How to Backup SharePoint 365? A Complete Guide

If you are serious regarding your SharePoint data and finally decided to create a backup of SharePoint Online. Then you have reached to the right place. Here you will find all the answers to your query such as how to backup SharePoint 365, why to do so, whether is SharePoint backed up by Microsoft, and so on.

Microsoft 365 suite comprises several applications, one of which is SharePoint. No doubt SharePoint is doing great in content management and collaboration. Because of these impeccable features, it is crucial to backup your SharePoint data.

SharePoint is a SaaS-based tool having different cloud server advantages. This tool plays a keen role in organizations. There are different situations in which your SharePoint data can be lost. So, before going to discuss how to backup SharePoint 365, let’s understand why you should always have a copy of SharePoint data.

Why Should You Take SharePoint Online Backup?

• Taking a backup of SharePoint ensures that it is easily recoverable whenever required in the event of data loss. This will protect your data from accidental loss, corrupted storage, natural disasters, ransomware attacks, and malicious attacks from unauthorized users.
• You can find version history in SharePoint, but sometimes there are issues with the SharePoint version history and you cannot access it. So, to overcome these situations, you should have a backup copy of SharePoint data.
• If your organization has decided to restructure itself, then you need to perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration. Where the backup of your SharePoint data adds an advantage.
• The backup of SharePoint Online data is also mandatory for compliance purposes.
• is SharePoint backed up by Microsoft?, Microsoft fully backs up your SharePoint site collections, every 12 hours with each backup retained for 14 days. But in the long run, you need to do it by yourself.

How to Backup SharePoint 365 Cloud Platform?

After analyzing the importance of backing SharePoint Online data. Now, it’s time to focus on the methods through which you can accomplish the task. There are four different approaches to backup your SharePoint data.

• Using the Manual Solution
• Make use of Microsoft OneDrive Sync Client
• Windows PowerShell
• Use Professional Solution

Method 1. Manually Downloading Files from SharePoint Online

You can download the SharePoint files to the local storage by using the manual steps. Below are the manual steps through which you can download folder from SharePoint Online along with their files to the target location. But this method becomes cumbersome when you need to backup multiple files from SharePoint Online.

Step 1. Open the SharePoint Online Admin Center.
Step 2. Now, move to the Document Library.
Step 3. Select the file that you want to download and press right-click on it.
Step 4. Choose the Download option and save the location for the file to backup SharePoint 365 data locally.

Method 2. Use OneDrive Client Sync to Backup SharePoint Online Step By Step

There is an alternative solution to backup your SharePoint data without any hindrances. You can use the OneDrive sync client to store all the SharePoint files in the local storage with the below steps.

• Step 1. Open the SharePoint document library.
• Step 2. Hit on the Sync button from the nav bar.
• Step 3. From the opened pop-up, choose the Open Microsoft OneDrive option.

• Step 4. Follow the required steps to completely backup the SharePoint Online data locally.

This method has some disadvantages such as if you delete the SharePoint files then the data from the local device will be deleted automatically. You need to restore deleted SharePoint sites to get the data back.

Method 3. How to Backup SharePoint 365 Using Windows PowerShell?

SharePoint tasks are not only handled through the Admin Center but also from the PowerShell. Windows PowerShell commands are a simpler way to execute administrative tasks. If you are the administrator of SharePoint and have roles such as “db_owner” and “security admin” then you can backup the SharePoint Online data using the below commands.

Backup-SPSite -Identity -Path [-Force] [-NoSiteLock] [-UseSqlSnapshot] [-Verbose]

You can use the Force parameter to overwrite the earlier backup file. This PowerShell script reduce the time and efforts to create backup of SharePoint 365. But to execute them, you need to be good at it and sometimes they become risky. Due to this, the data might be lost or corrupted.

Method 4. Backup Your SharePoint Online Data to Another SharePoint Account

After discussing all of the above solutions, it is crystal clear that no one is highly secure and efficient. So, it’s time to move forward and check out the professional solution to backup the SharePoint data efficiently. One of the most demanded and Reliable SharePoint Migration Tool is the one that can transfer your SharePoint Lists, Libraries, Sites, and subsites to the destination platform as a backup.

This tool is the first choice of the SharePoint experts to store the SharePoint data to fulfill further requirements. It comprises several advanced features that simplify the backup process.

Download Now Purchase Now

If you are still confused between the methods, which one should I choose? Then take a look at the benefits of shifting the SharePoint data to another SharePoint account rather than storing it on the local storage.

Why Should You Choose the Professional Tool to Backup SharePoint 365 Data?

Explore the below steps and relate with them as per requirements.

1. Storing the Data to Local Storage using the above methods is not a secure way. There might be the chances of data loss from your local storage as well in some situations such as deletion of files unintentionally, corrupted storage, and so on. However, moving SharePoint data to another SharePoint cloud account preserves your data in any situation.
2. You do not need to be good at PowerShell or execute manual steps to download individual files. Just you need to perform the quick steps of the tool to move multiple files and folders to the destination account.
3. While backing up multiple SharePoint files, you need to track the process to ensure the expected time for the completion of the process. This is possible with the professional tool interactive dashboard easily.
4. Among the manual solutions, no one is taking surety to maintain the files and folder hierarchy. On the other hand, the professional tool maintains the data hierarchy and security as well.

How to Execute the Professional Tool?

Step 1. By clicking on the Download button, start downloading it and then Install it on your system.
Step 2. Choose the Source and Destination platforms as Office 365.
Step 3. Now tick the checkbox of the sites from the workload section.
Step 4. Provide the credentials for both Source and Destination accounts and validate them.
Step 5. Load the users into the tool by the available options and then hit the Start Migration button.

SharePoint Backup Best Practices

Knowing how to backup SharePoint 365 is not enough. You also need to be aware of the best practices that you should follow while creating a backup of SharePoint data.

• Schedule your SharePoint backup to create a backup for the latest SharePoint data.
• Inform the users to stop using SharePoint until the process is completed.
• Encrypt your SharePoint backup data to prevent it from data breaches.
• Validate the backup files to ensure the data integrity and security.

Final Words

How to backup SharePoint 365? It is a common query of Microsoft professionals. In this comprehensive write-up, we have elaborated on the four different approaches to backup your SharePoint Online data. You can go with the first three methods if you want to store backup on your local storage. But as we have discussed, local storage is also not the best solution to store backup files.

On the other hand, you can use a professional solution to store your backup on the cloud platform which is robust and secured.