Perform a granular-level restore for Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams

Contributors netapp-rlithman

Within Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams, you can restore granular-level items like mailboxes, SharePoint, conversations, channels, and tabs.

By default, only the most recent backup is available for restore. Other available options include:

Available backups for restore

The table indicates the restore options that are supported for granular-level items and where to find them in SaaS Backup.

For Groups

Type of item Restore to the same group Restore to another group Export data Where to find it in SaaS Backup

Single/multiple folders

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Groups > (Group Name) > Mailbox

Inbox

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Groups > (Group Name) > Mailbox

Single/multiple items (email or event)

Yes

No

No

Office 365 Groups > Groups > (Group Name) > Mailbox > Mail

For Teams

Type of item Restore to the same team Restore to another team Export data Where to find it in SaaS Backup

Single/Multiple folders

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox

Inbox

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox > Mail

Single/multiple items (email or event)

Yes

No

No

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox > Mail

Conversations/chat

No

No

Yes (export to HTML only)

  • Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox > Conversations > Team Chat

  • Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox > Mail > Conversation History > Team Chat (actual location)

Conversation single/multiple items

No

No

Yes (export to HTML only)

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Mailbox > Conversation History > Team Chat

Single/multiple channels

Yes

No

No

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Channels

Note: Restore includes channel name and tab names only.

Tabs under channels

No

No

No

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > Channels

Channel standard documents

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name > SharePoint Site > Documents > (Channel name)

Channel private documents

Yes

No

Yes

SharePoint > (Private channel site name) > Documents > (Private Channel name)

Note: You will find a separate site collection with name “<Your Team Name – Private Channel Name>”. You can filter for these site collections with Template ID: TEAMCHANNEL#0.

OneNote content

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > SharePoint Site > Documents > (Channel Name)

Wiki content

Yes

No

Yes

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > SharePoint Site > Teams Wiki Data > (Channel Name)

Files

Yes

No

No

Office 365 Groups > Teams > (Team Name) > SharePoint Site > Documents > (Channel Name)

Individual user chat and group chats

Note: Chats included in Exchange Online backups.

No

No

Yes

  • Exchange > “User” > Mail > Conversations > Team Chat

  • Exchange > “User” > Mail > Conversation History > Team Chat

Files in individual user chat and group chats

Note: Files included in OneDrive for Business backups.

Yes

No

No

OneDrive > “User” > Files > Microsoft Teams Chat Files

Restore mailboxes

Select this granular-level restore to restore inboxes, calendars, and conversation history.

Steps

  1. From the Dashboard, click the number above PROTECTED in Microsoft 365 Groups.

  2. Select the Groups or Teams tab.

  3. Click the group or team for which you need to perform the granular-level restore.

  4. Select the mailbox category.

    image of highlighted mailbox option

    Note For Groups, Channels is unavailable.

    • Select the Mail option to restore inbox or conversation history to the same mailbox or export data.
      image of highlighted mail option

      Note For Groups, Conversations is unavailable.

      1. To restore an inbox, select Inbox and click Restore.

        1. Select Restore to the same mailbox or Export Data.

          If you export data, you need to download it. Go to Reporting on the left menu. Find your export data job. Click on Total Folders. Then click Export Data Download Link. A zip file downloads. Open the zip file to extract the data.

          Note If you select the Export Data restore option, the provided link is valid for seven days and is pre-authenticated.

        2. Click Confirm.

    • Select the Calendar option to restore the calendar to the same mailbox or export data.
      image of highlighted calendar option

      1. Select Calendar and click Restore.

      2. Select Restore to the same mailbox or Export Data.

        If you export data, you need to download it. Go to Reporting on the left menu. Find your export data job. Click on Total Folders. Then click Export Data Download Link. A zip file downloads. Open the zip file to extract the data.

        Note If you select the Export Data restore option, the provided link is valid for seven days and is pre-authenticated.

      3. Click Confirm.

    • Select the Conversations option to restore conversations. The only option for restore is export to HTML.
      image of highlighted conversations option

      1. Select the conversations you want to restore and click Restore.

        Note View Conversations shows you a list of all conversations from the last "x" days of backups up to the last 30 backups. For example, if you back up seven times in the last five days, then you can only see conversations from the last seven backups.

      2. Click Confirm.

Restore SharePoint sites

Select this granular-level restore to restore tabs and attachments.

Steps

  1. From the Dashboard, click the number above PROTECTED in Microsoft 365 Groups.

  2. Select the Groups or Teams tab.

  3. Click the group or team for which you need to perform the granular-level restore.

  4. Select SharePoint site option.
    image of highlighted sites option

  5. Click the site for which you need to perform the granular-level restore.

  6. Select the category that you need to restore.

    Note If you want to restore specific individual items inside a category, click the content category and then select the individual items.

  7. Click Restore.

  8. Select a restore option:

    • Restore to the same site

      If you restore to the same site, by default, a restore folder with the current date and time stamp is created in the original file location containing the backup copy. If you select the Overwrite with merge option, no restore folder is created. If the version of the backup file and the current file match, the backup is restored to the original location. Any new content in the destination is ignored and unaffected. For example, if the backup contains File1 version5 and the destination contains File1 version 6, a restore with the Overwrite with Merge option selected fails. If you select the Replace the existing content option, the current version of the data is completely replaced with the backup copy.

    • Export Data

      If you export data, you need to download it. Go to Reporting on the left menu. Find your export data job. Click on Total Folders. Then click Export Data Download Link. A zip file downloads. Open the zip file to extract the data.

      Note If you select the Export Data restore option, the provided link is valid for seven days and is pre-authenticated.

  9. Click Confirm.

Restore channels

Select this granular-level restore to restore channels.

Steps

  1. From the Dashboard, click the number above PROTECTED in Microsoft 365 Groups.

  2. Select the Teams tab.

  3. Click the team for which you need to perform the granular-level restore.

  4. Select Channels.
    image of highlighted channels option

  5. Select the channel to restore.

  6. Click Restore.

  7. Select the restore option:

    1. Click Restore to the same team.

    2. Click Restore to another team.

      To select another team, search for the other team in the search box.

  8. Click Confirm.