Microsoft Teams Backup Options & Their Limitations

Team data includes messages, shared files/attachments, SharePoint web pages, calendars and other items. This Teams data is stored across virtually every component of Microsoft 365, including users' OneDrives, SharePoint libraries and Exchange mailboxes.

Let's have a look at each Teams component one by one and discuss the location of the data in more detail.

1 Messages

Messages is a new Microsoft 365 data format specific to Teams. Teams messages include 1-1 user communication and channel messages (group posts); both are stored in Teams application (not in SharePoint/ExchangeOnline).

2 Shared Files

Message attachments and other files shared by Teams users are stored on senders' OneDrives (for private channels) or on the team SharePoint site (see the next chapter on how the data is structured).

3 Web Pages

Wiki is a default web page that is created for every team by default. The Wiki webpage is stored in the "Teams Wiki Data" document library on the SharePoint site (every team has a SharePoint site "linked" to it and we'll discuss it in the next chapter).

4 OneNote

A OneNote notebook is created for every team channel (by default) and is stored in the "Site Assets" document library on the team SharePoint site. The notebook can be shown as a team channel tab if a team owner adds it.

5 Group mailbox messages

Every team has a group Exchange mailbox linked to it. The group mailbox itself is not accessible in Microsoft 365 UI. But it is mapped to the team members' mailboxes and when an email is sent to the team group mailbox the team users can see it in the group folder in their Outlook app (Team #1 and Team #2 in the example above).

We'll discuss how Microsoft Groups are connected with Teams in the next chapter.

6 Group mailbox calendars

Each default group mailbox linked to a team includes a group calendar. Users can view the Teams calendar in the Calendar section of the Teams app, or on the Calendar tab in their mailboxes (see the example above).

Every Microsoft team has an MS Group, a Group mailbox and a SharePoint online site associated with the team. In addition to these entities, certain Teams data is also stored on users' OneDrives.

MS Groups and Group Mailboxes

All team users are members of the MS Groups associated with their teams (one group per each team). The name of the Group is always the same as the name of the team it is linked to.

Team MS Groups also have team Group mailboxes (the name of the mailbox is also the same as the name of the team). All emails sent to such mailboxes are relayed to the team members, and users see it in their Outlook app, Groups section → "Team Name" (see Image 2 in the previous section).

Where Teams attachments & files are stored

Files attached to public channel posts (messages) are stored on the team's SharePoint site (team SharePoint site → Documents → "Channel Name").

Team web pages (including team's Wiki) are stored on the team's SharePoint web pages library (SharePoint site → Pages).

If a channels is private, then its web pages and channel attachments are stored on a dedicated SharePoint site which Microsoft 365 creates for each private channel. The name of such SharePoint site is the same as the name of the private channel (not the Team).

Files attached to 1-1 Teams messages are stored on users' OneDrives. A shared file is stored on the OneDrive that belongs to the user who sent it.

Overall Structure and Location of Teams Data

The summary below outlines Teams data types and their location within Microsoft 365. In total there are six data types that belong to Teams (messages/posts, files, tasks, web pages, notebooks and groups).

There are two kinds of native Microsoft 365 Teams backup & recovery capabilities. The first in the standard built-in retention & recovery features (part of Exchange and SharePoint online) available in all M365 subscriptions. The second is the Compliance Center retention features only available in senior E3/E5 Microsoft 365 plans.

You can read more about both kinds of native M365 data backup/recovery features in another blog post here.

Standard Built-in Teams Retention & Recovery

The built-in Microsoft 365 recovery helps recover the portion of Teams data stored on team SharePoint sites (Teams Wiki, Files and OneNote) as well as the data stored in team shared Exchange mailbox (emails sent to Teams mailbox and Teams calendar).

The key limitations of the standard recovery are:

• the data retention period is limited to 93 (or less) days;
• Team messages aren't protected by the built-in mechanism.

All items (file attachments and team web pages) deleted from Teams SharePoint sites and users OneDrives go into Recycle Bin, where they stay 93 days before they're permanently deleted. If a user empties their Recycle Bin before 93 days pass, then the data goes to Second Stage Recycle Bin (where stays for the remainder of the 93 days period).

Deleted Exchange online data (emails and calendars) follow a similar path. Deleted items are initially moved to the first stage recycle bin (where they can be recovered by users) and then to the second stage recycle bin (recoverable by admins).

The total recovery window for deleted Exchange online items is 60 days at most (deleted items are stored for 30 days in the first recycle bin, plus 30 days in the second recycle bin).

Compliance Center Retention Policies

The second kind of native Microsoft 365 data protection capabilities is the compliance retention, available only in premium (more expensive) E3-E5 M365 subscriptions. You can use the compliance retention to implement Microsoft Teams data recovery strategy and keep deleted/modified Teams data indefinitely.

If you want to know more about the compliance retention and its cost, check the article we already mentioned earlier.

In short, to use the retention policies as a Teams backup you'll need to configure two policies (a single retention policy cannot retain Teams and any other data type at the same time). Here are the steps:

1. Go to compliance.microsoft.com
2. Create one policy for Teams chats and channels. This policy will retain messages (only) from:

• one-to-one team chats
• public & private team channels

1. Create another (second) policy to retain:

• Team users' OneDrive data (files from 1-1 Teams chats are stored there)
• Team users' mailboxes (contain emails sent to the Teams email address and the Teams calendar)
• Team SharePoint sites (one site per team, plus additional sites - one for every private channel in the team)

Advantages and limitations of the native Teams data protection

The main disadvantage of the standard (available in all plans) M365 recovery options is the very short (60-90 days) recovery window and the incomplete retention scope (e.g. no Teams messages). At the same time, the standard recovery enables high-fidelity data recovery to the same place it was deleted from.

The compliance retention policies help address both disadvantages - they extend the recovery window (indefinitely) and retain all Teams messages and other data types. However, there is no mechanism to restore the data back to M365. Instead, it has to be downloaded and imported manually, which is often not feasible for larger organizations.

There are 5 Office 365 backup vendors that, in our opinion, focus on delivering Microsoft Teams backup and recovery.

The three most complete tools - AvePoint, Veeam and SkyKick - provide backup of Team channel messages and attachments, as well as partial 1-1 Team chats and their attachments backup.

To backup 1-1 team chats with all the 3 solutions administrators have to manually assign protection to each Team member, and therefore we consider their support of 1-1 chats and attachments backup to be partial. Afi backup enables admins to select all members of a Team and protect them automatically (without the need to do so one by one).

	Afi	AvePoint	Veeam	Skykick	Synology
Teams Messaging
Channel messages
Channel attachments
Private channel messages
Private channel attachments
1-1 chats
1-1 chat attachments
Files & Pages
Public channel Files
Private channel Files
Wiki pages
Other
Shared mailboxes
Shared calendars
Tasks (Planner)

Full support Partial support Not supported

One common drawbacks of the backup tools is the inability to backup private Team channels data (chats, attachments and Files). AvePoint is the only vendor (aside from Afi) which enables the backup of private channel messages, but it does not backup the attachments and private channel Files (the backup can be scheduled, but no data is retained).

Other frequent drawbacks of the third-party Teams backup tools include partial or absent support of 1-1 attachments and messages, as well as unsupported data types (shared calendars, OneNote notebooks) and incomplete support of Wiki pages (most solutions can back them up as binary files, but the data cannot be restored back to Office 365 correctly).

Metered API for MS Teams

In 2021 Microsoft introduced paid (metered) API access to MS Teams data. The new API enables backup applications to backup and recover (with limitations) Teams messages and other data. Some vendors use the metered API to implement Teams backup.

Using the new Teams API typically requires installing and configuring a separate backup application from Azure Marketplace (in addition to the original app you installed when you first signed up for an M365 backup service).

When you backup provider uses the API to backup/restore MS Teams data, Microsoft charges you (customer) per each API request. The approximate cost to (initially) backup 10,000 Teams messages is $7,500, and you will have to pay this only the first time the messages are backed up (during incremental backups the backup vendor will not access new messages). The approximate cost to recover messages back to MS365 is also $7,500.

Afi provides granular support for MS Teams backup (including 1-1, public, and prival channel messages). However, we don't rely on the metered API to provide the backup service. We believe that in most cases the additional cost of the metered API charges make it hard to justify the price of M365 backup service for customers with heavy MS Teams usage.

Afi Teams Backup

Afi provides a complete MS Teams backup, including private channels contents and Teams data stored on team members OneDrives. Afi is also the only cloud Office 365 backup service that enables the management of user backup policies based on their Group and Team membership.

It only takes 1-2 minutes to configure Teams backup in Afi:

1. Select a teams in the Groups/Teams resource view, and assign a backup SLA policy to it.

1. Select a Teams channel in the Active Directory view to assign a backup SLA policy to all users that have access to the Teams channel.

Using Afi you can backup and recover Teams messages, Files and other Teams resources. Afi provides flexible point-in-time recovery options including online data preview, full-text search for Exchange items and 10s other unique features. Learn more about Afi Office 365 backup or feel free to start a free trial.

All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders; use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.