How to download and export Microsoft Teams data using RecoveryManager Plus
In this article
Objective
This article explains how to download and export Microsoft Teams data using RecoveryManager Plus. It guides admins through the process of securely retrieving backed-up Teams site data for compliance, legal, audit, and security purposes.
As organizations increasingly rely on Microsoft Teams for daily communication and collaboration, the volume of critical data shared across sites or channels continues to grow. The ability to back up and manage Microsoft Teams data is essential for maintaining control and visibility over your organization’s information.
Benefits of downloading and exporting Microsoft Teams data
Backing up and exporting Microsoft Teams data is crucial for several reasons:
- Compliance and legal hold: Organizations are required to retain communication records and shared documents for a specified period.
- Audit readiness: Enables internal and external audits by providing access to historical data.
- Security and control: Keeping a copy of sensitive information gives organizations more control over their data.
Prerequisites
To download or export Microsoft Teams site data, you must have at least one backup of the site in RecoveryManager Plus. For information on how to back up Microsoft Teams sites, click here.
Steps to follow
The following steps illustrate how you can download or export Microsoft Teams data in JSON format using RecoveryManager Plus.
- Log in to RecoveryManager Plus as an administrator.
- Navigate to the SharePoint & OneDrive tab > Restore.
- Select the Tenant that has the Microsoft Team site data that you wish to download or export.
- In the Select Backup drop-down menu, select the backup schedule that contains the Microsoft Team site to be downloaded or exported.
- Select the site that you want to restore and click the Review and Restore button.
- To view how your Microsoft Teams site looked at any point in the past, select a date and time from the Snapshot field.
- RecoveryManager Plus provides two views to explore site items in each backup:
- Site View: This is the default view that provides a list of all sites that were backed up in the selected schedule. This view also includes details such as the URL of the Microsoft Team site backed up, the number of items backed up during the last backup cycle, and the size of those items. To download the entire content of the site, select the site and click the Download data (zip) button.
Note: In this view, you can download data from multiple sites and store it within your premises. Select the sites whose data you wish to download and click the Download data (zip) button. Provide a name for the download job, the location where the data is to be stored, and an encryption password if you want to secure your downloaded site data.
- Backup view: This view provides the complete execution history of the selected backup schedule along with the number of items backed up during each cycle. Click the Review and Restore link beside the backup that contains the items to be restored.
- Select the site and click Review and Restore in any view. The left pane on the next screen will display a list of all the sites you have selected.
- To view how your Microsoft Teams site looked at any point in the past, select a date and time from the Snapshot field and click Apply. The tree in the left pane will provide an exact representation of your Microsoft Teams data at the selected instant. You can restore any site or item to the backed-up state.
- Clicking the name of any site will expand it and display three trees: Subsites, Contents, and Channels. The subsites tree displays all the SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business subsites, the contents tree displays all the lists in the site, and the channels tree displays all the posts and files in the Microsoft Teams site.
Note: Adaptive cards and apps posted in Teams channels will not be displayed. However, Loop Apps and the hosted content can be viewed and downloaded.
Figure 1: Downloading posts from a Microsoft Teams channel
View all the posts in the Microsoft Teams channel.
Download the selected posts from the Microsoft Teams channel.
Figure 2: Downloading files from a Microsoft Teams channel.
View all the files in the Microsoft Teams channel.
Download the selected files from the Microsoft Teams channel.
Troubleshooting tips
Issue: A Microsoft Teams site has been backed up, including all attachments from the channels within the site. While the metadata of the attachments is visible in RecoveryManager Plus' interface, attempts to download the attachments have failed with the following error message.
Error: The attachment could not be downloaded due to retention policy settings or may have been deleted before being backed up.
Possible causes:
- Attachment was unavailable during backup: The backup might have failed to include the attachment because it was not accessible at the time of backup.
- The file may have been removed due to the retention policies set for the backup schedule: RecoveryManager Plus allows you to enforce retention policies that determine how long backup data is stored before it is automatically purged. If an attachment was successfully backed up but the retention period has lapsed, the backup of the file would be deleted while the metadata might still be visible in the interface. To prevent this from happening in the future, consider increasing the retention period for backups, ensuring that attachments remain available for a longer duration.
- The attachment might not be present in the site that has been backed up: If an attachment was deleted in a Microsoft Teams site or a SharePoint Online site before the scheduled backup, RecoveryManager Plus might not have been able to back it up. In such cases, while the metadata may have been backed up, the actual attachment will be missing from the backup. To prevent this in future backups, it's recommended to verify the availability of attachments during the backup window.
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Last updated on: 24-04-2025
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