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How to Back Up SharePoint: Guide for Office 365 Admins

According to Microsoft, SharePoint has 190 million users across 200,000 organizations. Backing up SharePoint is as important as safeguarding your data for other Microsoft Office 365 services. As one of the leading Microsoft Office 365 backup providers, we would like to show several ways how to back up SharePoint data using native and third-party tools.

How to Back Up SharePoint with Native Options

Office 365 has several built-in SharePoint Online backup tools and restore options: eDiscovery, Files Restore, and OneDrive Sync. Here’s how you can use the latter option:

  1. Log in to your Microsoft 365 account and select SharePoint.
  2. Select the site you need to back up.
  3. Click DocumentsName.
  4. Click Sync.
    How to Backup SharePoint
  5. Open OneDrive.

Done! Remember that you’ll need the desktop versions of OneDrive. However, backing up SharePoint using OneDrive is not the best option. After all, neither OneDrive nor other Office 365 apps are backups. They have some limitations.

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Limitations of Native Tools

Though you can back up and restore SharePoint data using built-in tools, they have some limitations:

  • Turning off the version history prevents you from restoring files to a previous version.
  • If you upload a deleted item again, the restore operation for that item will be skipped.
  • If your files were removed from the site collection recycle bin, you can’t restore them.
  • All data is stored in the same cloud, which leaves backup data vulnerable to the same threats as the original data.
  • Backing up your Sharepoint data is a manual process. To ensure you can retrieve the latest version, you must back up your data again if any changes are made.
  • Using OneDrive Sync is not the most secure option, as your backup can be infected with ransomware.

Using automated third-party tools will help you to avoid those limitations.

There are several ways to back up your SharePoint site. There are also several ways to restore it. You can learn about them in our next article: How to Recover SharePoint Files.

Related Link: SharePoint Backup Options

How to Backup SharePoint Online with Third-party Software

To make your SharePoint backup and recovery more effortless, you can try using third-party software. SpinOne for Microsoft Office 365 is a fully automated backup solution that helps you protect your data.

Our tool backs up your SharePoint sites automatically and saves all changes without any effort on your part. With Spin, you can back up SharePoint online to Azure, Amazon’s AWS, or Google’s GCP. To back up SharePoint, make sure you are subscribed to our Custom Storage plan.

If you need to change backup settings or recover your data, here’s what to do:

  1. Log in to your Spin account (here’s a Free Trial).
  2. Go to SharePoint & Teams section.

  3. Pick the SharePoint you want to create a backup and press Autobackup. In the pop-up window, select Backup settings and click Update.

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Davit Davit Asatryan Director of Product
About Author

Davit Asatryan is the Director of Product for Spin.AI, focusing on the All-in-One SaaS Security platform, SpinOne. He has been with the company for over 5 years and specializes in SaaS data protection, helping organizations battle Shadow IT, ransomware and data leak issues. Prior to joining Spin.AI, Davit gained experience by working in fintech startups and also received his Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I manually back up SharePoint online?

To backup your SharePoint manually, do the following 3 steps:

  1. open SharePoint in your browser;
  2. go to your online files library, click on Documents, and select the files to back up;
  3. right-click and select the Download option, then download the files to your device or a portable hard drive.
Do we need to back up SharePoint?

As same as with backing up other platforms and services, SharePoint backups can easily help retrieve important data that might have been deleted or lost due to human error, cloud outages, cyber-attacks (including ransomware and malware attacks, phishing, and hacking); third-party app issues etc. Regular data backups also help avoid multiple compliance and regulatory challenges.

What are the data backup solutions for SharePoint? 

You can backup your SharePoint either:

  1. manually by downloading the necessary files from the online library to your device;
  2. using native backup tools such as eDiscovery, Files Restore, and OneDrive Sync;
  3. using third-party software like SpinOne for Microsoft Office 365. This is a fully automated backup solution that helps you protect your data.