Today is World Backup Day, and nobody is celebrating. That's the point. If backup is doing its job, you never think about it.
My name is Gaia Carini and I've been a Product Manager on the OneDrive team for over a decade. A big part of my job has been making backup invisible. Your stuff should just be safe.
New laptop, same everything
I got a new personal laptop last month. I have over half a terabyte of files in my personal OneDrive. Years of tax returns, downloaded copies of important documents, personal projects, things I don't think about day to day but would absolutely miss if it were gone. Moving all of that to a new machine used to mean a full day of copying, waiting, and hoping nothing got lost.
This time, I didn't move anything. Folder backup had been syncing my Desktop, Documents, and Pictures to OneDrive in the background for years. Every file I saved locally was already in the cloud.
I signed in my new Windows computer with my personal Microsoft account, and then headed to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast. Came back to my files syncing and my Desktop looking exactly like it used to.
Windows Backup restored my apps and settings too, right down to my wallpaper, a photo from our family trip to Italy.
Set up folder backup: PC | Mac
Learn more about Windows Backup
The video you can't reshoot
Folder backup covers your laptop. But what about your phone?
Last week, my son sat down at his toy laptop with a cup of pretend coffee and told me he had a meeting. I grabbed my phone, got the video, and moved on with my day. Those moments happen fast. You get maybe three seconds before a toddler moves on to the next thing, and they never do it the same way twice.
I didn't think twice about it because Camera Roll Backup is already running. It uploads photos and videos to OneDrive automatically, and it's on my laptop almost instantly. Bedtime photos, first wobbly steps, all of it backed up before I even lock my phone.
If you haven't turned on Camera Roll Backup yet, do it now and avoid what happened to one of my friends last summer. She had her phone stolen and lost months of photos and videos. You can’t recapture those moments so take 30 seconds to set up.
Set up camera roll backup: Android | iOS
Two days of work, gone overnight
Backup protects your files from device loss. But what about everyday accidents?
Last year, I spent two days polishing a deck for an executive review. Formatting every slide, tightening the narrative, getting the data just right. I was collaborating with teammates, and someone accidentally saved over a bunch of my changes. I opened the file the night before the meeting and my stomach dropped. Two days of work, gone. I had twelve hours to redo it all, and half of that was supposed to be sleep.
But, because the file was in OneDrive, it took about ten seconds to fix. OneDrive keeps previous versions of every file it syncs. Right-click the file, select Version history, pick the version of the file that was saved before the overwrite, and then click Restore. Done. I closed my laptop and went to bed. Learn more
Accidentally delete the file instead? That's covered too. OneDrive keeps deleted files in the recycle bin for 30 days on personal accounts and 93 days on work or school accounts. Learn more
The same features protect a client presentation at work and a family budget at home. And if you're an IT admin, you get additional controls to manage version retention, compliance policies, and storage at scale.
When ransomware hits close to home
Version history handles accidental changes. But, what about something more serious?
A family friend clicked on something they shouldn't have. An attachment that looked like an invoice from a vendor they actually work with. Within minutes, their files started changing. Familiar documents suddenly had strange extensions they'd never seen before. They couldn't open anything. Then came the email asking for bitcoin.
They called me in a panic, not sure if they should pay, not sure if paying would even work. I walked them through OneDrive's ransomware recovery. OneDrive had detected the attack and flagged the affected files. They restored their entire OneDrive to the moment before the attack, every file, back to normal. No ransom paid.
With a personal Microsoft 365 subscription, you can restore your entire OneDrive to any point in the last 30 days. Not just one file. Everything. OneDrive detects the attack and walks you through the recovery. Learn more
At work, OneDrive monitors suspicious activity like bulk deletes and notifies you so you can take action. You can restore your OneDrive the same way. For an even more powerful restore experience for very large OneDrive accounts, we recommend enabling Microsoft 365 Backup, specifically designed for organizations large and small. Learn more
The 60-second checklist
For you:
- Turn on folder backup on your laptop (PC | Mac)
- Turn on Camera Roll Backup on your phone (Android | iOS)
- Turn on apps and settings backup on your PC (Learn more)
For your organization:
- Set up Known Folder Move so your organization's files are automatically backed up (Learn more)
- Review Sync Ideal State for recommended OneDrive Sync settings for your organization (Learn more)
- Check out Microsoft 365 Backup for enterprise-grade restore capabilities (Learn more)
Happy World Backup Day. Follow those few steps today and someday, when something goes wrong, you'll be glad you invested a little time today.
Microsoft