Creating SharePoint restore jobs

Backed-up SharePoint data can be restored from a local storage to the original location or another SharePoint server (Office 365 or on-premises). This is achieved with restore jobs. CodeTwo Backup allows you to restore entire SharePoint sites (classic site collections as well as team sites connected to Office 365 groups), OneDrive for Business sites, or individual SharePoint libraries, lists, folders (including OneNote notebooks), and items. Restore jobs can be created from the program's Backups tab (Fig. 1.). 

Fig. 1. The Backups tab.

Follow the links below to learn how to: 

• Select a SharePoint object you want to restore
• Configure the SharePoint restore job

To find out how to restore your backed-up Exchange data, see this article.

Selecting a SharePoint object to be restored

On the Backups tab, you can browse through storages that hold the data backed up on your local PC. To restore a specific object, you first need to:

• select the storage where the SharePoint object in question is backed up by using the Storage drop-down menu
• select SharePoint from the View drop-down menu (Fig. 2.) to show only the SharePoint data from that storage.

Fig. 2. Choosing a storage where the data you want to restore is located.

Use the Storage content card to navigate through backed-up data (sites, libraries, lists, etc.). You can also use the search box (Fig. 3.) to find a specific site collection, team site or OneDrive site. Learn how to use filters to find specific items in a selected site

Fig. 3. Searching for a specific site.

Individual files are shown in the Items card once you select any library, list or folder (Fig. 4.). Additionally, if versioning is enabled for a given library on SharePoint, you can also browse through different versions of files backed up from that library on the Details card (learn more). However, if you select OneNote notebooks or section groups in the Storage content card, the OneNote sections card will be shown instead of the Items card. 

Fig. 4. Browsing through individual SharePoint files in the storage.

To restore a particular object, navigate to that object and select one of the Restore options available on the top menu (Fig. 5.). Some options will be shown or become available only when you select appropriate SharePoint data on the Storage content card. These options are:

• Restore: Site collection / Team site / OneDrive site – used to restore a top-level SharePoint site, together with its contents (sub-sites, lists, libraries, items, etc.).
• Restore: Site – used to restore an entire subsite of the top-level site. 
• Restore: Library / List – used to restore a specific SharePoint library (e.g. document library) or list (e.g. custom list) of the top-level site or subsite, with all its folders and items.
• Restore: Folder / OneNote notebook / OneNote section group – used to restore a single library or list folder, together with all subfolders and items. OneNote notebook is practically a library folder as well, but with different properties. OneNote section group is simply a subfolder in the OneNote notebook folder.
• Restore: Items / OneNote sections – used to restore one or multiple items from the selected list, library or folder. OneNote sections are individual sections contained in a OneNote notebook or section group. 

Fig. 5. Restore options available from the top menu of the Backups tab.

Once you select an object and choose the restore option, the restore job wizard will open (Fig. 7.).

Fig. 7. The SharePoint restore job wizard.

Configuring the SharePoint restore job wizard

Depending on the type of SharePoint object selected to be restored, the options available on individual steps of the restore job wizard may slightly differ. However, the wizard will always consist of the following steps:

• Job name, where you define the name of the restore job.
• Source data, where you select the version of the data you want to restore.
• Target location, where you choose the location where the selected data should be restored.
• Filters, where you can exclude some type of data from being restored.
• Overwrite options, where you decide what action the program will take in the event a similar data already exists in the target location.
• Permissions, where you map users, groups, and permissions between the original and target locations. 
• Job summary, where you can review your restore job settings.

Job name

In the first step of the wizard, provide a unique name for the restore job (see Fig. 7. above). By default, the Job name field is filled automatically according to the following pattern: 

Restore [object type] [site URL]

You can change the default name, for example, if you plan to restore the same object in the future but to another location or by using different settings. You cannot create two jobs with the same name.

Source data

Since CodeTwo Backup features item versioning, you can choose which version of the object you want to restore (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Selecting the version of SharePoint data to be restored.

The available restore options differ depending on the objects you are restoring:

Restoring the latest version

This option will restore the most recently backed up version of the selected object (site, library, list, OneNote notebook & section group, or folder). If any items were deleted on the SharePoint server from the given object prior to the backup (and were marked as deleted in the storage), these items will not be restored.

Restoring the latest existing version

This option will restore the latest backed up version of the selected items (including OneNote sections). If any of these items were deleted from the server prior to the last backup cycle (and were marked as deleted in the storage), the program will restore the latest version of these items that existed before they were deleted. 

Restoring a version from a specific time point on the server

This option will restore the selected object(s) from a specified point in time. Any items in the storage deleted before that point in time and created after that date will not be restored.

Restoring a specific server version

This option is available only when restoring a single item or OneNote section. It will restore the exact version of the item (selected from the drop-down menu) that existed on the server at a specific point in time (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. Selecting a specific version of the item to be restored.

Target location

You can choose to restore the selected SharePoint data to:

• the original location
• another location on the original SharePoint server
• another location on a different SharePoint server 

Restoring backed-up data to the original location

To restore the selected SharePoint object to its original location, simply select the Restore to the original [location] option (Fig. 10.).

Fig. 10. Restoring SharePoint data to its original location.

Restoring backed-up data to another location on the original SharePoint server

Select the SharePoint server from the Server connection drop-down menu from which the data you intend to restore has been backed up. Next, select the Restore to another [location] or create a new one option and click Browse to select an existing location, e.g. site collection, list, folder, etc., depending on the object type you want to restore. You can also create a new object by navigating to the exact spot you want to create that object, clicking Create new, and selecting the appropriate object type (Fig. 11.).

Fig. 11. Restoring SharePoint data to a new location.

Restoring backed-up data to another location on a different SharePoint server

Select appropriate SharePoint server from the Server connection drop-down menu. You can also create a new connection by clicking Manage > New (learn more on how to create a new SharePoint connection). Next, click Browse to select an existing location, e.g. site collection, list, folder, etc., depending on the object type you want to restore. You can also create a new object by navigating to the exact spot you want to create that object, clicking Create new, and selecting the appropriate object type (see Fig. 11. above).

Can't create a new site based on the source site type: 'OneDrive site'. 

When restoring SharePoint data to a different on-premises SharePoint server, the program will inform you if there are some language packs missing. For example, if your source (backed-up) SharePoint site collection consists of many multi-language sites, you need to make sure all these languages are available on your target SharePoint server. Otherwise, CodeTwo Backup may not be able to create sites, libraries, lists, etc. that are in the unsupported languages or duplicated items could be created. We do not recommend restoring SharePoint data unless the missing languages are installed. Visit Microsoft websites for more information about how to install language packs for SharePoint Server 2019/2016.

In addition, when restoring OneNote notebooks to a document library other than the original one, make sure this library is configured for storing notebooks. Otherwise, you may experience some synchronization problems. Learn more

Filters

In this step, you can filter out some data from being restored. To do so, click the checkbox next to that type of data (Fig. 12.).

Fig. 12. An example of data that can be excluded from the restore job.

Overwrite options

Select what action the program should execute in case the same object already exists in the target location:

• Do not overwrite

If the data being restored already exists in the target location, the program will not restore it. This option is especially useful if, for example, you are restoring an entire site collection, but you don't want the program to overwrite lists, libraries or individual documents that remain in SharePoint.

• Overwrite

If the data being restored already exists in the target location, the program will overwrite that data with the data backed-up in the storage.

You can also select the Create copies of [items/sections] instead of overwriting them checkbox (Fig. 13.) to create duplicates of such items instead of overwriting the existing items. Higher-level objects like site collections, lists, libraries, folders or OneNote notebooks will still be overwritten. 

Fig. 13. An additional option allowing to override the overwrite option for certain items.

• Overwrite only specific parts and attributes of existing objects

This option allows you to specify which exact parts and attributes of a given object (site, library, list, etc.) should be overwritten, and which should not be restored at all. Click the Select button to open the Parts and attributes of the objects to overwrite window (Fig. 14.), and then mark the checkbox next to the part or attribute that should be overwritten in the target location or leave the checkbox unselected to omit these parts/attributes.

Fig. 14. The Overwrite options steps available for SharePoint items restore job.

The Create copies of [items/sections] instead of overwriting them checkbox is also available for this option. The same exceptions apply regarding list items and ASPX pages as mentioned above.

• Create a copy

This option is available only if you are restoring individual items (Fig. 15.). Selecting this option will create duplicates of these items in the target location in a case similar items already exist.

Fig. 15. The Overwrite options steps available for SharePoint items restore job.

Permissions

In this step, you can also restore permission levels in the target location for users and groups. There are two options available:

• Map to original objects, available only if you are restoring the SharePoint data to its original location. The mapping process will be performed automatically by the program.
• Map objects, where you can manually map users, groups and permission levels between the source (backed-up) and target site collections. To do so, simply click the relevant Map button (Fig. 16.).

Fig. 16. Accessing the manual mapping functionality.

Clicking the upper Map button opens the Map users and groups window (Fig. 17.), while the bottom Map button opens the Map permission levels window. 

Fig. 17. The Map users and groups window.

Learn how to manually map SharePoint users, groups and permission levels in CodeTwo Backup.

Job summary

Here you can verify if you have configured the restore job according to your requirements (Fig. 18.).

Fig. 18. The summary of the restore job.

In case you want to make any changes, click the name of any of the previous steps of the wizard and adjust your settings accordingly. If everything is correct, click Finish.

As soon as you finish the wizard, a pop-up window will appear, allowing you to start the restore job immediately (Fig. 19.). Click Yes to do so.

Fig. 19. A pop-up asking to start the backup job automatically.

Otherwise, use the Start button on the Jobs tab to start the selected job.