6 Ways To Fix Google Backup Not Working On Android

You can fix a faulty Google Backup using six different methods. You can disable the security locks, ensure your internet connection is working, and sign out of your Google Account and back in. You can also clear app cache or data. Lastly, you can update or reinstall the Google Drive app.

It’s not a stretch to say that your data backups may be some of the most important things you own in today’s day and age. They can contain practically everything you need to navigate this modern world: your important documents, your contacts, and even your passwords and other sensitive information.

This is why it’s perfectly normal to be concerned if your Google backup is faulty. But don’t worry, I’m here to give you not one, not two, but six different methods to try and fix your Google backup not working.

6 Ways To Fix Google Backup Not Working

If you’re in an emergency and your Google Backup is somehow not working, you can usually fix the issue using six methods: disabling the security locks, ensuring your internet connection, re-entering your Google Account, clearing app data, updating it, and reinstalling the Google Drive app.

Disable Your Security Locks

The first one is by disabling your security locks. This refers to the system that you use to lock your phone, such as a pattern, a PIN, a fingerprint, or a password.

Security locks are important since they protect your privacy and prevent wrongdoers from physically accessing your data. However, sometimes they might be the culprit behind your Google Backup not working.

Before backing up or restoring a Google backup on your device, try to disable your lock first. Take note that this method is more of a band-aid solution. If it works, you’ll have to do it every time you need to create or restore a backup, which could be inconvenient.

Nevertheless, if you want to try it out, then you can do this quickly through the settings:

Make Sure Your Internet Is Stable

If the first method hasn’t worked, then perhaps the problem lies elsewhere. This one might be a no-brainer, but it still pays to cross it off the list.

Maybe the problem is as simple as not having a good internet connection. If your connection is bad, Drive can’t connect to Google’s servers, which means it can’t sync your data. This could result in you being unable to use Google Backups.

To check whether or not your internet connection is playing a role in this error, follow the checklist below.

• Find a stable Wi-Fi connection and connect to it. Wi-Fi is always better than mobile data when syncing. 
• If you do need to use mobile data, though, make sure that the “Transfer files only over Wi-Fi” option is turned off, otherwise, your data won’t sync. To do this, go to Google Drive, click the hamburger icon at the upper left corner, and tap Settings.

Toggle off the “Transfer files only over Wi-Fi” button, which you can find under the data usage section. After you have done so, restart your device.

• Finally, make sure that your device can sync in the first place. To do so, go to Settings > Accounts & sync > Google. Select your account and make sure that the box beside Drive has a checkmark.

Re-enter Your Google Account Info

Sometimes, due to bugs or some minor hangups in the system, your Google Account might need some prodding to refresh itself and enable the backup option. For this, logging your Google Account out and then in again sometimes does the trick.

To do this, follow these simple steps.

1. Open your phone’s Settings. Scroll down and click Accounts and Sync.

   

2. Tap Google.

   

3. Choose the email address for your Google Account that you wish to re-enter.

   

4. At the very bottom of the interface, tap ‘Delete’ to remove it.

   

You can also do this step remotely from your desktop, through the Google Dashboard.

1. Go to myaccount.google.com and log into your Google Account.

   

2. Go to the Security tab.

   

3. Look for your Devices section, and tap the Manage Devices option at the bottom.

   

4. Sign out of all the devices where you have your Google Account logged in.

   

5. Finally, click your profile picture on the upper right side of the page and click Sign out of all accounts. This would ensure that you have logged out of your Google Account across all devices.

   

6. You can now log back into your Google Account on your Android device, where you plan to make or restore a backup. Your device should have the backup and restore option accessible to you.

   

Clear Drive App Data

Sometimes your app can’t function because it’s clogged with unnecessary cached data. If you haven’t been cleaning up your app’s cache regularly, this might have accumulated to the point that it’s preventing your Google Backup from functioning properly.

But fixing this is simple. Simply follow the process below.

1. Go to your phone’s Settings.

   

2. Find the App Management section or the Storage section of your phone’s Settings. The exact location depends on your phone brand and model. To make things easier, you can simply type Storage in the Search tab in Settings.

   

3. Once you have a list of apps, look for Google Drive.

   

4. Here, you will find the option to clear the app’s data or just clear the cache. If “clear cache” is available, tap that. If not, you have no choice but to clear the app data. Take note that this will delete everything on your Drive app. Again, the exact options that are available to you will vary based on your specific phone.

   

Once done, all the unnecessary cache that might have been causing issues on that app should be gone.

Update Google Drive

App updates sometimes contain critical data that can fix issues that the old version has had and even help the app function faster. Also, app developers sometimes crash the old version of the app to force users to download and install the newer version.

If you haven’t been regularly updating your Google Drive apps, that might be causing it to malfunction. To fix this, an update is sometimes all that is needed.

To update your Google Drive, simply do the following.

1. Go to Google Play Store and tap your profile, which is the circle with either your photo or initials on the top-right side of the UI.

   

2. Choose “My apps & Games.”

   

3. Scroll down to Google Drive. Click Update if there’s an uninstalled update available for the app. If the button says “Open,” however, it means that your app is up to date.

   

Reinstall Google Drive

A faulty installation can also cause a lot of problems in the app’s functioning. This can happen because of a bad internet connection during the download period and can even happen just from updating the app.

To fix this issue, you will have to uninstall and then properly reinstall Google Drive. You can uninstall Google Drive by simply long-pressing it from your phone’s Home. You can also do it the long way, which is by uninstalling the app via Settings.

1. Go to Settings.

   

2. Go to Apps Management or Storage. Again, the exact location will vary depending on your phone, so I recommend just searching for the term using the Search tab.

   

3. Find Google Drive from the list of apps and select it.

   

4. Tap Delete App or Uninstall App. This will completely remove Google Drive from your phone.

   

5. To reinstall Google Drive, simply go to the Play Store and click the Search Bar.

   

6. Type Google Drive on the Search Bar and tap the first result.

   

7. Click Install to reinstall the app on your phone.

   

FAQs

Google Backup Not Working – Fixed!

It’s often a stressful experience when your Google Backup is not working, but I’ve provided six simple methods for you to fix the most common root causes of the issue. 

As mentioned above, you can disable the security locks, ensure your internet connection is working, re-enter your Google Account, clear app data, and update or reinstall the Google Drive app.

Did you like this article? Which method worked best for you? Let us know in the comments below!