was forwarded to the company’s development team for being considered.
The backup feature comes handy while switching devices where the device data remains secure in Google Drive and is later restored on the new device after signing in with the same Google account used for creating the backup. A manual backup option will allow users to restore even the most recent text messages and calls made right before the switch, which isn’t possible with the current automated solution. With the help of ADB on a computer, a manual backup can be triggered on any supported Android handset as of now but this solution is ideal only for enthusiasts, while regular users won’t find it as convenient. A native Android feature will be much more functional and user-friendly.
Issue Tracker is mainly used internally by Google during the product development process to keep track of bugs and feature requests and it was made publicly-accessible only last year after it replaced Google Code that was previously used for issue tracking. Having said that, Google announced its latest Android 9 Pie just a couple of weeks back, which came with a long list of new features. A number of minor yet useful additions have been made to Android Pie, that include the ability to connect up to 5 audio devices over Bluetooth, adaptive battery and brightness, a magnifying glass when selecting text, and an option to automatically turn off hotspot when no device is connected.