Re: How do I back up content in SharePoint Workspace? - Sites and document sharing - Office 365

Hello.

I use SharePoint Workspace to keep my online Office 365 content (i.e., libraries, lists, and so on) synchronized on my PC.

However, a synced copy of my online content is not the same as a backup. A backup allows for roll back to a specific point in time as far back as backups are kept (e.g., even for as long as years).

I am able to access the local synced content via the SharePoint Workspace software and even via Windows Explorer (Desktop\User_Name\Workspaces). Nonetheless, backup software, such as Retrospect, cannot access this folder, and therefore I cannot make a backup of the Workspace without manual intervention such as manually copying the workspace content to an accessible folder (e.g., My Documents) so that it can be backed up by Retrospect.

I am seeking a solution to automatically (without any manual intervention) backup the content in each of my Workspaces daily.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Hi Harold Abilock,

This is Jonis from Microsoft SharePoint Online Support.

When you synchronize with SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office Workspace, the files are available on your client machine. From Start Open your personal folder (Your Account Name) ->under Favorites select Workspaces -> SharePoint workspace instance. Select the files and folders you would like to backup. If you would like the information available, in another location on the local drive, you can create a shortcut to Workspaces or your SharePoint Workspace instances.

If that does not answer your question please let me know as I will continue to monitor this thread for a few days and will reply to any additional posts or questions.

Jonis Estrem

Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Support

Hi Jonis Estrem,

Thank you for your prompt repsonse. For clarity, I will reply to each of your points one at a time.

1. "When you synchronize with SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office Workspace, the files are available on your client machine."

Yes. I mentioned this point in my original post.

2. "From Start Open your personal folder (Your Account Name) ->under Favorites select Workspaces -> SharePoint workspace instance."

I opened my personal folder but did not find Workspaces under Favorites. However, I did find Workspaces in the personal folder itself. I am running Windows 7.

3. "Select the files and folders you would like to backup."

When I opened the workspace folder, I found the content of the workspace in the folder. Furthermore, when I opened any of the content (e.g., a Word doc) in the workspace folder, it opened just fine in the corresponding application.

However, I am unable to back up the content because there is no way to point the backup software (in my case, Retrospect) to Workspaces or the content therein. Moreover, if I try to copy (e.g., by drag and drop) the content from the workspace folder to a location that is accessible to Retrospect (e.g., to the Desktop), the drag-and-drop operation only creates a shortcut on the desktop and does not actually copy the content. If I then run Retrospect to back up the Desktop, it only backs up the copied shortcut—not the content in the workspace.

Is there something that I am missing here? Your instruction is "Select the files and folders you would like to backup." But how is the backup performed?

4. "If you would like the information available, in another location on the local drive, you can create a shortcut to Workspaces or your SharePoint Workspace instances."

I don't particularly want the content of the workspace in another location just for the purpose of performing a backup. This would be inefficient not only because the content would be stored redundantly on my disk drive, but also because it requires manual operation. As you might imagine, the content in the workspace is changing constantly (many times a day). Accordingly, as I mentioned in my original post, "I am seeking a solution to automatically (without any manual intervention) backup the content in each of my Workspaces
daily." The suggestions that you made do not seem to provide this capability.

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

did you get a solution to this item?

I'm having the same problem - i want to copy the files in my workspace to another location such as a USB drive that i will stick in a cupboard somewhere in case of theft or changes of the original files etc... currently there does not seem to be a method of doing this. The help file states i should be able to right-click and archive but these options are not available in my version of MS SharePoint Workspaces 2010

thanks in advance