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How to back-up a Office 365 SharePoint Online site and data

  • Article

If you are considering moving you data and documents to Office 365, you might wonder how you can perform the reverse operation - move data from Microsoft Online Services to file shares or to a local computer (called off-boarding). In this version of Microsoft Online Services, this is a manual process using the “Connect & Export” section of the Ribbon in SharePoint Online. This section is contextual and will be slightly different depending if you are in a Document Library:

or in a List:

or in a Calendar, Contact list a.s.o

So - which commands to use when? Below you’ll find a table listing which commands you can use to save a SharePoint document library or list content from a SharePoint Online environment to file shares, or to a local computer.

 

SharePoint Online Element

Backup Using

Ribbon Command

Calendars

Outlook

Connect to Outlook

Contacts

Outlook

Connect to Outlook

Discussion Lists

Outlook

Connect to Outlook

Document Libraries

Outlook

Connect to Outlook

Document Libraries

SharePoint Workspace

Sync to SharePoint Workspace

Document Libraries

Windows Explorer

Open with Explorer

List Content

Access

Open with Access

List Content

Excel

Export to Spreadsheet

Tasks

Outlook

Connect to Outlook

You need to be owner of the content or administrator to perform the above actions. Furthermore you must be aware of a couple of known limitations when it comes to downloading documents and exporting lists.

Document Libraries

SharePoint document libraries can contain many different types of files and SharePoint maintains information about each file that it stores. Most of this other information is not preserved when files are downloaded. For example, the following information is not preserved when a file is downloaded using Outlook or Explorer:

  • Document properties
  • File access permissions
  • Relative links between files
  • Workflow information
  • Versioning information
  • Templates

Lists

SharePoint list content must be exported to Office Excel or to an Access database. Simple lists can be exported to Excel. However, if the content of a single cell exceeds Excel’s maximum cell size limit (32,767 characters), the information that exceeds that maximum is lost. If your lists contain large cells, you should export to Access.

SharePoint lists are used to host complex data like Wikis and Blogs. These complex data forms consist of several tables. For example, Blog tables are: Categories, Posts, Comments, Links, and Other Blogs. For the best results, export Wikis and Blogs to Access. When exported to Access, each of these tables is exported correctly, but all properties, permissions, and relationships between tables and contents are lost.

Sites

You can save your SharePoint Online site (including lists, views, workflows, logos, and other elements) as a template. You can also choose to include the contents of the site in the template.

By using this method, the template you create will contain the same files (for instance, the same .PDFs, .docx, and .xlsx files) as were on the site from which the template was made, up to a limit of 50 MB.

Attempt to create a template of a site and include greater than 50 MB of content will result in an error message stating “Error creating solution. The maximum total file size limit (52428800 bytes) has been exceeded.”

See the article "Save a SharePoint Online site as a template" - link for details.

See also

  • Migrating Content Between SharePoint Online Site Collections - link
  • Information about manual migration of Sharepoint Online content in Office 365 - link (last updated Nov 17 2012)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I share your pain. Hope this gets better down the road.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Is there an option to import the list back into sharepoint? how do i use the data that i backup again?

  • Anonymous
    January 04, 2012
    This is called 蛋疼 in Chinese.

  • Anonymous
    February 24, 2012
    We have an application that downloads 365 data to offline usage. See our web site at www.extelligentdesign.com/.../Office365%20Exporter.aspx

  • Anonymous
    April 07, 2012
    If you wish to Backup your Office 365 SharePoint then MetaVis have a product to do this check out this link for details www.sharepointedutech.com/.../backing-up-office-365-at-last-an-answer

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2013
    We just released a cloud backup for SharePoint online, walkthrough here: community.zevenseas.com/.../Post.aspx Hope that helps. Daniel

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 03, 2013
    There is a solution for sharepoint content migration beetwen site / cloud: www.harepoint.com/.../Default.aspx - it allows to export / import a​ll supported data types in SharePoint.

  • Anonymous
    February 09, 2014
    I tried a trial of the Metavis solution and found it buggy and unreliable. I would have paid if it worked. Still searching for a solution.

  • Anonymous
    February 27, 2014
    We just released our SharePoint Online automated daily backup service, including OneDrive for Business. You can get more information on our SharePoint and Office 365 backups, as well as sign up for a free trial (no cc required) at http://www.cloudally.com. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback at murray@cloudally.com.

  • Anonymous
    May 20, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2014
    Unfortunately SharePoint Workspace is no longer used, and there is nothing here about how to back up an access database published as a SharePoint Online App.

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2014
    Pingback from Include a Back Up Method Before Implementing SharePoint Online | Blogging Thoughts on SharePoint

  • Anonymous
    July 22, 2014
    Activate daily backups for all selected users with office 365 domain. Backup for office 365 you gain all emails, daily automated backups and more. Read more abouthttp://www.cloudally.com/Blog/2013/03/12/office-365-do-we-need-to-backup-our-own-data/">office 365 backup from this blog.

  • Anonymous
    August 27, 2014
    I also backup my office 365 with CloudAlly. Very easy to use and it works quit well. I recommend it.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2015
    Not every kind of site can be saved as a template. In fact, even Team sites will not be saved if publishing features are on. I am searching for a full description of what can and cannot be saved.

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 12, 2015
    Hi Jesper_Osgaard, nice article , is that possible to take SharePoint online Site Collection backup using CSOM in Powershell?

  • Anonymous
    December 23, 2015
    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tomvan/archive/2015/12/23/restore-options-in-sharepoint-online-must-read.aspx

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2016
    Not that I'm counting but I just realized one of my blog posts actually is closing in on 100k views

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2016
    I do not understand how this can happen. The truth, sharepoint online brings more problems than solutions. This is a vital and basic need !!, should be the easiest thing to do.How do we continue ?, Breaking our heads, or at least me :(

  • Anonymous
    December 08, 2017
    Hi, one of our customers ask if it is possible to backup the entire share point data base in office 365. Is this possible or not?There are som products that claims they can backup office 365 share point and restore.What shall I tell the customer?Best RegardsJohan

  • Anonymous
    March 08, 2018
    Thank you