Local file download Google Drive backup to get easier on your Galaxy phone

It first emerged a few months ago that Google is building a new feature for Android devices that will simplify the automatic backup of local file downloads on Android phones to Google Drive.

The company has confirmed with its February Play System update that the local file backup feature is now available for Android devices, including those from Samsung.

This feature was first spotted back in August last year. It brings a dedicated backup option for the Downloads folder on your device. It will automatically upload the files you download from messaging apps like WhatsApp, email apps, web browsers, etc. These may include PDFs, documents, etc, which are saved in the /Downloads folder on the device, to Google Drive.

This new feature will upload those files automatically to Google Drive. It only works for files saved in the Downloads folder, not the entire device internal storage.

These will be static backups, in that when you first download a PDF it will be uploaded to Google Drive immediately, but if you make any edits to that PDF on your device, those changes won't sync automatically with the uploaded version, and vice versa.

This will certainly make things easier for users. Previously they had to manually upload these files whether to Google Drive or anywhere else. Having this feature enabled will give them the peace of mind that at least an initial backup is made immediately after the file is downloaded.

The server-side roll out of this feature should complete in a few days, to expect to find this feature on your Galaxy device soon.