Backup on Google Docs is working again

I’m happy to announce that the problem with Google Docs Backup was fixed and it should work again from now on. But there are a couple of changes I had to do to make it happen: 1) you won’t be able to restore data from old backup files 2) you won’t be able to edit the backup files directly on Google Docs. But there are good things too :) The backup files now much much smaller and should be uploaded faster.

Some technical details on that. The old backup mechanism was uploading backup file in text format to Google Docs and eventually there is 512kb limit for such kind of files – that’s why the backup stopped working after some time when the database became big enough to generate backup bigger that the limit.  And until recently is was not allowed to upload any arbitrary files to Google Docs for standard accounts (it was only enabled for premium accounts). In May Google announced that they’re enabling this feature for all accounts, but developers have to use different API for that. To facilitate backups on Google Docs we’re using non-official android-gdocs-api and this feature was not implemented in the library. So it took some time to investigate how it should work and make the patch for the library. As the format was going to be incompatible with old backup files anyway, it was only logical to make them smaller as well. So now they get gzipped before uploading to Google Docs, which makes the backup file much smaller.

So after updating to 1.4.8 please do a fresh backup on Google Docs. There might be some glitches from time to time, just repeat the attempt and it should work.

Thanks for being patient and supportive on that issue.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2011 at 18:16 and is filed under Software for Android. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

24 comments

  1. Jason
    August 4, 2011 at 18:57

    Love the app, and glad the gdocs backup is working now. BUT…a csv backup to google docs would make it far easier to reconcile transactions vs my online bank statement.

    Reply
  2. Andrew
    August 3, 2011 at 22:32

    Hi, is there a way to convert old Google Doc Backup files to new format, I do need the old backups…
    Thank you

    Reply
  3. samuel
    July 19, 2011 at 04:17

    I m brazilian n i need of specifys in
    portuguese

    Reply
  4. Atis
    July 6, 2011 at 13:38

    “Google account login or password not valid” But it’s VALID! :(

    Reply
  5. Atis
    July 6, 2011 at 13:37

    Gdocs backups not working at all…
    Guys, if you have scheduled transactions, why don’t you have scheduled backups, like any other finance apps?

    Reply
  6. Hugo
    July 6, 2011 at 10:54

    Great software, IMHO it’s the best of its kind!
    Feat. suggestion: split transactions

    Reply
  7. Roberto
    June 28, 2011 at 00:18

    It’s a good app I was using it around one week and then I wanted to change the category that I made (change name) but I cannot do it. How can I do it ? Is it a bug ? I use xperia x8 android 2.1

    Thank you

    Reply
  8. DrymR
    June 25, 2011 at 02:40

    Thank you ! Your application keep meeting better and better

    Reply
  9. Fatih
    June 22, 2011 at 19:07

    thanks…

    Reply
  10. Fatih
    June 22, 2011 at 15:14

    then, what do you suggest about how to restore old backups on google docs?

    Reply
  11. Sergey Krichevsky
    June 21, 2011 at 05:50

    Thanks Alot!!!

    I Was Waiting For It For Some Time… and i`m Very Glad!!! :)

    Now, I`ll Just Wait For The Auto-Syncronization! :) ))

    Reply

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