Back up or restore data on your Pixel phone

You can back up content, data, and settings from your phone to your Google Account. You can restore your backed-up information to your phone.

Important: Some of these steps work only on Android 9 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

Automatically back up photos, data & settings

Turn automatic backup on or off
Important: To help protect your backed-up data, use a PIN, pattern, or password screen lock, instead of a swipe or Smart Lock.
  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap System And then Backup.​ 
  3. Turn on your backup service.
Tip: If you turn off automatic backup, you also delete the phone data and settings that you'd saved through automatic backup to this Google Account. This deletion includes app data, call history, phone settings, and SMS messages. (Your backed-up photos and videos stay available in Google Photos. Your Google Contacts and Google Calendar still sync.)
Switch backup accounts
  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap System And then Backup.
  3. Tap Account.
  4. Tap the Google account you want to use for backups. If the account you want to use isn't there, tap Add account.
What backs up automatically
Your backups are uploaded to Google and encrypted using your Google Account password. For some data, your phone's screen lock PIN, pattern, or password is also used for encryption.

Any amount of data

  • Google Calendar
  • Google Contacts
  • Photos and videos

Tip: To find out how long your phone backs up unlimited photos and videos at full original quality, see the tech specs or learn about upload sizes.

Up to 25 MB of data per app

  • Apps and app data
  • Call history
  • Phone settings
  • SMS text messages (not MMS)
Tip: Not all apps back up automatically. To find out about an app, learn how to contact its developer.

Back up files

You can save files and folders to Google Drive. Learn how to upload to Drive.

Erase after backing up

After you back up, you can reset your phone by erasing everything on it. Learn how to reset your phone to factory settings.

Restore backed-up photos, data & settings

Restore backed-up data & phone settings

When you add your Google Account to a phone that's been set up, what you'd previously backed up for that Google Account gets put onto the phone.

Important: You can't restore a backup from a higher Android version onto a phone running a lower Android version. Learn how to check and update your Android version.

To add another account to a set-up phone

  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap Users & accounts And then Add account.
  3. Follow the on-screen steps.

To restore a previous phone's account to a reset phone

Important: To restore a previous phone’s backup to a new phone, you need the PIN, password, or pattern for you lock screen.

  1. After resetting your phone, tap Start. Follow the on-screen steps.
  2. Connect to a Wi-Fi or mobile network.
  3. When you see "Copy apps & data," tap Next And then Can't use old phone.
  4. Under "Copy another way," tap OK And then A backup from the cloud.
  5. Sign in to the Google Account that has the backup of your data.
  6. Follow the on-screen steps.

Tip: Not all older apps can restore. Try downloading them from the Play Store again.

Restore backed-up contacts

If you've saved your contacts to your Google Account, they'll sync automatically. If you have other contacts on a phone or SIM card, learn how to manually restore contacts.

See what photos, data, and settings you backed up
  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap Accounts.
  3. Tap the Google Account you used to back up your data.
  4. Tap Account sync. 
  5. Check that all the photos, data, and settings you want backed up is turned on to sync to your Google Account. If something is off, turn it on.
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