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SharePoint Online Backups
Hi, We are using SharePoint Online with a single site collection and a number of sub-sites. We are at the stage were we are considering Backup policies/solutions. What exactly is the default situation, i.e. if a user accidently delete a file today, how long into the future can that file be retrieved? Is this configurable and what other options should we consider? Thank you for your time, Ollie
- A deleted file or item can be recovered from the Recycle bin for 93 days.
Also in a document library, 500 versions of files are stored, so in the event of a file being overwritten / corrupted, you can restore a previous version.
You could configure retention policies, so any file changes or deletions are captured and retained for a defined period - e.g. for a Finance site, perhaps retain for 7 years.
Ollie Microsoft right now does not have any backup option. Although they allow third-party applications to partner with them to provide the type of services you are looking for. I searched for some solutions myself and found the following list. In no particular order,
Spanning
SysCloud
Backupify
As jcgonzalezmartin mentioned Microsoft does not have granular backup/restore but you can get these features through AvePoint which offers complete Office 365 coverage. Data would also be backed up for up to for times a day and you would be able to retrieve it at any time in the future. You can read more about the product here.
Ollie- And by the way, Microsoft does not provide granular backup and restore, so you are limited to the options mentioned by Rob
- A deleted file or item can be recovered from the Recycle bin for 93 days.
Also in a document library, 500 versions of files are stored, so in the event of a file being overwritten / corrupted, you can restore a previous version.
You could configure retention policies, so any file changes or deletions are captured and retained for a defined period - e.g. for a Finance site, perhaps retain for 7 years.I agree with the points noted by Rob Ellis . However, Rob said 'You could configure retention policies, so any file changes or deletions are captured and retained for a defined period - e.g. for a Finance site, perhaps retain for 7 years.'
If you create a retention policy (in the O365 Security and Compliance admin portal under 'Classifications') and apply it to a SharePoint document library, it is not possible to delete anything from that library, which we found can be annoying for end users. If you don't want end users to delete, uncheck the delete option from the group (contribute/edit) permissions.
You might also consider breaking up your single site collection and creating more context-specific sites from the existing sub-sites, then applying site specific permissions and retention policies to the libraries.
Also consider, if you have Win10 devices, asking users to use the 'Sync' option in the libraries to sync the content to their local machines. Our end users quickly adopted this option to avoid having to go to the browser every time, and often said that they considered the browser based version as the 'cloud back up'.
AndrewWarland regarding the deletion issue - that sounds like you are using labels, rather than a site level retention policy.
There is a difference in behaviour when applying a label with associated retention, I agree. I documented it here.
