Google Enables Document Backup to Drive in Stable Play Services 26.26 Release
Google has finally activated automatic backup of documents from Android smartphones to the cloud. The feature, prepared by the company for almost a year, is now distributed in the stable version of Google Play Services 26.26.
On Pixel devices a new “Documents” item appears in the path Settings → Accounts and backup → Google Backup. By default the option stays turned off, so Google does not automatically feed Drive with the contents of the Downloads folder.
After activation, documents are uploaded to a newly created Android backups folder on Google Drive. Inside this folder a separate directory is created for each smartphone. Supported formats include PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS, ZIP and others; even APK files located in the downloads directory are included.
Users pay for the convenience with storage space: copies occupy quota in Google Drive. The settings page allows checking remaining capacity, freeing space or purchasing additional storage.
Disabling the backup does not delete already uploaded files, so manual cleanup of the Drive folder is required. Full synchronization is also absent: changes made on the device are not reflected in the cloud copy and vice versa.
First traces of the function were discovered in August 2025. In February 2026 Google officially mentioned it in a Play System update. The capability later appeared in the beta channel of Play Services and has now reached the stable build.
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