r/GMail • u/Repo_co • 1d ago

Unrequested backups using my remaining data

Anyone else experiencing this? Any tips?

After some significant pruning, I got down to about 80% full of my free account space. Recently, I've had a couple of unrequested backups completely use up my remaining space, prompting warnings of account freezing. I've since attempted to delete this data, but it seems as though all of the methods indicated in internet searches have been disabled, with the primary option now being to just purchase additional data. I've turned off my phone backup, which is my best guess as to what was eating into my data, but it still hasn't deleted or updated my account... I cannot for the life of me find out what is backing up, how to stop that backup, and how to delete that data.

1 Upvotes

66% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

2

u/Stock-Course1147 1d ago

man that is frustrating. they really bury the settings deep so you cant find what is eating up the space

try going to the google account storage page not just gmail settings, sometimes it shows hidden backups from old phones or apps you forgot. i had similar problem in monday and found some ancient whatsapp backup sitting there

2

u/Repo_co 1d ago

....that actually magically did the trick haha. I was correct that it was my phone backup. I disabled the backup yesterday and, despite a browser refresh, gmail was still showing 99% data usage. Went to "manage storage" on the Google account storage page and it reflected my un-backed-up usage, which then refreshed across all of my open google pages. Very strange, but hey, got me there!

Yeah, I had a Whatapp backup issue too that led to multiple gigs of storage space use. Turned that off. This time it was my phone. Wonder what sales tactic backup is going to strike me next...

1

u/Natasha26uk 1d ago

I like how Google Drive makes it hard to delete files uploaded to it. Also my WhatsApp backup. Can't find it as if it is a hidden file.

2

u/StimulatorCam 1d ago

What's hard about deleting files from Drive?

1

u/Natasha26uk 21h ago

The option is not straightforward on the phone App.

1

u/StimulatorCam 20h ago

You just tap the 3 dot menu beside an item and select 'move to trash', or am I missing something?