Why connect Google Drive?
By default, your pod lives only on your device. Connecting Google Drive lets you save your encrypted .beanpod file to the cloud, so you can access it from any device and have automatic backups.
Your data is encrypted before it leaves your device. Google can't read your pod file — it's just encrypted bytes to them.
Already saving your pod to a local file? You don’t have to start over — you can move it to Google Drive (or back to a local file) any time. See the Moving your pod between local file and Google Drive guide.
How to connect
Go to Settings → Family Data Options
Click Connect Google Drive
Sign in with your Google account and grant permission
Choose a folder in your Drive (or let us create one)
Your pod will now auto-save to Drive after every change
Accessing from another device
On a new device, click Load Existing Family on the login page, connect your Google account, and select your pod file. Enter your recovery code to open it, then choose a PIN for that device.
If Google Drive won't connect
- The file box wasn’t ticked — Google shows one checkbox for file access. Tap Try again and tick it so beanies.family can create your family file.
- Pop-ups are blocked — beanies switches to a full-page Google sign-in by itself, so you can usually just carry on. If it keeps happening, allow pop-ups for beanies.family in your browser. There's no need to turn your pop-up blocker off everywhere.
- Your Google Drive is full — free up some space in Drive, or sign in with a different Google account that has room.
- A work or school account is blocked — the administrator of that account may not allow apps like beanies. Use a personal Google account instead.
“See, edit, create, and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app”
The beanies app can keep your family file on your device instead of Google Drive, so you can get started without connecting anything.