Fortunately, it shouldn’t take up too much space.
This week we will see a change in the calculations Google uses for account storage. Starting July 7, all data from your Android backups will count toward your Google account storage limit. Under the company’s previous approach to backups, only media uploaded to Google Photos and photos or videos contained in MMS data counted toward this storage cap. This rule will apply immediately to new Android users, while current users will see the change roll out in the coming months.
“Android Backup lets you back up your phone’s data to your Google account so you can easily restore it or set up a new device,” a company spokesperson told Woozad. “We’ve updated our policy so that all Android backup data now counts toward Google account storage. We expect this to only add 40MB on average. We’re also giving you more transparency and new controls that let you select which data and apps you want backed up.”
These controls will be accessible in the hardware backups menu. You can skip device settings, call history, or SMS and MMS messages from the backup process, as well as the usual options for whether individual app data is included.
This is the latest adjustment to Google’s storage policies. In May, the company began testing a reduced default free storage limit for new accounts, reducing the maximum from 15GB to 5GB unless the user links their phone number.
