Key Takeaways:
- Native Microsoft retention isn’t enough: Recycle bins and short retention windows don’t deliver full compliance or ransomware protection.
- Third‑party backup is essential for safeguarding SharePoint Online and on‑premises data against accidental deletion, corruption, and cyberattacks.
- Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) are different but complementary: Continuity keeps operations running, DR gets things back up after major incidents.
- Regulatory compliance requires verifiable backups: Immutable storage and audit‑ready recovery logs prove readiness.
- Automation and orchestration cut recovery time: Policy‑driven jobs and one‑click testing ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met.
SharePoint’s native integration with Microsoft 365 makes it a popular tool for collaboration and content sharing. Organizations often find themselves storing, organizing, and sharing significant amounts of data on SharePoint Online or an on-premises SharePoint server, which makes it crucial to regularly back up the platform.
While Microsoft offers built‑in retention and restore features, these native tools are intended for limited, short‑term recovery, not the comprehensive data resilience or DR needed to protect against long‑term loss, corruption, or major outages.
In this blog, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of SharePoint backup as well as how Veeam’s backup service, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, addresses this critical need.
Understanding SharePoint Backup
SharePoint is a central hub for collaboration, whether that means hosting sites, document libraries, lists, workflows, and even Microsoft Teams files. It stores business‑critical content, but like all platforms, it’s not immune to data loss. While Microsoft includes features to prevent unauthorized access and recover from accidental deletion, these native tools are designed for short‑term, limited recovery and can’t fully protect against every threat.
Common causes of SharePoint data loss include:
- Corrupted storage in on‑premises SharePoint instances
- Fire, flood, or other natural disasters that impact infrastructure
- Ransomware or other cyberattacks
- Compromised admin credentials
- Malicious or accidental actions by authorized users
SharePoint faces many of the same security risks as Microsoft 365. Without a dedicated backup and recovery solution, recovery options can be limited or incomplete.
Types of data stored in SharePoint include:
- Microsoft Forms data
- Lists and document libraries
- SharePoint site databases and configuration data
- Files shared via Microsoft 365 and Teams
It’s important to remember that SharePoint wasn’t designed to be a primary data store. However, it often houses business‑critical content. For example, Microsoft Teams files and tabs are stored in SharePoint Online by default. To ensure continuous access, compliance, and resilience, it’s essential to have a purpose‑built backup policy that covers both Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.
How to Back Up SharePoint
There are several potential approaches to backing up SharePoint, depending on how the instance is managed. However, only some of these approaches are effective at protecting against catastrophic data loss.
Manually Copying Files
Taking backups of key data, such as any files in the Documents or Forms folders, can offer some protection against unexpected data loss. However, many important pieces of data are stored in databases or folders that aren’t accessible to all users.
Manual backups are error-prone and time-consuming, making this the least efficient option. Not only is it easy to overlook an important file, folder, or database, but it’s also difficult to confirm backup integrity, and any restoration process would take time.
While this method is sufficient if you only need to back up a single file, in most cases, it’s better to use any of the other backup methods mentioned below.
Using Recycling Bin and Version History
SharePoint retains version histories for files, allowing for easy data recovery if a user mistakenly redacts or overwrites part of a document. It also has long retention policies to prevent accidental data deletion.
When a user deletes a file, it’s moved to the recycle bin. By default, files stay here for 93 days before they’re truly deleted. If a file is deleted from the recycle bin, it’s held for another 14 days. The SharePoint administrator (or Microsoft technical support for SharePoint Online) can still recover the file during this period.
These retention policies are useful as insurance against accidental file deletion. However, they shouldn’t be relied upon as a replacement for a full backup and recovery plan because they won’t protect against ransomware or catastrophic hardware failure. In addition, retention configuration is frequently prone to user error.
SharePoint Central Administration
SharePoint Central Administration is a tool in the SharePoint suite that offers useful backup features. SharePoint site administrators can back up a SharePoint site collection by logging on to Central Administration and using the Backup and Restore feature on the home page.
This feature is useful for ad hoc local backups. However, Central Administration lacks automation and testing features, which makes it impractical for long-term, frequent backup use.
Windows PowerShell
PowerShell is a convenient way to perform administrative tasks, and SharePoint backups are no exception. A SharePoint site administrator who holds the “db_owner” and “securityadmin” roles and is also a member of the Administrators group on the server can perform a backup of a SharePoint site by running the following in a PowerShell command prompt:
Backup-SPSite -Identity <SiteCollectionGUIDorURL> -Path <BackupFile> [-Force] [-NoSiteLock] [-UseSqlSnapshot] [-Verbose]
Replace:
<SiteCollectionGUIDorURL> with the ID or URL of the site collection to back up
<BackupFile> with the path to your desired backup file.
You can apply the Force parameter to overwrite a previously created backup file. The NoSiteLock parameter prevents the site collection from having a read-only lock applied while the backup is running.
PowerShell scripts can automate the process of taking regular backups. This makes PowerShell a popular choice for creating regular local backups of a site collection.
Utilizing Third-Party SharePoint Backup Tools
Third-party tools, such as Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, can be used by any sized organization, but are especially useful for enterprises that need to protect larger SharePoint instances and when offsite backups or automation features are desired. They offer features to save time and ensure reliable backups, such as:
- Off-site backups
- Backup policy tiering
- Backup and integrity testing automation
- Microsoft API support for native data protection
- Granular and bulk recovery features
- Native support for SharePoint and Microsoft 365
What are SharePoint Backup Best Practices
Consider the following when planning and implementing a SharePoint backup strategy:
- Frequency: Set a suitable backup schedule and automate your backups to ensure you adhere to that schedule.
- Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule: Aim for at least three copies of the data on at least two different media, with one copy kept off-site. Don’t count the production environment in these metrics.
- Use immutable off-site backups: Local copies don’t offer protection against catastrophic events such as fires or floods. Off-site backups are essential, and immutable (or air-gapped) copies offer optimal protection.
- Encrypt data for maximum security: Store sensitive data in an end-to-end encrypted form to prevent data breaches. Depending on your industry and location, you may be required to follow certain regulatory requirements that relate to off-site data processing.
- Test your backups: Use automated tools to test the integrity of each backup as it’s made.
- Review your policies regularly: Confirm your backups cover all the data on your SharePoint instance and that your procedures meet your RPOs and RTOs.
Use monitoring and analytics to keep an eye on your Microsoft 365 backup processes and identify problems early. Being able to access real-time data about your backup procedures can alert you to issues such as low storage or unstable internet connections, which could make future backups problematic.
Common SharePoint Backup Issues and Solutions
SharePoint is an expansive product, and it’s easy to miss data when planning your backup processes. Some common challenges include:
- Multitenancy environments: Many backup solutions are incapable of handling data from more than one subscription.
- Corrupted uploads: Large data files may become corrupted if the internet connection is unstable.
- Unsupported applications: Some backup solutions that claim to cover Microsoft 365 have limited support for SharePoint. Even if they can take a backup, data restoration may be a challenge.
- Limited support for hybrid deployments: Databases or folders may be overlooked when backing up a hybrid SharePoint on-premises and SharePoint Online environment.
- Failed locking: It’s possible to put an environment in read-only mode while taking a backup. If this fails, data held on a SharePoint site may be accidentally changed partway through the backup process.
Methods for restoring data from a SharePoint backup depend on whether the SharePoint site is hosted on-premises or as a SharePoint Online site. Data recovery using Microsoft’s own backup solutions is simple:
Restore Options
When data is lost or damaged in SharePoint, recovery speed and completeness matter. Microsoft provides native restore capabilities, such as restoring a shared library, but these options can be limited in scope and retention. For organizations that need granular, flexible, and compliant recovery, Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 offers advanced restore functionality.
Restore a Shared Library (Native)
To recover a shared library that was deleted, corrupted, or otherwise lost, simply:
- Go to the relevant SharePoint document library
- Select Settings > Restore this library
- Choose the date and time of the restore point you’d like to recover.
- If you’re not sure which date to choose, review the activity feed to find the most recent, uncorrupted version.
- Select Restore
Restore with Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365
Veeam offers a variety of ways to recover SharePoint data.
The restore wizard supports restoring files to the original location or a new location, and it gives you granular control over versions.
Select the file(s) or site(s) you’d like to recover and the point in time you’d like to go back to, and the Explorer tool handles the rest.
Why Third-Party Backup for SharePoint?
Native SharePoint protection, such as recycle bins, retention policies, and version history, helps with minor, short‑term recoveries. However, it’s not designed for long‑term resilience, compliance, or DR.
A third‑party backup solution addresses these gaps by:
- Extending retention beyond Microsoft defaults: Meeting industry and regulatory requirements.
- Protecting against ransomware and insider threats with immutable, isolated backups.
- Enabling granular recovery of sites, libraries, lists, files, and metadata.
- Providing portability: Restoring data across tenants, regions, or hybrid environments.
- Validating recoverability through automated testing and reporting.
For organizations relying on SharePoint Online or on‑premises deployments, third‑party backup ensures complete, verifiable copies of your data are always available, even if Microsoft’s native tools can’t restore exactly what you need, when you need it.
Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery in SharePoint
BC and DR address different aspects of resilience in SharePoint. Understanding the distinction is key to building a complete protection strategy. Organizations need both to minimize downtime, prevent data loss, and meet compliance requirements.
- Business continuity (BC):
Focuses on keeping SharePoint services available during everyday disruptions, such as accidental deletions or system failures. Native SharePoint retention features can assist to maintain operations with minimal interruptions, but only in a limited way. Deleted SharePoint sites and items are permanently gone after 93 days, so there is a finite window of recovery, unlike backup solutions, which typically have customizable retention periods and provide granular, point-in-time recovery options. - Disaster Recovery (DR):
Involves restoring SharePoint sites and items after a major data‑loss event, such as a large-scale ransomware or malware event. Currently, Microsoft SharePoint does not provide any out-of-the-box DR capabilities. However, Microsoft have provided solutions like Veeam with a Microsoft 365 Backup API to offer customers DR capabilities for SharePoint and other Microsoft 365 datasets. This allows for large-scale restores in bulk, optimized for large data volumes, offering speeds of 1TB-3TB per hour. This allows organizations to quickly bounce back from disaster.
BC keeps your teams working; DR gets them back online when the worst happens. Relying solely on native BC features leaves gaps in your data resilience strategy. A third‑party solution like Veeam Data cloud for Microsoft provides both BC and DR, ensuring uptime for daily operations and rapid recovery after catastrophic events.
SharePoint Backup and Recovery with Veeam
Protecting SharePoint data, whether in SharePoint Online, on‑premises, or hybrid deployments, requires more than Microsoft’s native retention tools. Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 delivers purpose‑built backup and recovery that’s designed to safeguard the entire SharePoint environment and meet both BC and DR objectives.
| Comprehensive Coverage | Veeam backs up the full scope of SharePoint content and configuration, including: • Sites, subsites, and site collections • Document libraries and lists • Microsoft Forms data • Metadata and permissions • Configuration databases • Teams files stored in SharePoint Online |
| Granular and Flexible Restore | Recover exactly what you need, from individual documents to entire sites, and restore to: • The original location • A different SharePoint site or tenant • Alternative platforms such as OneDrive or local storage |
| Resilience and Compliance | • Immutable backups protect against ransomware and unauthorized changes. • Extended retention meets industry and regulatory requirements. • Audit‑ready reporting proves recoverability for compliance audits. |
What separates Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 from other solutions is its ability to help organizations recover from any cyberattack or DR scenario, no matter how big or small, whether that means restoring individual SharePoint documents for users, or implementing a bulk recovery of all your organization’s SharePoint sites.
Discover how Veeam can assist with your backup for Microsoft 365 and SharePoint backup and recovery needs.
Contact us today to schedule a demonstration or take a tour of Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 now!
FAQs
How long does SharePoint retain a backup?
Microsoft takes full backups of each site collection on SharePoint Online every 12 hours, and backups are retained for 14 days. If a user deletes a file, it’s moved to a recycle bin for 93 days. Files manually removed from the recycle bin are held for an additional 14 days and can be recovered by contacting Microsoft Support.
How often should I back up my SharePoint data?
While Microsoft does its own backups of SharePoint Online, these are intended for DR only, not customer-requested restore jobs. SharePoint admins should make their own backups in accordance with their tolerance for data loss.
Is SharePoint good for long-term storage?
SharePoint can be used for long-term data storage and may be a suitable option if you wish to share this information with others. However, Microsoft offers other options, such as Azure Storage, which is designed expressly for securely storing data with lower-cost, long-term retention options and may be a better choice.
What should I include in my SharePoint backup?
A SharePoint backup should include data files and the contents of any databases for web applications, along with configuration data for the SharePoint farm itself, for ease of recovery.
How do I handle DR for SharePoint Online?
Microsoft ensures high availability for SharePoint Online but doesn’t guarantee full DR of your data. Native tools offer limited restore windows and scope. For complete protection, use a third‑party solution to ensure that SharePoint Online data is always available and can be recovered, whether for a file-level restore or large-scale bulk recovery.
