Last updated: June 30th, 2026 at 10:49 UTC+02:00
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You can now have a more detailed look at what actually gets backed up.
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Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile
Samsung phones offer several options for backing up your personal data. You can use Smart Switch to back up everything to a physical storage device, such as an external SSD or a USB flash drive, or rely on Google Drive or Samsung Cloud backup solutions. Now, Google is offering more control over what data actually gets backed up to its cloud storage.
Google has started rolling out per-app controls (via 9To5Google) for cloud backups. On Galaxy phones, you can access the feature by going to Settings > Accounts and backup > Back up data (Google Drive) > Other device data. There, you’ll find individual backup toggles for first-party, third-party, and system apps. You can enable or disable backups for any supported app or service on your Galaxy phone.
Asif Iqbal Shaik / SamMobile
Per-app data backup controls from Google on the Galaxy S26 Ultra with One UI 9 Beta 2 (Android 17) – Source: Asif Iqbal Shaik / SamMobile
You can tap on Show more at the end of the App data and System data lists to view all the apps or packages installed on your Galaxy phone or tablet. You can choose to disable backing up data from apps that aren't critical to reduce your Google Drive storage space usage.
This new feature is currently visible on our Galaxy S26 Ultra running Android 17 (One UI 9.0 Beta 3), but could also become available for Galaxy phones and tablets running older versions of One UI.
Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S23 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.
