How to Restore Microsoft 365 Groups Backup

Microsoft 365 Groups recovery begins by identifying which Group-connected workload is affected. A Group can include a mailbox and calendar, a SharePoint site, Planner, and Microsoft Teams. EdbMails recovers the complete Group across its product line: this guide covers the SharePoint and OneDrive restore workflow for the Group-connected SharePoint content, while the Group mailbox and calendar are recovered with EdbMails Office 365 (Exchange) restore and connected Teams with EdbMails Microsoft Teams restore.

EdbMails Microsoft 365 Groups Backup and Restore lets administrators load a previously created backup, connect to the target SharePoint environment, map protected content to the appropriate target site, start the restore, and review recovery logs.

What this Microsoft 365 Groups restore guide covers

• Loading the previously created SharePoint backup data.
• Connecting to the target SharePoint Online environment.
• Granting the permissions required for the selected target sites.
• Mapping the protected source content to the required target site or folder.
• Starting the restore and validating the resulting job logs and restored content.

For the full backup-and-recovery overview, see Microsoft 365 Groups Backup and Restore. For creating the backup, see the Microsoft 365 Groups Backup Guide.

1. Prerequisites to restore Microsoft 365 Groups backup data

   1. Get the SharePoint target server URL, Admin center url, Office 365 Admin account, Password.
   2. Set up the necessary SharePoint sites on the target server. EdbMails can create them automatically to streamline the process, or you can choose to create them manually by following the detailed instructions in the link below.

        Steps to create sites on SharePoint server.

   3. Ensure that each SharePoint site on the target server has admin access. EdbMails can automatically assign this access through the SharePoint login window. Alternatively, if you prefer to set it up manually, you can follow the instructions provided in the link below.

       Steps to add Global admin as a member of each SharePoint site on the target server.

   4. Ensure to enable the option to create sites / subsites on your target SharePoint server.

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

   1. Step 1: Download and install EdbMails Application

      • Download and install the EdbMails application on your computer.

        

      • Log in using your registered email address and password, or click 'Start Your Free Trial' to explore the features without setting up an account.

        

      • From the list of the product, select ‘Backup SharePoint Sites’.

        

      • Select ‘Restore to SharePoint OneDrive Sites’ as the restore option.

        

      • You can use the default job name or choose ‘New Job’ to set a custom name for better identification. Once done, click ‘Next’ to proceed.

        

      • Click on ‘Add file(s)’.

        

      • Select the encrypted files for restoration and click on ‘Next’.

        

   2. Step 2: Connect to Target SharePoint Online and OneDrive

      • Enter the target 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 new window will pop up in your taskbar. It is a PowerShell screen that will guide you to log in with your Global Admin credentials on the familiar Microsoft sign-in page.

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

        

      • Choose the specific sites from the list where you want to manage permissions, and then click 'Continue' to move forward.

        

      • 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 restore process.

        

      • After signing in, you’ll see the progress of admin access being granted to the selected OneDrive sites.

        

      • Once the permissions have been successfully set on the sites you chose, you'll see a message confirming it's done.

        

      • 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.

        

      • Once you're logged in, you can let EdbMails automatically load your SharePoint sites, up to 100, as limited by Microsoft’s API. To include more sites beyond this limit, use the ‘Load Sites using .CSV file’ option for a complete list.

        

      • Select one of the methods to map sites or folders and click ‘Continue’.

        

   3. Step 3: Site Mapping

      • Click on the target site collection cell and select the desired target site.

        

      • Click the ‘Start Restore’ to initiate the restore process.

        

      • Once the restore is complete, EdbMails will display a confirmation message. Click ‘View Logs’ to review the restore report. To verify the results, sign in to the target site and check the restored items.

        

Validate the Microsoft 365 Groups restore

After the restore completes, review the restore log and verify representative files or folders in the target SharePoint site. If the incident also affected the Group mailbox or connected Teams, recover those with their matching EdbMails workflow and validate the results.

• Verify the correct target SharePoint site and folder mapping.
• Review failed or skipped items in the restore log.
• Check representative restored files in the target tenant.
• Confirm access and permissions required for the restored SharePoint content.
• Recover and validate the Group mailbox with Office 365 (Exchange) restore and Teams with Teams backup where the incident affected them.

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Additional Resources:

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