Keepit allows you to recover your SharePoint data along with its configurations and metadata - the data that defines your content, how it is displayed, and who has access to it.

We recommend you restore data at the highest appropriate level so that data is always restored intact, together with these configurations and metadata. 

If you lose specific data items or configuration settings, you can restore these as individual items. However, we only recommend this if you know what exactly you lost.

Requirements (only for older snapshots)

Important: This is only necessary if you want to restore from a snapshot that was made before July 23, 2020 (the release of Keepit 4.0). No action required if you want to restore a Communication Site page from a snapshot after July 23. 

From the side of your SharePoint, you will not need to take any actions before you restore your SharePoint data, except when restoring Communication Site pages. To restore deleted pages, you need to set extra settings to your Site Collection, which can be done via Powershell using:

Set-SPOsite -Identity <SiteURL> -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0

For more information, see Microsoft's instructions here. 

What happens to my data when I restore?
When you restore your SharePoint data, it will be created in your SharePoint. For more details, see: What happens to my SharePoint data when I restore?

If you have a custom SharePoint configuration, see Restoring SharePoint data with an advanced configuration
In certain cases, you may not be able to restore data if parent content or configurations (such as views, permissions, etc.) are missing from SharePoint. For more details, see: Can I restore any part of my SharePoint data?

Please also note that List items cannot be restored if List metadata columns have symbols, special characters (including Danish letters), or spaces in their names.

Structure of your SharePoint data in Keepit
Every Site and Subsite folder contains:

  • The data of your Site (Lists and Document Libraries)
  • Your configurations (Site Columns, Site Content Types, Permissions, Customization)
  • Subsites (if applicable)

Every List and Document Library folder contains:

  • Your data ("Items" in Lists and "Content" in Document Libraries)
  • Your configurations (Columns, Content Types, Views, Item Permissions, and Assignments)

For a more detailed structure of your SharePoint data, see: SharePoint data coverage

Restore from Correct Snapshot
Before you restore data, remember to always find a snapshot from a time before your data was lost or damaged.
Select your connector, select the Snapshots Viewer icon, and then select the appropriate snapshot. 

You will see a message showing you what snapshot you are viewing. 

Restore Scenarios
Depending on what data you want to recover, there are different ways to bring back your SharePoint data.

To help you find the appropriate level to restore, please find the scenario that applies to you:

1) I lost files from a List or Document Library

If you have lost files from a List or Document Library, restore either the folder that contains the items or content or the individual items.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection > Lists/DocLibs > List/DocLib > Items/Content

When you restore a single item or folder, you restore the content along with the column properties and permissions (if applicable).

2) A List or Document Library was severally damaged or lost

If a List or Document Library was severally damaged, restore the whole List or Document Library.

This will restore everything -- both the content along with all other data including permissions, columns, content types, views, etc.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection > Lists/DocLibs > List/DocLib

3) I lost my Lists or Document Libraries

If you lost all or many of your Lists or Document Libraries, restore the folder with all the Lists or Document Libraries.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection

4) I lost the configuration settings of my List or Document Library

If you lost all or most of your configurations (item permissions, columns, content types, views, assignments, permissions), we recommend you restore the whole List or Document Library.

This will bring back not only the configurations but also the data that it applies to. This is the best way to ensure that all your data will be intact. 

Note: Views and Items that were lost will have new IDs when they are restored.

SharePoint > Site Collection > Lists/DocLibs 

If you lost or damaged only the permissions for a List or Document Library (those that have unique permissions), you can recover them by restoring the Assignments folder.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection > Lists/DocLibs > List/DocLib

If you lost a specific content type or column, you can restore it as an individual item.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection > Lists/DocLibs > List/DocLib >Columns

5) I lost a whole Site/Subsite or a Site/Subsite was damaged

If you lost a whole Site or Subsite, restore the whole Site or Subsite. This will bring back both the data and all the metadata and configurations. 

If a Site or Subsite was damaged (for example, if you lost both data and configurations, or you are uncertain what exactly was lost), restore the whole Site or Subsite.

Note: If the Site or Subsite still exists in SharePoint, you have the option of restoring in place by overwriting the original site or restoring to a new location. For more information, see: How do I restore a SharePoint site?

Remember that when you restore a Site, all Subsites are also restored.

Note: Sites and Subsites will have new IDs when restored.

 > SharePoint

 > SharePoint > Site Collection 

If you know exactly what was lost or damaged, you can restore single items. Find the appropriate level so you don't have to do multiple restores.

6) I lost configurations to a whole Site/Subsite

If you lost configurations (permissions, Site Columns, or Site Content Types) you can restore these folders at the Site or Subsite level. 

However, please remember that when you restore configurations at this level, it will affect all Subsites, Lists, and Document Libraries that inherit permissions from the parent Site.

 > SharePoint > Site Collection