- What is Google Drive backup?
- Why should you back up Google Drive?
- Google Drive backup tools for business users
- Google Drive backup for individual users
- Frequently asked questions
Note: Starting on October 13, 2020, Google Drive will automatically start deleting files after they have spent 30 consecutive days in the trash.
What is Google Drive backup?
Can you back up Google Drive?

Why should you back up Google Drive?
IN NO EVENT WILL GOOGLE OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, AND INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR INTERRUPTION OF USE OR FOR LOSS OR INACCURACY OR CORRUPTION OF DATA, LOST PROFITS, OR COSTS OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, HOWEVER CAUSED (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO USE, MISUSE, INABILITY TO USE, OR INTERRUPTED USE) AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO CONTRACT OR TORT AND WHETHER OR NOT GOOGLE WAS OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OR ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANY REMEDY SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE
How is Google Drive data lost?
Accidental deletions: An employee in your organisation might accidentally delete important data while trying to free up storage space or end up removing the original version of a file while trying to get rid of duplicates. According to a survey conducted by Shred-it, 47% of data breach incidents in the US are caused due to employee negligence (CNBC).
Data Corruption from Internal Threats: According to the Information Security Forum, the new working arrangements (as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic) may cause employees to become disgruntled or resentful due to lowered remuneration, reduced promotional opportunities and uncertainties about the future. These circumstances result in higher occurrences of fraud, information leakage, and theft of intellectual property.
Ransomware Attacks: Bitdefender’s Mid-Year Threat Landscape Report 2020 announced a seven-fold spike in the number of ransomware attacks in 2020 when compared to 2019.The Google Backup & Sync feature syncs the cloud data across devices. If an on-premise device that is in sync with your Google Drive is corrupted by a ransomware, it will corrupt the online Google application too.
Unexpected Outages: According to New York Post, Google suffered a major outage in August 2020, which affected over a dozen Google Workspace services. Both personal as well as business users of Google Workspace across the world were affected by this.
Malicious Third Party Apps: If an end user installs an unverified third party app using their Google account, the app can trick the user into granting access to their account data and overwrite existing data.
Phishing Attacks: A phishing attack revolves around scammers tricking users into giving up data or access to systems in the mistaken belief that they are dealing with someone they know or trust. Cybercriminals often use high-profile events as a lure, for example, 2020 has seen a rise in COVID-themed phishing attacks. Cybercriminals have also attempted to use the 2020 US Presidential election as a means of attack. Click here to find out how to protect your business from phishing attacks.
I. Google Drive backup tools for business users
1) How to back up Google Drive data using Google Vault
What is Google Vault?
Google Vault is an archiving tool that retains user data stored in G Suite regardless of end-user actions, including permanent deletions.
Note: Google Vault is only available to those subscribed to G Suite Business or Enterprise plan.
To know more about the differences between Backup and Archive solutions, read this article.
How to set a retention rule for your Google Drive files using Google Vault
Step 1: Log in to your G Suite account using the Admin credentials. Click here to log in to Google Vault. Once logged in, you will be taken to the homepage of Google Vault.
Step 2: Navigate to the “Retention” module on the left pane and click on the “Drive” option to edit its retention policy.

Step 3: Tick the box, “Set a default retention rule for Drive.” Select the radio button “Indefinitely” as the duration of retention and click “Save”.

Pros:
- Requires no installation
- Keeps data for a long time in an unlimited storage.
Cons:
- Google Vault is designed to be an archiving tool, not a backup solution. You cannot use it to quickly restore your data in the event of a data loss.
- If a Google account is deleted, then the data associated with that account will also be permanently deleted.
- You can’t use Vault if you aren’t a subscriber of the G Suite Business, Enterprise or Education package.
2) How to back up Google Drive files using third – party tools
Why you should back up Google Drive using cloud backup tools
Easy backup: Users can take customized backup to effortlessly backup whatever that’s necessary.
Instant backup: Take a backup in no time, even for large teams.
Automatic backup: Take regular backups at a set frequency, so that you don’t miss out any important files.
Incremental backup: Avoid duplication of data by taking a backup of only the changes made to a document since the last backup.
Better storage space management: Set retention periods and extensions to avoid backing up unnecessary files.
Regular activity reports: Get granular reports of all the activities in the backup account.
Cloud applications like SysCloud are reliable options to back up and restore your Google Drive effortlessly. SysCloud uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide a fully automated cloud to cloud backup and restore.
Pros:
Effortless cloud backup: Automated backup for new users in the domain, back up multiple domains in the same account, run automated backup upto 3 times a day, initiate on-demand backup instantly
Easy recovery: Restore with folder-structure and sharing permissions intact, cross-user restore, export emails in .pst or MBox formats
Proactive security: Ransomware detection for data being backed up, secure cloud backup on AWS with 99.99% uptime guarantee, 256 bit AES encryption to guarantee data privacy and confidentiality, FERPA, HIPAA, and PCI compliant
Comprehensive admin controls: Real-time dashboard with insights into backup and restore health status, ransomware threats, and activity logs; configure backup settings at domain-level, user-level, and organizational unit level; end-user self service; automatically exclude suspended and deleted user from billing
Learn more about SysCloud Google Drive backup.
How to back up Google Drive using SysCloud
Step 1: Login to SysCloud application using your G Suite credentials. Navigate to the Backup module on the menu bar and select “Start Backup” option in the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Choose if you want to back up the entire domain or specific users and teams.

Step 3: Click on “Add Users & Teams.”

Step 4: Select the users whose data you want to backup and click “CONFIRM.”

Step 5: In the Apps section, select “Drive” and click “Start Backup.” This will start the backup process. You can view the backup progress in the “Archives & Restore” page.

II. Google Drive backup for individual users
Here are four ways in which individual users can back up their Google Drive data.
3) How to back up Google Drive to an external hard drive
Step 1: Login to your G Suite account and open Drive.
Step 2: Hold Ctrl+A to select all the files, or select the ones you want to backup.
Step 3: Right click and select the “Download” option.

Pros:
- Requires no software
- Quick and easy
Cons:
- Manual work.
- Since it’s completely manual, there is a high possibility that you might forget to download new or updated files.
- In case of a data loss incident, restoring files to the Drive is going to be a tedious process, since you have to manually upload all the files to the Drive.
- Sharing permissions are not retained.
4) How to back up Google Drive to another Google Drive
Step 1: Open the Google Drive account from which you want to copy files. Select all the files you want to back up. Right click and select the “Share” option.

Step 2: Add the second Google account to which you want to back up the files. Click the “Send” button.

Step 3: Select the same files once again and click the “Share” option. Now, click on the drop-down arrow next to your second Google account and select “Make owner.” A pop-up box will appear asking for permission. Click “Yes.”

Step 4: Open the second Google Drive account and go to Gmail. You will find a new email with all the shared files attached. Click on the “Add all to Drive” option. You can view the newly added files in your second Google Drive account.

Pros:
- Requires no software
- Quick and easy
Cons:
- Since it’s completely manual, one might forget to add new or updated files.
- This method transfers the ownership of the files to the second Google account. You can still access the files unless the owner of the second account decides to remove you.
Note: You can also use Google Takeout to transfer files from one Google Drive to another.
5) How to backup Google Drive data using Google Backup and Sync client
What is Google Drive Backup and Sync client?
Step 1: Download the Backup and Sync application. Click here to download the app.
Step 2: Launch the application and sign in using your Google account.
Note: Since we are using the Backup and Sync app as a tool to easily download the Drive files, skip this section.
Step 3: Uncheck all the options in the “My Computer” page to prevent your desktop files from being uploaded to Google Drive, and click “NEXT”.


Step 4: Select the option “Sync My Drive to this computer. Give the local folder to which you want to download your Drive files. Select the radio button “Sync everything in My Drive” if you want to sync the entire Drive or the option “Sync only these folders” if you want to back up only the selected folders.

Step 5: Click on the “START” button.
Step 6: Copy all the files that were downloaded and save in another folder or another device.
Pros:
- Fully automated: Any new file added to the Drive will be automatically saved in your desktop as well. Similarly, any edits made in the Drive files will be reflected in the files in your desktop.
- Double-sided backup: You can not only save your cloud data on your desktop but also customize it to automatically save your desktop data on the cloud, making it available from any device.
Cons:
- It takes up a lot of your hard drive space, so you need to be selective with the files you save.
- Downloaded files can still be deleted or changed, since your desktop and Google Drive are synced. Therefore, you still need to save important files somewhere else.
- If the system crashes or if there is a malware attack, the backup is lost forever.
6) How to back up Google Drive using Google Takeout
What is Google Takeout? Click here to read more about Google Takeout.
Step 1: Log in to Google Takeout using your Google credentials.
Step 2: Choose Drive from the list of all Google products, and click “Next step.”

Step 3: Choose the file type you would like the data to be sent as, the frequency you would like this action to happen (for example, if you would like your Google Drive data to be exported every two months), and the destination you would like your data to be sent to.

Note:
Step 4: Click on “Create export.” You can see the export in progress.

Note: The time taken will depend on the amount of data stored in the Drive.
Step 5: Click the “Download your files” button in the email, and you will now have a .zip file or .tgz file (depending on what you chose) on your computer, with all your Google Drive data.

Note: You can also use this method to transfer files to another Google Drive account. For this, extract the data from the .zip or .tgz file. Open the Google Drive account to which you want to upload the data. Click +New-> File/Folder upload. Browse to the location of the downloaded files and upload them to the Drive.
Pros:
- Supports all Google Services
- Ability to send copied data directly to other clouds or download them to your computer.
Cons:
- You cannot download documents created by someone else. It won’t download the Shared folder for backup, even if there are files inside the folder created by you.
- Recovery is going to be a tedious process: In case a situation comes where you have to recover all your Google Drive data, chances are that you’ll find different file types distributed across multiple .zip files. You will have to manually sort these and put them in order.
Note: Google Takeout is known to have technical issues. There has been a recent incident where some videos in Google Photos were mistakenly exported to unrelated users’ archives.
To know the different ways in which you can do this, read our in-depth article “How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Google Drive?”
Frequently asked questions
1) Is Google Drive safe for business?
- Two-factor authentication
- SSL encryption
- Strong TLS standard encryption
- Encrypted keys
2) Does Google Vault backup Google Drive?
No, Google Vault doesn’t back up Google Drive; however, it can retain Google Drive files of active and suspended users. Click here to know more about the differences between Google Vault and a permanent backup solution.
3) Can I back up my phone to Google Drive?
4) How do I back up Google Drive to a USB Drive?
To back up your Google Drive data to a USB Drive, download the required files to your PC, following the same steps as in How to Back up Google Drive to an External Hard Drive Once the files are downloaded to your PC, you can transfer it to a USB Drive following these steps:
Select the files you want to transfer. Click the Home tab which is on the upper-left corner of the file explorer window. A toolbar will appear at the top of the window.
Click the Move to option. (You can click the Copy to option if you want to keep a copy of the files on your computer.)
In the drop-down menu that appears, click Choose location. This prompts a pop-up window. Select your USB Drive and click on Move. This will transfer the selected files from your computer to the USB drive.