How to force data backup on Google Pixel devices?

[Sushubh]

ADB has commands that you can use to manually force the phone to backup all the compatible data with Google servers.

adb shell
bmgr run
bmgr backupnow --all

Works great on my Pixel 2.

I had to look for this because the phone was not backing up SMS data properly. It usually stayed 3-4 days behind. But in recent times, it got outdated by weeks. The commands above synced it just fine.

 

[Sushubh]

turns out the backup mechanism is fucked up for months for some users and google has still not fixed it.
i am now suffering from this glitch where backup does not happen at all. and the backup button is disabled.
adb backup commands also do not work.
only work around is to disable security (pin or pattern). backup feature would start working again.
but would stop working as soon as you re-enable security. so only work around is to do it manually on a regular basis.
or hope that it would be fixed after a reset.