Teams files - backup?

[JocelynK]

Good evening,

I am a teacher, and we are using Microsoft Teams to store, edit and share all of our school-wide documents as we think it’s brilliant, so helpful and easy to use.

However, we are not sure how these files are backed up? Upon further research, I am trying to substantiate whether these files are backed-up to One-Drive or whether they are not backed-up at all? I am aware of how Sharepoint and Teams correspond with one another, but I can’t work out whether this is synced or backed-up!

Please may somebody help me - I’m worried we will lose all of our important documents and data!

Thank you in advance!

Jocelyn

[#2]

Hi @JocelynK ,

To put it simply: SharePoint Online is the service on which many of the services in the Office 365 suite are built, including Teams: 

- All files shared in a Teams are in fact stored on the linked SharePoint site 

- All files shared in a meeting or chat are in fact stored in the OneDrive of the sharing user (OneDrive is "just" a SharePoint library)  

Microsoft does not offer data backup in SharePoint / OneDrive. In the shared responsibility model, it's up to the customer to make sure the data is protected.

In your case, you have three options: 

- Rely on SharePoint's native features: two levels of recycle garbage can with a 93-day retention period, file versioning, 30-day library restore, 14-day SharePoint site restore

- Use the native retention mechanisms to force file retention within the platform

- Invest in a third party tool that will allow you to retain copies of files (only if the above mechanisms do not meet your needs)

I have described the different native features in more detail in one article: https://www.thijoubert.com/2021-06/Backup/ (I wrote it in French...)

The native features do not cover everything, but already a very large number of use cases

Hope this helps! 

[#3]

Hello,

All of the file in Teams channel are saved on SharePoint site, only your 1:1 or group chat history are saved to OneDrive.