Protecting Microsoft 365 Teams

What items can be backed up?

  • You can back up entire teams. This includes team name, team members list, team channels and their content, team mailbox and meetings, and team site.

What items can be recovered?

  • Entire team
  • Team channels
  • Channel files
  • Team mailbox
  • Email folders in the team mailbox
  • Email messages in the team mailbox
  • Meetings
  • Team site

You cannot recover conversations in team channels, but you can download them as a single html file.

Limitations

The following items are not backed up:

  • The settings of the general channel (moderation preferences) – due to Microsoft Teams beta API limitation.
  • The settings of the custom channels (moderation preferences) – due to a Microsoft Teams beta API limitation.
  • Meeting notes.
  • Private conversations – one-on-one chats and group chats.
  • Stickers and praises.

Backup and recovery are supported for the following channel tabs:

  • Word
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • PDF
  • Document Library

Files that are shared in private channels are backed up, but not restored due to an API limitation.

Backing Up Microsoft 365 teams

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose teams you want to back up. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • To back up all the teams in the organization (including teams that will be created in the future), expand the Teams node, select All teams, and then click Group backup. 
    • Please note all future created Teams will be included in this Group Backup and will consume subscribed Teams quota. Current version of backup design does not support exclusion of specific Teams from being backup on Group Backup Plan once created. 
    • If you wish to backup only specific Teams, create individual Teams backup plan and apply to those needed 
    • To back up individual teams, expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the teams that you want to back up, and then click Backup.

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

  1. On the protection plan panel:

    • Ensure that the Microsoft Teams item is selected in What to back up.
    • [Optional] In How long to keep, set the cleanup options.
    • [Optional] If you want to encrypt your backup, enable the Encryption switch, and then set your password and select the encryption algorithm. Please safe keep the encrypt key, if it is lost, there is no way to recover them even from Exabytes.

Recovering an entire team

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team that you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.

  5. Click Recover > Entire Team.

    If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 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 specify the target organization.

  6. In Recover to team, view the target team or select another.

    By default, the original team is selected. If this team does not exist (for example, it was deleted) or you selected an organization that does not contain the original team, you must select a target team from the drop-down list. 

    You can restore a team only into an existing team. You cannot create teams during recovery operations. 

  7. Click Start recovery.

  8. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing content if it is older
    • Overwrite existing content
    • Do not overwrite existing content
  9. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

When you delete a channel in Microsoft Teams' graphic interface, it is not immediately removed from the system. Thus, when you recover the whole team, this channel's name cannot be used and a postfix will be added to it.

Conversations are recovered as a single html file in the Files tab of the channel. You can find this file in a folder named according to the following pattern: <Team name>_<Channel name>_conversations_backup_<date of recovery>T<time of recovery>Z.

Notes : After recovering a team or team channels, go to Microsoft Teams, select the channels that were recovered, and then click their Files tab. Otherwise, the subsequent backups of these channels will not include this tab's content – due to Microsoft Teams beta API limitation.



Recovering team channels

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team whose channels you want to recover, and then click Recovery.
  4. Select a recovery point.
  5. Click Recover > Channels.

  6. Select the channels that you want to recover, and then click Recover. To select a channel in the main pane, select the check box in front of its name.

    The following search options are available:

    • For Conversations: sender, subject, content, language, attachment name, date or date range.
    • For Files: file name or folder name, file type, size, date or date range of the last change.

  7. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 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 specify the target organization.

  8. In Recover to team, view, change, or specify the target team.

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

  9. In Recover to channel, view, change, or specify the target channel.
  10. Click Start recovery.

  11. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing content if it is older
    • Overwrite existing content
    • Do not overwrite existing content
  12. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

Conversations are recovered as a single html file in the Files tab of the channel. You can find this file in a folder named according to the following pattern: <Team name>_<Channel name>_conversations_backup_<date of recovery>T<time of recovery>Z.

Notes : After recovering a team or team channels, go to Microsoft Teams, select the channels that were recovered, and then click their Files tab. Otherwise, the subsequent backups of these channels will not include this tab's content – due to Microsoft Teams beta API limitation.


Recovering files in a team channel

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.
  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team whose channels you want to recover, and then click Recovery.
  4. Select a recovery point.
  5. Click Recover > Channels.

  6. Select the desired channel, and then open the Files folder.

    Browse to the required items or use search to obtain the list of the required items. The following search options are available:file name or folder name, file type, size, date or date range of the last change.

  7. Select the items that you want to recover, and then click Recover

  8. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 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 specify the target organization.

  9. In Recover to team, view, change, or specify the target team.

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

  10. In Recover to channel, view, change, or specify the target channel.
  11. Select whether to recover the sharing permissions of the recovered items.
  12. Click Start recovery.

  13. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing content if it is older
    • Overwrite existing content
    • Do not overwrite existing content
  14. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

You cannot recover individual conversations. In the main pane, you can only browse the Conversation folder or download its content as a single html file. To do so, click the "recover folders" icon , select the desired Conversations folder, and then click Download.

You can search the messages in the Conversation folder by:

  • Sender
  • Content
  • Attachment name
  • Date


Recovering a team mailbox

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team whose mailbox you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.
  5. Click Recover > Email messages.

  6. Click the "recover folders" icon , select the root mailbox folder, and then click Recover.

    You can also recover individual folders from the selected mailbox.

  7. Click Recover.

  8. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 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 specify the target organization.

  9. In Recover to mailbox, view, change, or specify the target mailbox.

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

  10. Click Start recovery.

  11. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing items
    • Do not overwrite existing items
  12. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

Recovering email messages and meetings

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team whose email messages or meetings you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.
  5. Click Recover > Email messages.

  6. Browse to the required item or use search to obtain the list of the required items.

    The following search options are available:

    • For email messages: search by subject, sender, recipient, and date.
    • For meetings: search by event name and date.

  7. Select the items that you want to recover, and then click Recover.

    You can find the meetings in the Calendar folder.

    Additionally, you can do any of the following:

    • When an item is selected, click Show content to view its contents, including attachments. Click the name of an attached file to download it.
    • When an email message or a meeting is selected, click Send as email to send the item to the specified email addresses. You can select the sender and write a text to be added to the forwarded item.

  8. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 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 specify the target organization.

  9. In Recover to mailbox, view, change, or specify the target mailbox.

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

  10. Click Start recovery.

  11. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing items
    • Do not overwrite existing items
  12. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.

Recovering a team site or specific items of a site

  1. Click Microsoft 365.
  2. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, select the organization whose backed-up teams you want to recover. Otherwise, skip this step.

  3. Expand the Teams node, select All teams, select the team whose site you want to recover, and then click Recovery.

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

  4. Select a recovery point.
  5. Click Recover > Team site.

  6. Browse to the required item or use search to obtain the list of the required items.

    The search is not available if the backup is encrypted.

  7. Select the items that you want to recover, and then click Recover.

  8. If multiple Microsoft 365 organizations were added to the Cyber Protection service, click Microsoft 365 organization to view, change, or specify the target organization.

    By default, the original organization and team are selected. If this organization is no longer registered in the Cyber Protection service, you must specify the target organization.

  9. In Recover to team, view, change, or specify the target team.

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

  10. Select whether to recover the sharing permissions of the recovered items.
  11. Click Start recovery.

  12. Select one of the overwriting options:

    • Overwrite existing content if it is older
    • Overwrite existing content
    • Do not overwrite existing content
  13. Click Proceed to confirm your decision.