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 your phone

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.

You can set up your phone to automatically back up your files.

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Select Google Backup.
   Optional: If this is your first time, turn on Backup by Google One and follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Tap Back up now.

Your Google One backup can take up to 24 hours. When your data is saved, “On” will be below the data types you selected.

Switch backup accounts

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap System  Backup.
3. Tap Account storage.
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 and MMS messages

Tip: Not all apps back up automatically. To find out about an app, learn how to contact its developer.

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.

Get your data onto a new phone

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 Google.
3. At the top, tap your account email address  Add another account.
4. Follow the on-screen steps.

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

Your photos and videos are already available in Google Photos. But you can restore the rest of the data you backed up while you set up your new phone for the first time or after a factory reset. At setup, to restore your data, follow the on-screen steps.

The process can take up to 24 hours.

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

 You can check what data and which apps are included in your backup.

1. Open your phone’s Settings app.
2. Tap Google  Backup.
3. Under “Backup details,” review what data is backed up on your device.

Related resources

• Add or remove an account
• Recover a recently deleted Google Account
• Transfer files between your computer & phone
• Choose the upload size of your photos & videos