How to Back Up Microsoft 365 Groups

Microsoft 365 Groups bring together collaboration resources that can include a Group mailbox and calendar, a SharePoint team site, Planner, and Microsoft Teams when a Team is connected. Because a Group spans multiple Microsoft 365 workloads, a backup plan should identify exactly which connected resources must be protected.

EdbMails Microsoft 365 Groups Backup protects the complete Group across its backup product line. This guide covers the SharePoint and OneDrive backup workflow used for the Group-connected SharePoint sites, folders and files. The Group mailbox and calendar are protected with EdbMails Office 365 (Exchange) backup, and connected Teams with EdbMails Microsoft Teams backup. Administrators select the required content, choose a customer-controlled backup location, start the backup, and review job logs after completion.

What this Microsoft 365 Groups backup guide covers

• Selecting the SharePoint backup workflow used for supported Group-connected content.
• Choosing the backup repository before connecting to Microsoft 365.
• Granting access to the required SharePoint sites.
• Selecting the sites, folders or supported content that need protection.
• Starting the backup and reviewing the resulting logs.

For commercial product information and backup architecture, see Microsoft 365 Groups Backup. For recovery steps, see the Microsoft 365 Groups Restore Guide.

1. Prerequisites to back up Microsoft 365 Groups

   1. Ensure your computer or external drive has sufficient free storage space to store the Office 365 backup data.
   2. You must have a global admin account with a mailbox for automatic registration of the EdbMails application in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory).
   3. For manual registration, you can use either a global admin account or any user account with full access permissions to the mailboxes.
   4. A stable internet connection is required throughout the backup process.
   5. The Office 365 tenant should be active and accessible.

2. Step-by-Step Guide for Microsoft 365 Groups Backup

   1. Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Office 365 backup software

      • Download and install the EdbMails application on any computer with Windows OS.

        

      • Enter your email address and password to login or if you haven’t registered an account click on ‘Start Your Free Trial’.

        

      • Select ‘Backup SharePoint Sites’.

        

      • Select the backup option as ‘SharePoint OneDrive Backup’.

        

      • You can continue with the default job name or click ‘New Job’ to set a custom name for easier tracking and management.

        

      • Click ‘Browse’ to set a location to store backup file

        

      • Select the location to store the backup data

        

      • Click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

        

   2. Step 2: Connect to SharePoint Online and OneDrive Source server

      • Enter the source SharePoint server url, admin center url, Office 365 Global admin account email address and password.
      • Then, click the ‘Grant Required Permissions’ button.

        

      • Click the option ‘Grant permissions to selected SharePoint sites’.
      • Choose either ‘All Sites (Members)’ or ‘Only selected Sites (Members)’ based on your preference.
      • Click on ‘Click Here To Grant Admin Access Automatically’.

        

      • A PowerShell window will open in the taskbar, directing you to sign in through the Microsoft authentication page using a Global Admin account.

        Note: Keep an eye on the taskbar, as you might be prompted to authenticate multiple times during the process.

        

      • From the list, select the specific sites where you want to set permissions, then click ‘Continue’ to proceed.

        

      • When the PowerShell window appears in the taskbar, click on it to sign in using a Global Admin account through the Microsoft Sign-In page. This will initiate the backup process.

        

      • Once signed in, the progress of admin access being granted to the selected OneDrive sites will be displayed on the screen.

        

      • Once permissions are successfully granted to the selected sites, a confirmation message will appear on the screen.

        

      • If you want to manually grant the admin access, refer to the link below:

         Steps to Grant admin access to all OneDrive for business site collections on the source server

      • Select the method for the secure OAuth 2.0 based modern authentication and click on ‘Login’.

        

      • Enter the password to login to your Global admin account.

        

      • Select the required sites to set the permissions from the list, then click ‘Continue’.

        

      • Select the sites or folders you want to backup and click 'Next'.
      • When you click on sub-folders, EdbMails will retrieve the folders automatically.

        

   3. Step 3: Site Mapping

      • Review the selected folders and confirm that the ‘Action’ is set to ‘Backup’. Once verified, click ‘Start Backup’ to initiate the process.

        

      • The backup has started, and you can monitor its progress through the progress bar. Once completed, EdbMails will display a confirmation message. Click ‘View Logs’ to access the detailed backup report.

        

Validate the Microsoft 365 Groups backup

After the job finishes, review the backup log and confirm representative files or folders from the selected Group-connected SharePoint site are present in the protected repository. To cover the complete Group, also protect the Group mailbox and connected Teams with their matching EdbMails workflow.

• Confirm the correct SharePoint sites were selected.
• Review failures or skipped items in the backup log.
• Check representative folders and files from critical Group-connected sites.
• Back up the Group mailbox with Office 365 (Exchange) backup and connected Teams with Teams backup so every workload is covered.
• Periodically test a restore rather than relying only on backup completion status.

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Additional Resources:

• Microsoft 365 Groups Backup
• SharePoint Backup
• OneDrive Backup
• Microsoft Teams Backup