How to back up and wipe your Chromebook

When Chromebooks first appeared on the scene back in 2011, they were criticized for how limited they were compared to Windows and macOS systems. Since then, some of the original limitations have been tweaked and the simplicity of the OS has been much more widely accepted. And it turns out, sometimes the old adage that less is more is right.

One of the key advantages of using a Chromebook is the way (almost) everything is instantly backed up: with a small number of exceptions, all of your apps and files live online. If you lose your laptop or drop it into a lake, all you need to do is sign in to another Chromebook with your Google account, and you’re right back where you started.

Wiping a Chromebook is quick and easy, too, if you’re trying to troubleshoot problems or pass the laptop on to someone else. Here’s what you need to know about backing up and wiping your Chromebook — including those bits of data that might not automatically be backed up with everything else.

These steps were tested on an Acer Chromebook Spin 714 and should apply to any Chromebook running ChromeOS 125 or later.

As mentioned above, with just about everything on your Chromebook running online, there’s no need to back it up in the traditional sense. All of your data is already in the cloud and is synced whenever you have an internet connection. If you’ve been using Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides offline, you should get online to save your changes to the web, but there’s not much more you need to worry about.

Even the settings you’ve customized ChromeOS with are saved to the cloud for you, including details of the Wi-Fi networks you’re connected to, the apps you’ve installed on your laptop, and even the wallpapers you’ve set as backgrounds. All of this should be backed up in the background and restored the next time you sign in with a Google account on your current Chromebook or any other laptop.

To make sure all of your browser data is being synced as it should:

• Inside a Chrome tab, click the three dots (top right), then Settings.
• Select You and Google, then Sync and Google services.
• Click Manage what you sync to choose what gets backed up online (including bookmarks and passwords).

For the system-level data:

• Click the time and date panel (lower right).
• Select the gear icon to open up ChromeOS Settings.
• Choose Privacy and security.
• Select Sync and Google services and then Manage what you sync. (Here, the options include apps and settings.)

You should now be mostly covered, but there are a couple of other points to make. First, you might also have files stored locally that aren’t backed up — downloaded photos, for example. Open the ChromeOS Files app to check and drag any files you want to keep to the Google Drive heading in order to back them up to the cloud.

If you’ve set up a Linux partition on your Chromebook, this won’t be backed up automatically.

• Go to your Chromebook Settings.
• Open the Advanced tab and click Developers.
• Choose Linux, then Back up and restore.
• Click Back up, then a location for your files — this can be Google Drive or a connected USB device.

With all of that taken care of, your Chromebook should be comprehensively backed up, which means you’re ready to do a reset.

As there’s little in the way of local storage on a Chromebook, resetting it doesn’t take long. In ChromeOS, a reset is known as a “powerwash,” which returns everything back to its original state, just as it was when you bought it.

• Click the time and date (bottom-right corner).
• Click on the gear icon to open Settings.
• Choose System preferences and scroll down to Powerwash. Select the Reset button.
• Click Restart to reboot your Chromebook.
• After the restart, choose Powerwash and Continue to wipe and reset the Chromebook.

After a few moments, you’ll be met with the setup screen. If you’re keeping this computer, you just have to log in using your Google account, and you should find your Chromebook largely the way you left it.