1292 - How to manage your Google Drive backups

Backup and recovery of Google Drive form part of our Google service offering. We can also protect Google App Scripts, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms and Jamboards as part of your Drive contents. See this end note for more detail.

For more on what functionality we support, click here.

• Note: To use the service, you need to be both a Redstor collection administrator, and a Google super administrator for your tenant organisation. You will also need to enable certain permissions in Google. See our setup video for assistance.

Use the guide below to manage your Google Drive backups.

How to add a backup set

How to add a drive to a backup set

How to configure the backup schedule for a backup set

How to recover a backup set

How to delete a backup set

How to change a backup set's name

How to add a backup set

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. To add a new backup set, Go to Google Workspace in the sidebar on the left.

3. Click Add at the top right.

4. Select Drive and click Next. 

5. If you have not yet set up permissions for Redstor in Google, you will need to do so now. Click How to set up or this link for instructions. If you have already set up your organisation, select it from the drop-down menu, then click Next.

6. You will now be taken to your Drive home page, where you will see a summary of your drives. When a new backup set is created, we include all drives by default. To make changes to your backup set, go to Backup selection > Edit.

7. Select/deselect the relevant drive(s) and click Save. The Backup button will be enabled. Click on it to start your first backup.

You can then monitor the progress of your backup from the home page.

Note:

• Version history will not be backed up.

How to add a drive to a backup set

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. On the home page for the relevant Drive backup set, click on Backup selection > Edit.

3. Select the name(s) of the drive(s) you want to add to this backup set and click Save. (You can also use the Search field to find a specific drive.) Click Backup to start a backup or Cancel to go back.

4. The drives will now be listed under Backup selection on the backup set's home page.

How to configure the backup schedule for a backup set

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. On the home page for the relevant Drive backup set, click on Backup Schedule > Edit.

3. Set your preferences and click on the check mark.

How to recover a backup set

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. On the home page for the relevant Drive backup set, click on Recover. This option will only be available if a backup of the set has successfully completed.

3. Select what you want to do:

• Recover back to Drive recovers the drive's data to its original location. 
• Recover using Redstor InstantData generates a shareable link that can be used to recover the drive's data.

4. If you selected Recover back to Drive, select the applicable drive(s) and click Recover. You can also select a different backup date to recover by using the Date drop-down, or use the Search field to find a specific drive or single item to recover.

5. If you selected Recover using Redstor InstantData, select how long you want the InstantData link(s) to be valid. 

Select the applicable drive(s) and click Recover. From there, follow these steps to recover your data.

Note: Original timestamps, metadata and permissions will not be restored.

How to delete a backup set

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. On the home page for the relevant Drive backup set, click on the ellipsis to expand more options, then click Delete.

3. Confirm the deletion by clicking Yes.

How to change a backup set's name

1. Log into the Redstor web app.

2. On the home page for the relevant Drive backup set, click on the ellipsis to expand more options, then click Edit.

3. Enter the new name for the backup set and click the check mark.

Backup and restore of Google Apps

The data from these applications is exported into a portable format and can then be accessed through InstantData. 

• App Scripts are backed up as .json files
• Docs are backed up in Microsoft Word (.docx) format
• Sheets are backed up in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format
• Slides are backed up in Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) format
• Drawings are backed up as SVG
• Forms are backed up into a zip file containing the form layout and results
• Jamboards are backed up as PDF files

For these file types, files up to 10MB in size can be opened by the source application or in their exported format after recovery:

• Docs/.docx
• Sheets/.xlsx
• Slides/.pptx
• App Scripts/.json

• Drawings (SVG)
• Forms - zip with form layout (HTML) and results (.csv)
• Jamboards (.pdf)