How to back up Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace data
Recycle bins and admin restores in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace run out in weeks or a few months. What each keeps, and how to add a real backup.
Files in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace feel backed up because they live in someone else’s data centre. They’re well protected against a failed disk. They’re much less protected against a deleted folder nobody notices for six months, a departed employee’s account that gets removed, or ransomware that scrambles a synced drive.
Both companies say as much. Microsoft’s shared responsibility guidance states: “For all cloud deployment types, you own your data and identities.” Google’s Vault FAQ answers the question of whether Vault is a backup with: “No. Vault isn’t designed to be a backup or archive tool.”
This guide sets out what each service keeps on its own, how long for, and how to add a backup that outlasts those windows. All figures were checked against the vendors’ own help pages on 12 October 2026.
What the built-in safety nets keep
These are the periods in which you, or your administrator, can get something back without a separate backup.
| What was deleted | Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace |
|---|---|---|
| A file | OneDrive recycle bin: 93 days for work or school accounts unless the administrator has changed it, 30 days for personal accounts | Drive trash: 30 days |
| A file, after the bin or trash is emptied | Not recoverable by the user | An administrator has 25 days to restore it, by date range only |
| An email | Once removed from Deleted Items, recoverable for 14 days by default in Exchange Online; an administrator can raise it to 30 | Gmail trash: 30 days, then an administrator has a further 25 days |
| A whole user account | The mailbox is permanently deleted after 30 days. OneDrive files are kept for 30 days by default | The data is gone after 20 days |
Two details in Google’s pages matter in practice. The administrator’s Drive restore works on a date range: “You can’t restore individual files or folders”. And the Gmail restore can’t bring back drafts, labels or messages deleted from the spam folder.
Microsoft has a useful extra for larger accidents. Restore your OneDrive can undo everything that happened to your files in the last 30 days, which is the tool to reach for after ransomware or a mass deletion. It needs a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Every one of these windows is counted in days. A file deleted in January and missed in June is outside all of them.
The staff-departure trap
The shortest clocks start when an account is deleted, and that usually happens when someone leaves.
In Google Workspace, a deleted user can be restored for 20 days. Google’s wording is blunt: “After 20 days, the data is gone and you can’t restore it.” Our advice is to transfer the person’s Drive files to someone else before deleting the account.
In Microsoft 365, a deleted mailbox is recoverable for 30 days, and Microsoft says removing only the Exchange Online licence starts a 30-day grace period of its own. A deleted user’s OneDrive is kept for 30 days by default, a period an administrator can change. Microsoft also now treats OneDrive accounts left without a licence differently: by default they become read-only after 60 days and are archived after 93, with storage and reactivation charges if billing is switched on. If it isn’t, Microsoft says the content is subject to deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days, even with a retention policy or hold. Cancelling a leaver’s licence to save money, and leaving the files where they are, is no longer a safe way to keep them.
Option 1: Microsoft 365 Backup
Microsoft sells its own backup service. Microsoft 365 Backup covers OneDrive accounts, SharePoint sites and Exchange mailboxes. Teams isn’t listed among the services it protects.
- How far back. The recovery window can be set to three months, six months, one year or two years.
- Restore points. Microsoft says OneDrive and SharePoint can be restored to points 10 minutes apart for the previous two weeks, and weekly points from two to 52 weeks back.
- Cost. It’s pay-as-you-go through an Azure subscription. Microsoft’s pricing page lists $0.15 per gigabyte a month of protected content, and its overview says restores are free. Neither page names a currency, and we couldn’t find an Australian-dollar price, so ask your Microsoft reseller for one. As an illustration only, 200 gigabytes at the listed rate comes to $30 a month.
- Who sets it up. A SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator sets up pay-as-you-go billing against an Azure subscription in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, then creates backup policies under Settings. Backing up mailboxes needs a Global, Exchange or Microsoft 365 Backup Administrator.
Microsoft’s Backup FAQ also says legal holds aren’t a substitute, because holds are optimised for exporting data, “not for mass restore”.
Option 2: Google Workspace exports
We found no backup product on Google Workspace’s Australian price list when we checked. Google offers two ways to take a copy out.
Data Export, for the whole organisation. Google’s instructions say it needs a super administrator account that is at least 30 days old and has 2-Step Verification on. An export typically takes about 72 hours and can take up to 14 days. It lands in a Google Cloud Storage bucket and is deleted 60 days after the export starts, so download it and store it somewhere else. It doesn’t include deleted data unless Vault has retained it.
Google Takeout, for one account. Takeout lets a user download their own data or send it to Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box, and can be scheduled to run every two months for a year. Workspace administrators can restrict it, so check it’s allowed before relying on it.
Both produce a copy at a point in time. On our reading of Google’s instructions, neither puts anything back into an account for you.
Option 3: a third-party backup service
The third route is a separate service that keeps its own copies of your mail and files. Both vendors acknowledge them. Microsoft’s Backup overview says it partners with independent software publishers whose applications are built on its backup storage platform. Google’s Vault FAQ, under a heading about backing up or extracting data, names “partner solutions, such as Afi and SpinOne”. We haven’t tested any and aren’t recommending one.
When you compare services, ask each the same questions: which parts of your account it covers (mail, files, shared drives, Teams or Chat), how often it copies, how long it keeps copies, whether one file or one email can be restored on its own, and where the copies are stored.
Checklist
- Write down your windows. Note the default periods that apply to you: 14 days for Exchange Online items removed from Deleted Items, 93 days for the OneDrive work recycle bin, 30 days for Drive and Gmail trash plus 25 days for an administrator.
- Raise Exchange Online’s deleted-item retention to 30 days. Ask your Microsoft 365 administrator; the default is 14.
- Add a step to your staff-leaving routine. Transfer or copy the person’s mail and files before the account is deleted. Google Workspace data is gone 20 days after deletion, and a Microsoft 365 mailbox after 30.
- Check for unlicensed OneDrive accounts. Ask your administrator to list them, since by default Microsoft makes them read-only after 60 days and archives them after 93.
- Choose a backup route for each service. For Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Backup or a third-party service. For Google Workspace, a regular Data Export or Takeout stored outside Google, or a third-party service.
- Get a price in Australian dollars. For Microsoft 365 Backup, ask your reseller, as Microsoft’s page lists $0.15 per gigabyte a month without naming a currency.
- Test it. With a backup service, delete a test file and a test email and recover each. With an export, open the downloaded copy and confirm a known file and email are in it.
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