Backup to Google Drive Disabled by Admin- Here is What you Can Do

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Backup to Google Drive Disabled by Admin

Are you seeing backup to Google Drive disabled by admin error while creating an automatic backup of your Android device? If yes, you have stumbled upon the right webpage. A lot of users have been facing the same error on their cloud storage platform.

If your Google Drive comes under an organization, the admin can make changes to it. It does not involve getting access to your personal files, however, they can choose to disable Google Drive from their dashboard. As an admin, there are a lot of things that can be done whether you are in an organization or not.

Here, we are going to talk about what this error is and what triggers it. We will also be talking about possible solutions to it.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started –

Backup to Google Drive Disabled by Admin on Google Workspace

Google Drive is a very popular cloud storage service known for its superb backup and sync feature. It is known for implementing new features to its service to make it more robust than ever.

A recent update of Google Workspace allows admins to control what users can back up to their Google Drive. An admin now can choose whether Android users inside their organization can back their data up for third-party apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and more to their Google Workspace account’s drive storage.

This update is aimed to give admins better control over what data their users are storing in their domain.

Users will just see a link to back up their data to Google Drive. They, however, cannot be able to see whether their third-party app data is being backed up or not.

If the admin has enabled backup of third-party apps, the data will automatically be backed up to the user’s Google Drive storage. It will only be used when the user will restore data in third-party apps.

However, if the admin disables backup to Google Drive, users may get a notification such as backup to Google Drive disabled by the admin.

To avoid these notifications, you can either turn the backup off or use a different Google account to back up your smartphone data.

Alternatively, you can also communicate with the admin and ask them to allow you to back up your third-party apps data to your Google Workspace account.

Read How to Fix Common Issues in Google Drive

How to Enable or Disable Backup to Google Drive as an Admin

If you are an admin and, by default, this setting is on or off. Also, if you want to change it, then all you have to do is follow these simple steps –

Backup to Google Drive Disabled by Admin
  • Click on the Additional Google Services option.
  • Here, you will see the Third-party App Backup option. You can either enable it or disable it.
google admin console

That’s it. This is how an admin can either enable or disable the backup option for other users. However, for this, you will need admin access on Google Drive, and in no manner can you do it otherwise.

Below you can also learn about the steps to follow whether or not the admin has enabled backup for third-party apps.

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How to know if the Admin has Enabled Backup for Third-Party Apps?

If your admin has enabled the backup for third-party apps, you can easily understand it by visiting your Google Drive. Follow these steps if you want to know if your admin has enabled this service for you –

  • Log into your Google Drive account.
  • From the left sidebar, click on the Storage option.
  • Now, if your admin has enabled backup of third-party apps, you will be able to see the Backups option at the top right corner of your screen, right below your Google account avatar.
google drive backup and sync
  • Click on the option to see the app data backed up to Google Drive.

While whatever we have discussed so far is related to Google Workspace accounts, other users with an individual Google account can also face this problem that says backup to Google Drive is disabled by the admin.

The problem with this issue is that it isn’t Google account or device-specific. People with regular Gmail as well as Google Workspace accounts can face the same issue.

When discussed with the Google Drive support team, they said that this error is just being displayed by accident to users running Android Nougat on their smartphones. This doesn’t affect the backup process at all. So, users can keep ignoring the error until it is fixed.

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How do I enable Google Drive in the Admin console?

If you have admin access to Google Workspace, you can make a lot of changes to how the storage functions. Using this, you can choose to turn on or off Google Drive for Users. Here are the steps you can follow.

  • Log in to your Google Admin Console
  • Choose Apps on the list of options.
  • Now, go to Google Workspace, then click on Drive and Docs
  • Here, tap on Service Status
  • To change the status, choose between On for everyone or Off for everyone

Once done, you need to wait for a few minutes to make it happen or it might take around 24 hours as well.

Closing Comments

There you have it – a detailed article on the backup to Google Drive disabled by admin.

If you are a Google Workspace user and you’re seeing this error, the easiest solution for you is to go to your Google Workspace admin and communicate with them. You can ask them if they have disabled the backup to third-party applications.

Alternatively, you can log into your Google Drive using your Google Workspace account and see if the Backups option is there. If it isn’t there, then there are quite good chances that your admin has disabled the backups of third-party applications.

However, if you are not a Google Workspace user and own an Android smartphone running Android Nougat, there are chances that you are facing this error by accident, and this error isn’t affecting anything. So, you can completely ignore this error message.

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