Turn off app backup

thanirs

Hi,

Few years ago, there was a discussion about the option of not backing up 1password app as part of Android backup service. Has anything changed since?

My concern is the secret key is in Google drive as part of the android backup service and the only way to prevent this is by turning off backups completely. There are no per app backup settings in android in unlike in iOS. Is my only option to use iOS if I don't want the secret key in the cloud? Thanks

ag_timothy

Hi @thanirs, thanks for your question.

To my knowledge, it's not possible to exclude certain apps from the Google backup service without disabling the backup service entirely.

One thing that I think is important to note here is that a Secret Key does not just sit in Google Drive plain to see. On contemporary devices with Google's Android backup, the Secret Key in this example would be encrypted using a locally generated encryption key before it is backed up to Google's servers. That key is then encrypted with your Google account password and transmitted to Google to be stored in their Titan modules.

thanirs

Hi, thanks. I am aware of the encryption. I was wondering if there's a way to turn off backups for this app.

ag_timothy

Hello @thanirs thanks for following up with me. To my knowledge, the Google One backup is all or nothing. It can be disabled from settings > System > Backup which will delete previously saved backups as well. I have not found an option to include or exclude certain categories or certain items within each category.

While I'm not sure if this can be done within the Android infrastructure, I would be happy to file a request on your behalf for the consideration of the team.

Let me know if we can help with anything else!

thanirs

Thanks. Is this something an app can control, say with a 'do not back' flag or such?

ag_timothy

Happy to help @thanirs. I'm not sure if it could be implemented with 1Password, but it is generally possible for apps to opt out of backup.

ref: 30558689