Surely the most frustrating thing in the world is getting right to the final boss battle in your favorite mobile game and suddenly having your game data accidentally deleted. Whether you’ve deleted the whole game app by mistake, or just the game data, fear not!
All is not lost. To learn how to restore deleted games data on Android, simply follow our step-by-step tutorials below. For all other information, or to have any further questions answered, please direct your attention to our helpful FAQ section at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to restore deleted games data on Android (Method #1)
- On your Android smartphone or tablet device, search for and open the app ‘Google Play’ by tapping on it
- Using the search bar, search for the game whose games data you’ve lost
- Tap on the game to open its ‘details’
- Below the images previewed here, tap ‘Read more’ and scroll down to the bottom to ensure that the game “Uses Google Play Games” – if it does, there’s a good chance your lost games data is just a click or two away
- Open up the game and navigate to the Leaderboards or Achievements screen. Once there, tap your profile image at the top of the page
- Now tap ‘More’ and from the pop-up options select ‘Sign Out’
- Finally, restart the game and this time sign into the Google account you were using last time you played it – you’ll find all your “deleted” games data waiting for you!
How to restore deleted games data on Android (Method #2)
If you accidentally deleted your game app on Android, then use this method.
- On your Android smartphone or tablet device, open up the Google Play store
- Make sure you’re signed into your usual Google account which you use for gaming
- Using the search bar, search for the game you’ve accidentally deleted
- Tap on it and tap ‘Install’ or ‘Reinstall’
- Wait for the installation process to complete before doing anything else
- Launch the game and sign into your profile/account
- You should find that all of your so-called “deleted” games data is there waiting for you
How to restore deleted games data on Android (Method #3)
If you’ve redownloaded your deleted game and signed into the correct account, but still can’t find your games data, it’s time to restore it from a Google Drive back-up, as shown here.
- On your Android device, open up Google Drive by locating and tapping the app icon
- Once there, make sure you’re signed into the correct Google Account to which your back-ups are usually saved by tapping your profile picture in the top-right and selecting the appropriate account
- Next, tap the hamburger menu in the top-left (three horizontal lines)
- From the drop-down menu, select ‘Backups’
- You will now see a list of all of the apps your phone regularly backs-up to Google Drive, locate ‘Google Play’ or the name of the specific game app you’ve deleted game data from, and tap on it
- Follow the on-screen instructions to restore deleted games data on Android from this Google Drive backup
There are three different ways to recover deleted games data on Android. For any other information or questions, see our FAQs below.
FAQs
Where is my game data on Android backed-up?
Android users love to play games on their smartphones and tablets, making full use of the expandable memory capacity Android devices enjoy, whilst also indulging in the ultra-fast processing power of most modern smartphones.
Most games played on Android, from simple apps to complex multiplayer games, are played through the Google Play Games app, even if they are accessed independently (i.e. via their own shortcut icon on your homescreen).
Google Play Games is linked to your Google Account(s), and as such typically creates an automatic back-up of any autosaves and manually-made saves when you play your Android games. As such, this game data is backed-up to your Google Drive account as standard.
It is from your Google Drive account that you will have to recover any accidentally deleted game data in order to jump back into playing wherever you left off.
If I accidentally delete a game from Play Games is all my game data also deleted?
Thankfully, accidentally deleting a game from your phone is not the same thing as deleting its game data. The game data should be backed-up via Google Play Games to the cloud, and thus you will still be able to recover it simply by redownloading the accidentally deleted game and signing back into it using the appropriate Google account.
There are times, however, when a simple sign-in won’t do the trick, and in these instances you’ll be forced to manually restore your deleted games data from your Drive back-up.
In short, don’t worry – we’re here to help get your deleted games data on Android back up and running. To learn how to restore deleted games data on Android, just follow our step-by-step tutorials above.
Can I restore deleted games data from a different Google account on Android?
No, you cannot restore deleted games data from one Google account to another. Unfortunately, your Google Play Games games data is backed-up automatically (and regularly) to the Google Drive account linked to one specific Google account. If you wish to play the same game on your Android, but under a different account, you’ll have to start from scratch. You won’t be able to restore your deleted games data from a different account.
