Backing up Microsoft 365 OneDrive files

Protecting OneDrive files


What items can be backed up?

  •     You can back up an entire OneDrive (except Recycle bin), or individual files and folders.
  •     Files are backed up together with their sharing permissions. Advanced permission levels (Design, Full,  Contribute) are not backed up.

What items can be recovered?

  •     You can recover an entire OneDrive or any file or folder that was backed up.
  •     You can use search to locate the items.
  •     You can choose whether to recover the sharing permissions or let the files inherit the permissions from the  folder to which they are recovered.
  •     Sharing links for files and folders are not recovered.


Selecting OneDrive files


Select the files as described below, and then specify other settings of the backup plan as appropriate.

To select OneDrive files

  1. Click Microsoft 365.

  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organisations were added to the backup service, select the organisation whose users' data you want to back up. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • To back up the files of all users (including users that will be created in the future), expand the Users node, select All users, and then click Group backup.


        • Please note all future created user OneDrive will be included in this Group Backup and will consume subscribed seats quota. Current version of backup design does not support exclusion of specific user OneDrive from being backup on Group Backup Plan once created. 
        • If you wish to backup only specific user OneDrive, create individual OneDrive backup plan and apply to those needed 
        • To back up individual user OneDrive, expand the Users node, select All users, select the user  that you want to back up, choose OneDrive on what to backup, and then click Backup.
    • To back up the files of individual users, expand the Users node, select All users, select the users whose files you want to back up, and then click Backup.

  4. On the backup plan panel:

    • Ensure that the OneDrive item is selected in What to back up.

    • In Items to back up, do one of the following:

      • Keep the default setting [All] (all files).

      • Specify the files and folders to back up by adding their names or paths.

        You can use wildcard characters (*, **, and ?). For more details about specifying paths and using wildcards, refer to "File filters".

      • Specify the files and folders to back up by browsing.

        The Browse link is available only when creating a backup plan for a single user.


    • [Optional] In Items to back up, click Show exclusions to specify the files and folders to skip during the backup.

      File exclusions override the file selection; i.e. if you specify the same file in both fields, this file will be skipped during a backup.

    • [Optional] If you want to encrypt your backup, enable the Encryption switch, and then set your password and select the encryption algorithm. Please safe keep the encrypt key, if it is lost, there is no way to recover them even from Exabytes.
Recovering an entire OneDrive
  1. Click Microsoft 365.

  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organisations were added to the backup service, select the organisation whose backed-up data you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Users node, select All users, select the user whose OneDrive you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

    If the user was deleted, select it in the Microsoft 365 backups section of the Backups tab, and then click Show backups.

    You can search users by name. Wildcards are not supported.

  4. Select a recovery point.

    Tip. To see only the recovery points that contain OneDrive files, select OneDrive in Filter by content.

  5. Click Recover > Entire OneDrive.

  6. If multiple Microsoft 365 organisations were added to the backup service, click Microsoft 365 organisation to view, change, or specify the target organisation.

    By default, the original organisation is selected. If this organisation is no longer registered in the backup service, you must specify the target organisation.

  7. In Recover to drive, view, change, or specify the target user.

    By default, the original user is selected. If this user does not exist or a non-original organisation is selected, you must specify the target user.

  8. Select whether to recover the sharing permissions for the files.

  9. Click Start recovery.

  10. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing files

    • Overwrite an existing file if it is older

    • Do not overwrite existing files

  11. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.


Recovering OneDrive files
  1. Click Microsoft 365.

  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organisations were added to the backup service, select the organisation whose backed-up data you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Users node, select All users, select the user whose OneDrive files you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

    If the user was deleted, select it in the Microsoft Office 365 backups section of the Backups tab, and then click Show backups.

    You can search users by name. Wildcards are not supported.

  4. Select a recovery point.

    Tip. To see only the recovery points that contain OneDrive files, select OneDrive in Filter by content.

  5. Click Recover > Files/folders.

  6. Browse to the required folder or use search to obtain the list of the required files and folders.

    You can use one or more wildcard characters (* and ?). For more details about using wildcards, refer to "File filters".

    The search is not available if the backup is encrypted.

  7. Select the files that you want to recover.

    If the backup is not encrypted and you selected a single file, you can click Show versions to select the file version to recover. You can select any backed-up version, earlier or later than the selected recovery point.

  8. If you want to download the selected files, click Download, select the location to save the data to , and click Save. Otherwise, skip this step.

  9. Click Recover.

  10. If multiple Microsoft 365 organisations were added to the backup service, click Microsoft 365 organisation to view, change, or specify the target organisation.

    By default, the original organisation is selected. If this organisation is no longer registered in the backup service, you must specify the target organisation.

  11. In Recover to drive, view, change, or specify the target user.

    By default, the original user is selected. If this user does not exist or a non-original organisation is selected, you must specify the target user.

  12. In Path, view or change the target folder in the target user's OneDrive. By default, the original location is selected.

  13. Select whether to recover the sharing permissions for the files.

  14. Click Start recovery.

  15. Select one of the file overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing files

    • Overwrite an existing file if it is older

    • Do not overwrite existing files

  16. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

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