Backing Up Google Workspace Drive

What items can be backed up?

You can back up an entire Google Drive, or individual files and folders. Optionally, you can choose to back up files that are shared with the Google Drive user.

Files are backed up together with their sharing permissions.

The following items are skipped during a backup:

  • A shared file, if the user has a commenter or viewer access to the file and the file owner disabled the options to download, print, and copy for commenters and viewers.
  • The Computers folder (created by the Backup and Sync client)

Limitations

  • Out of Google-specific file formats, only Google docs, Google sheets, Google slides, and Google Drawings are backed up.

What items can be recovered?

You can recover an entire Google Drive, or any file or folder that was backed up.

You can use search to locate items in a backup, unless the backup is encrypted. Search in encrypted backups is not supported.

You can choose whether to recover the sharing permissions or let the files inherit the permissions from the folder to which they are recovered.

Limitations

  • Comments in files are not recovered.
  • Sharing links for files and folders are not recovered.
  • The read-only Owner settings for shared files (Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people and Disable options to download, print and copy for commenters and viewers) cannot be changed during a recovery.
  • Ownership of a shared folder cannot be changed during a recovery if the Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people option is enabled for this folder. This setting prevents the Google Drive API from listing the folder permissions. Ownership of the files in the folder is recovered correctly.


To backup Google Drive files

  1. Click Google Workspace.
  2. If multiple Google Workspace organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization 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.
    • 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 protection plan panel:

    • Ensure that the Google Drive 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 protection 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.

    • If you want to back up the files that are shared with the selected users, enable the Include shared files switch.
    • If you want to enable notarization of all files selected for backup, enable the Notarization switch. For more information about notarization.

    What is notarization?

    

Notarization enables you to prove that a file is authentic and unchanged since it was backed up. We recommend that you enable notarization when backing up your legal document files or other files that require proved authenticity.

Notarization is available only for backups of Google Drive files and Google Workspace Shared drive files.

How to use notarization

To enable notarization of all files selected for backup, enable the Notarization switch when creating a protection plan.

When configuring recovery, the notarized files will be marked with a special icon, and you can verify the file authenticity.

If notarization was enabled during backup, you can verify the authenticity of a backed-up file.

To verify the file authenticity

  1. Do one of the following:

    • To verify the authenticity of a Google Drive file, select the file.
    • To verify the authenticity of a Google Workspace Shared drive file, select the file.
  2. Ensure that the selected file is marked with the following icon: . This means that the file is notarized.
  3. Do one of the following:

    • Click Verify.

      The software checks the file authenticity and displays the result.

    • Click Get certificate.

      A certificate that confirms the file notarization is opened in a web browser window. The window also contains instructions that allow you to verify the file authenticity manually.


Recovery of Entire Drive

  1. Click Google Workspace.
  2. If multiple Google Workspace organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up data you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
  3. Expand the Users node, select All users, select the user whose Google Drive you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

    If the user was deleted, select the user in the Cloud applications backups section of the Backup storage tab, and then click Show backups.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.

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

  5. Click Recover > Entire Drive.
  6. If multiple Google Workspace organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Google Workspace organization to view, change, or specify the target organization.

    By default, the original organization is selected. If this organization is no longer registered in the Cyber Protection service, you must select a new target organization from the available registered organizations.

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

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

    If the backup contains shared files, the files will be recovered to the root folder of the target drive.

  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.


Recovery of Drive Items

  1. Click Google Workspace.
  2. If multiple Google Workspace organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up data you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
  3. Expand the Users node, select All users, select the user whose Google Drive files you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

    If the user was deleted, select the user in the Cloud applications backups section of the Backup storage tab, and then click Show backups.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.

    To see only the recovery points that contain Google Drive files, select Google Drive 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.

    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 a file, select the file, click Download, select the location to save the file to, and then click Save. Otherwise, skip this step.
  9. Click Recover.
  10. If multiple Google Workspace organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Google Workspace organization to view, change, or specify the target organization.

    By default, the original organization is selected. If this organization is no longer registered in the Cyber Protection service, you must select a new target organization from the available registered organizations.

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

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

  12. In Path, view or change the target folder in the target user's Google Drive or in the target Shared drive. 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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