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I don't know if you are aware, but Verizon's Cloud Backup service starts backing things up for you, whether you've asked for it or not. And for me, I just discovered that I've already used 4 of my 5 available gigs of backup data storage. And I didn't even know I had that!
I didn't even know I had 5 gigs of backup space. How I found this out was pretty interesting.
Yesterday I started getting these pop up messages saying "Warning Backup Canceled, no Wifi connection," on my phone.
And this pop up started popping up like weeds in a weed garden. Every time I even looked at my phone, this pop up, well, popped up!!!
After a bit of research I discovered that either the Verizon Backup Assistant or the Verizon Cloud app (Just "Cloud") was responsible for this awesome message.
On my phone, the "Backup Assistant" is my "Cloud" app.
Just to stop the messages, I went into my "App Manager" and hit "Force Stop" on "Cloud." That took care of the messages.But to be honest, I don't care about my data getting backed up to anywhere. Hell, I did not even know it was getting backed up.
So after a little bit more research, here is what I found, and what I did:
I found my "Cloud" app, which for me on my Android-based Samsung S6, was in a Verizon desktop folder. Or under "Apps" and in your very first screen on the far left (once you scrolled there), there's a Verizon Folder with Cloud in it.
I opened "Cloud."
Once I got past all the splash screen notices and offers to 'back up my data' by declining all of it, I stopped the back ups that wanted to start.
Then I went to its home screen, selected the system menu in the upper left of the screen, and chose "settings."
It was here that I unchecked the following from being backed up:
Pictures,
Videos,
Music,
Documents,
Contacts,
Calls
And, well, everything there.
But this turned out to be a redundant act. Though to be honest, since I don't trust apps, I would have done this any way.
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It's Here That We Can Stop Cloud Back Ups and "Back Up Warning Notices."
I subsequently learned you could open the "Applications Manager," scroll down to "Cloud," and "disable" it. In my case, I first had to hit "Force Stop" and then I saw the "Disable" option/button.
So there you go.
Hey, at least my app was set to only back me up over the Wifi. It would have sucked to see GB's of bandwidth used up for this "feature or options" that I didn't care about or want.
-Bruce
Resources:
https://www.google.com/#q=how+do+i+disable+verizon+cloud
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+warning+backup+cancelled+samsung
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Your Google Search History
If you've read to this point, here's a bonus Consumer Bit for you:
I had a tough time remembering what phrase or term I had used on the web to search for the error message that I was tackling yesterday (mentioned above), but I went out and asked Google what I searched for.
Yes, they keep tabs on ALL of us.
Now I used to turn off their options for tracking my searches and what not but to be honest, like in this case, it came in handy to see what I searched for.
These history bits impact many of your Google acts online and phone apps, like Maps. And when Google knows what you've done in and with Maps, it does make some features more user friendly. It can also make the Go Google or 'Hey Google" function more useful. (I can't attest to that, I'm only repeating the marketing fodder here. Though it does make some sense.)
But... if you're curious, you can check out your latest Google searches at:
https://history.google.com/history/
Actually it is here that you can control what Google tracks for you. They say only you can see your data, and I trust that. But you also know that Google uses all their users data to compile the amount of insightful bits and pieces of searches for web surfers and what not.
Right now, I'm taking a daring leap and turning on most everything from Google. I want to see how this impacts my day or my bandwidth usage.
The controls for doing this are in the lower left corner of the history page.
Oh my, I can even tailor the ads I get from Google. I'm tempted to put all my ads on Disc Dog things, but I'm afraid that if I tinker with the setting, Google will take liberties with the fact that I even pondered this, and take advantage of sending me more ads than I am comfortable with.
Any way, there's that little bonus. Have fun.
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