How to Backup Microsoft 365 Email, SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive in 2025
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Microsoft Disclaimer: Did you know Microsoft does not back up your M365 data (previously Office 365) outside of their cloud?
Your Exchange emails, Teams data, SharePoint sites, and OneDrive files are vulnerable to accidental or malicious deletion or corruption.
They are an open target for cyber criminals to encrypt and ransom your files.
It’s important to note that Microsoft does not provide automatic backup services for the data stored within Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365).
Relying solely on Microsoft to protect your data can put you at risk of permanent data loss in case of accidental deletion, data corruption, cyberattacks, or service outages.
This article explains how you can back up Microsoft 365 data using our BOBcloud UK Cloud Backup Service.
BOBcloud's Microsoft 365 backup features
Back up Your Critical M365 Data
Back up email, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive for Business
Protect your Microsoft 365 environment
Simplify complex backup sets containing on-premise Exchange and SharePoint environments
Fulfil your compliance objectives
Track Microsoft 365 backups and storage with real-time monitoring and reporting
Backup As A Service
Let our managed service handle your Microsoft 365 data protection with BaaS
Protect 1 – 1,000 accounts
BOBcloud Backup for Microsoft 365 is built to protect even the largest enterprises
Fast Restores
Find and restore M365 documents quickly and first time
How to back up M365 Data with BOBcloud
You can back up your Mailbox or multiple Mailboxes in your Organisation
Our Microsoft 365 backup module allows you to back up a single Exchange Mailbox, SharePoint Site, Teams and OneDrive data, or an entire organisation (global admin rights required).
Single M365 Account Backup
Entire M365 Organisation Backup
Selective M365 Organisation Backup
Restoring Your Microsoft 365 Data With BOBcloud
When you restore your Microsoft 365 data with BOBcloud, you have more options than all or nothing.
Many backup applications will restore your entire mailbox or SharePoint site, but ours works at the brick level. You can restore any single M365 entity, such as a single email.
Suppose you want to restore a single email or other M365 entity. In this case, you can restore it to the original M365 mailbox or another M365 mailbox or export the file as a PST, which Outlook can import.
- Restoring to the original M365 account: This is, of course, the easiest option. If you receive a priority one call requesting a restore, you complete the restore on the fly. The requestor doesn’t have to do anything because the data will be restored to the M365 cloud and synced back to their device in seconds.
- Restoring to another M365 account: How often have you wanted to restore M365 data from a user who has left the organisation and had their M365 account deleted? It is easy to restore their backed-up M365 data to another active M365 account or export it to a standalone PST file, which Outlook can import.
Why back up Microsoft 365 Data?
Your responsibility is to safeguard and protect the data you hold in their cloud environment.
Our solution is a native cloud-to-cloud backup that will back up and restore all your M365 data via the Microsoft Cloud. Because our Microsoft 365 backup is purely C2C, you can back up and restore it from your office or data centre.
BOBcloud’s M365 backup provides robust built-in data protection and recovery features because you never know what can happen to your data. Here are some key reasons why backing up your Microsoft 365 data is necessary:
- Accidental Deletion: Users can quickly delete important files and emails. Microsoft has no retention policy, making it impossible to recover historical data from M365. That is why it is essential to back up your Office data using a cloud backup service.
- Data Retention Policy: By default, Microsoft only keeps data for 30 days. After that, it is permanently deleted. If you need to recover your data after 30 days, you must have an independent backup.
- Ransomware Protection: Ransomware attacks are becoming more common, and M365 email isn’t safe. If your data is encrypted or compromised, a backup means you can restore your information without paying a ransom.
- Human Errors and Malicious Activities: It’s not just accidental deletion you have to worry about. Human errors, like overwriting data and intentional malicious activities, can also put your M365 data at risk. A cloud backup gives you extra protection against these kinds of incidents.
- Legal & Compliance: You will probably need to keep the data longer to comply with the laws and regulations. If the law requests specific data and you lose access to it after some time, you may face non-compliance cases and hefty fines.
- Data loss with unlimited retention: Microsoft 365’s native recovery tools are limited. With our service, you can set your file retention period from one day to infinity, ensuring your data is always retrievable.
- Security threats: Microsoft 365 is a prime target for hackers and malicious actors. If your account is compromised, your data may be stolen, corrupted, or deleted. A backup can help you quickly and easily recover from a security breach.
How Does Microsoft 365 Work?
Microsoft 365 operates on a cloud-based infrastructure, storing your data across multiple data centres. Microsoft employs redundancy and replication techniques to ensure high availability and fault tolerance.
It’s important to note that Microsoft primarily designs its infrastructure for service availability rather than comprehensive data backup.
Microsoft takes multiple snapshots of your data, known as point-in-time backups or recoverable items. Depending on the data type, these backups are kept for a specific duration, typically 30 days.
These backups primarily serve short-term recovery scenarios, such as recovering an accidentally deleted email or file. They are not a reliable long-term backup solution.
Is My Microsoft 365 Data Really Safe?
Microsoft 365 offers robust security features to protect your data from unauthorised access. However, it’s essential to understand that Microsoft doesn’t provide automatic backups for your emails, SharePoint sites, and OneDrive files.
While Microsoft safeguards your data from external threats, it’s still vulnerable to accidental deletion, data corruption, or even ransomware attacks.
What Happens When You Delete a File in Microsoft 365?
Unlike traditional storage systems, in which deleted files might reside in a recycle bin for some time, Microsoft 365 operates differently. When you delete a file in M365, it’s moved to a temporary holding area.
Here’s the catch: Microsoft only retains deleted items for a specific period, typically between 14 and 30 days, depending on the data type. After that timeframe, the deleted data is permanently erased and becomes unrecoverable through Microsoft’s native tools.
The Hidden Risks of Accidental Deletion and Data Corruption
Accidental file deletion is common, and in M365, it can lead to permanent data loss if not addressed promptly. Beyond unintentional deletion, data corruption can also pose a threat. Corrupted files might become inaccessible or unusable, hindering productivity and causing information gaps.
Are Ransomware Attacks a Threat to My M365 Data?
Ransomware is malware that encrypts your files, rendering them inaccessible. Hackers then demand a ransom payment to decrypt your data. While Microsoft has security measures, M365 isn’t entirely immune to ransomware attacks.
A backup ensures you have a clean copy of your data to restore in case of an attack, avoiding the need to pay a ransom. Check out more about BOBcloud’s ransomware recovery services.
Conclusion
Regarding security, Microsoft 365 is a reliable platform. However, you should only expect to obtain a partial data backup after subscribing to this service.
Data recovery may be impossible, as most systems provide limited recovery periods.
A dependable backup system for your Microsoft 365 data helps you establish better control, assurance, and timelier access to your information should interruptions occur.
With such data protection, it is possible to avoid business losses by protecting essential business data and data from any damage that would lead to costly downtimes.
All our Microsoft 365 Backup and Restore articles.
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Great article.