How to fix Google blocking backups?

Hi,

Can you re-authenticate your Google Drive storage? Please check this tutorial.

Thanks,
Bryle

I may have fixed the problem but I can’t be sure. Here are the steps I did:

1. Open UpdraftPlus settings. It showed Google drive as my backup location. I knew this did not work so I changed it to Email and clicked Save
2. I got the message about not being authenticated, but the settings showed I was set to Email. So I clicked Google drive again and then was able to get the Google authorization screen shown in the video you referenced. From there I clicked OK (or whatever it was) and got an email saying UpdraftPlus was authorized.
3. I clicked on Backup Now and it looked like the backup process started.
4. I tried to log out of WordPress but the WordPress tube stayed busy, so I just closed the window.
5. I started writing this response and while doing so I tried logging in to my WordPress account. I was able to get to the WordPress home page, but loading it was very slow. When I clicked on the Plugins option the tab went busy and never responded. So right now I have no idea what’s actually happening.
6. I closed the WordPress tab and will come back to it later. I’ll also check my Google drive to see if there are any backup files on it.

Apparently UpdraftPlus completely ties up WordPress and stops it from doing anything when it is making a backup. I guess this is better than failing, but it is certainly not a desirable approach. And there is simply no excuse for sending an email with a title like “Backup completed” when in fact the backup failed. The last successful backup I had was way back in April of this year.

After posting this response I went back to my Google drive and saw that there are 5 UpdraftPlus files there, so it looks like the backup process is working. That is encouraging, but resolving this took quite a lot of time.

My guess is that back in April Google did something that stopped UpdraftPlus from working, but I never realized that because I never actually read the text of the “Backup completed” emails I was getting.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by gorgon80.

Not out of the woods yet. I just got this email from Google:

Hello,

It looks like your use of Google Drive violates our Program Policies.

We do not allow the transmission of malware, viruses, destructive code, or anything that may harm or interfere with the operation of the networks, servers, or other infrastructure of Google or others. Please evaluate your content before sharing with other users. Click here to learn more about malware.

If this behavior continues, your access to this product may be disabled.

Sincerely,
Google Abuse Team

I replied that the content they are referring to is a compressed backup of my blog that has no offensive material in it. I also requested they resolve the problem. Here’s hoping they do something soon.

Unfortunately it sounds like you are dependant on the whims of Google at the moment.

What entities are you backing up (eg, plugins, others, etc)?

Does google specify which one of these files it has an issue with?

Can you post your latest backup log from the backup/restore tab?

What entities are you backing up (eg, plugins, others, etc)?

I back up everything. (Isn’t that what backups are for?)

Does google specify which one of these files it has an issue with?

No – the text I posted was their entire message to me.

Can you post your latest backup log from the backup/restore tab?

https://birkbinnard.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/log.3a0a12080559.zip

Would you be able to set up a different Google account and backup everything apart from the “Others” and see if you experience the same issue?

How about I just initiate a manual backup and leave out the Others category? I don’t know what is in Others anyway.

Another problem is it takes Google a few days to send me a notification. But I at least can log on to my Google drive and see what backup files are there.

Yes, if you want to do a manual backup do that. For the vast majority of users, the “Others” isn’t necessary.

It’s been several days and I have heard nothing from Google. So I’ll initiate a manual backup that excludes the Others category. My guess is that backup will complete OK and I will continue to get no response from Google.

Well – that didn’t take long. I did a manual backup but I could not find a way to eliminate the Extras section. So the backup that completed OK did include everything. About an hour later I got the same message from Google:

Your file may violate Google Drive’s Terms of Service

“backup_2023-10-02-0557_3D_Printing_b0b3f2a9eb1a-plugins.zip” contains content that may violate Google Drive’s Malware and Similar Malicious Content policy. Some features related to this file may have been restricted.?If you think this is an error and would like the Trust & Safety team to review this file, request a review below.

I did request a review but again I expect I may never hear anything back form Google. I did open my Google Drive page and verify that all the files are there. Let me know if you’d like me to do something else.

Google doesn’t like one of your Plugins.

If you exclude your plugins from your backup for now that should resolve the issue for now.

Unfortunately, we have no control over what Google bans so you will need to liase with them regarding this

With the free version of the plugin, you can also backup to Dropbox (you get 2 GB of storage) or with amazon S3 you get?5GB of S3 storage free for a year.

Interesting – I do have a bunch of plugins, but they are all commonly used ones except for 1 (a viewer for 3D geometry definitions.) I don’t like the idea of not backing up the plugins, so I’m not going to change anything. Hopefully I’ll hear back from Google at some point and get this lunacy resolved.

If you list you plugins, I can add them to my site one at a time to see if I get blocked?

You won’t get blocked. They just send the nasty email I showed above which lets you “request a review” – I got 2 of those yesterday. So far I’ve got like 6 of them and requested a review for all, but never got any feedback at all – nothing – from Google. I’m thinking maybe it’s some old software they have forgot about and no one is actually noticing or doing anything.

I appreciate your interest in this situation. Since you asked here’s my list of plugins. I’m sure I don’t need some of them, but am reluctant to eliminate any since I’m not really sure what they all do. I do know that the Fastest Cache one does work really well.

Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection
Analyticator
AP Extended Mime Types
Child Theme Configurator
Disable Feeds
Easy 3D Viewer
ImageMagick Engine
Jetpack
Loginizer
Redux Framework
UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
WP Fastest Cache
WP Media Categories

Thank you for this, I will attempt to install all of them on my site and run a a backup and see if Google makes a fuss.