Google Drive and Smart phone text backups

[bucolic_frolic]

I successfully backed up Android SMS Text messages and phone calls to Google Drive.

Now what? I want to transfer them to my PC. Don't I just go to gmail and open Google Drive? Apparently not since I don't see that option. I do see methods to install Google drive on Linux. So Google Drive is not in the cloud, it's on my pc?

I want to now download the Google drive contents to my pc. I think.

Everything is so complicated.

[Eugene]

1. On Windows, you have 2 ways.

1. On the Google Search web page, find the tic-tac-toe icon on the top right (Google apps). Google Drive will be one of those apps, along with GMail, Calendar, etc.

2. The Google Drive app provides a virtual cloud drive for your PC. https://www.google.com/drive/

There is also a plethora of third-party apps that can also do this.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Hey that is good news, thanks for taking time for this smart phone newbie /nt

[Hokie]

2. Install Google Drive on your PC

If you Google "Google Drive" you will find a link to install Google Drive on your PC. Once it is installed and you log in using your Google account it will download a local copy of the Google Drive contents on your PC. From then on everything will be synchronized so that if you add or delete contents on any device the copies of Google Drive will reflect the changes. On your PC Google Drive will appear in the bar on the left in File Manager in Windows. I think it will also assign it a drive letter. It is "F:" for me.

Now I am not sure about opening SMS text messages on a PC. I am an iPhone guy so I am not familiar with Android SMS messages. It might require another program to do that.

[Ron Obvious]

4. I installed an old (Android 1.0) app called SMSBackupRestore

It creates file on the smart card of the phone, which I then copy to my desktop using the USB connection.

Not a fan of cloud services.

[intrepidity]

5. Tangent question

How "secure" really is Google Drive? Unhackable? (doubtful). Has it ever been hacked yet?

Suspicious of *all* online storage options.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Yes I agree, one doesn't know what to do

If it's on your hard drive, or a backup hard drive, it's offline. But it could fail or be stolen. If it's on Google, it could be hacked. Most of us have had at least one incident over the years. Free credit reporting for two years because Bank X was hacked. I think privacy freaks would opt for encrypted multiple USB drives, or SD cards. At one time they told us DVD was the gold standard. Now they claim a life of about 20 years for them, if not warped. THen there are metallic DVDs - 75 years supposedly. Will civilization support digital everything forever? How do you convey photo albums for millennia. Will anyone care if you succeed? It will cost money. I wonder if we've been sold a bill of goods.