Ways to Backup SharePoint Online Data
SharePoint Online is a popular Microsoft Office 365 app used by millions of users. The widespread adoption of the file-sharing application makes it invaluable in the eyes of thousands of organizations and Fortune 500 companies.
Despite the ease of use and convenience of SharePoint Online, organizations must find ways to back up SharePoint to prevent data loss. One way to do that is to use Microsoft 365 Total Enterprise Backups, which is a service that backs up the entire suite. But apart from using third-party services and tools, there are also manual and native Microsoft recovery tools that get the job done.
This article aims to explain all the ways to backup SharePoint online to protect SharePoint data and sites from accidental and malicious deletion of important files.
But before that, allow us a word on Microsoft and its terms of service regarding data responsibility.
What Microsoft SharePoint Users Need to Know Regarding SharePoint Online Backup
Microsoft 365 is a world-renowned collaboration and productivity suite millions of users use. Microsoft 365 can transform your organization on the cloud and make it seamless to manage files and data across your organization.
One of the most important apps for that is SharePoint Online. But users must be aware of Microsoft’s terms of service regarding data continuity. Namely, Microsoft isn’t responsible for protecting your data. Instead, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of each tenant.
Microsoft will provide the tools for organizations and companies to backup SharePoint files and data across the suite, but each user must perform the backup themselves. This creates an interesting problem for organizations.
That’s precisely why each organization must back up SharePoint Online themselves using a number of available methods. So, let’s familiarize ourselves with these methods.
Method #1 — Manual SharePoint Backup
The manual method is the most common method to backup any SharePoint Online site or data. However, this method is time-consuming and error-prone, and restoring data can be quite a tedious process. Regardless, the method is simple to execute. Here is how to do that:
- Open SharePoint Online and the SharePoint Site you wish to back up in a web browser;
- Navigate to the files library and click on “Documents.” The Document Library is where you’ll find all the files in that particular SharePoint Site;
- From there, right-click on the document you wish to backup and select “Download.” You can also download multiple files by selecting them;
- Choose the destination for the downloaded files.
The final step is to put these files on an external drive, cloud drive, or local drive on your computer.
In case of data loss events, you can recover each file from the destination drive back to SharePoint Online. But you’ll need to recover each file separately, hence why restoring SharePoint data using this method can be quite tedious.
Method #2 — Native Microsoft Backup
The following method will explain how to back up SharePoint Online data and Sites using native M365 features. It’s important to mention that these features aren’t necessarily designed for SharePoint backups, but we can use them to back up SharePoint data and Sites. There are three features in particular. Those are:
- OneDrive Sync Client
- eDiscovery
Let’s explain both.
Backup SharePoint Online Using OneDrive Sync Client
We can use the OneDrive Sync Client to backup SharePoint Online data and restore data. This method works by backing up your SharePoint data through the OneDrive desktop application, making the data available offline. Here is how to do that:
- Open SharePoint Online and navigate to the Site you wish to sync with OneDrive;
- Navigate to the “Document” library and select the files you wish to back up;
- Click the “Sync” button on the top menu to download the files to your OneDrive;
- A prompt will open. Click on “Open Microsoft OneDrive.”
The files will then appear in OneDrive. However, any changes you make to these documents will also take effect in the OneDrive app. For example, permanently deleted SharePoint files will also get deleted from OneDrive. So if you wish to create a copy of these documents, you must download the files and put them in a separate folder.
It’s important to mention that this isn’t a fully automated backup solution. Instead, it’s a feature that can sync SharePoint Online files with OneDrive but can be used as a backup mechanism.
Backup SharePoint Online Using eDiscovery
eDiscovery is a native Microsoft 365 feature intended to retain sensitive data in case of legal procedures. The feature is available to Enterprise E3 and E5 plans and is best used for evidence collection.
While not intended as a backup solution, eDiscovery helps organize your data and protects it against modifications or deletions. Here is how to use eDiscovery to backup SharePoint Online data:
- Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and navigate to “Admin Centers,” “Security;”
- Locate the eDiscovery tab and click on “eDiscovery” once more;
- Click “Create a Case” and give the new case a name and description. Then, click on “Open” to open the case and add data;
- The next step is to create a “Hold.” The hold will contain the data from SharePoint Sites. Give the hold a name and description, click “Next,” and then select “Choose Sites;”
- This will open a new query. Select the sites you wish to add to the hold and then click “Create this Hold.”
Again, eDiscovery isn’t a fully-fledged backup solution but can act as one under certain conditions. The SharePoint data in the hold cannot be modified and will remain there beyond the native Site collection recycle bin period for SharePoint Online, giving you a hybrid backup of your SharePoint data.
Conclusion
To summarize, SharePoint Online backups are essential for data continuity across your organization. You can create manual SharePoint Online backups or use native M365 features. However, your best option is to go with a third-party software specifically designed to protect your SharePoint data against accidental or malicious deletion.
