Backing Up Your Data

Smartsheet operates 100% in the cloud, so the sheets you create are stored on Smartsheet servers.

If you want a backup copy of your data, you can do either of the following:

• Request a one-time or recurring backup (read on to learn more about requesting backups); or,
• Manually export one or more sheets or reports.

After you request a backup, you can view and/or download the backup directly from Smartsheet.

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Backup overview

How often backups can be created

You can create backups for sheets and workspaces once every 24 hours. Daily backups must be requested one at a time (they can't be scheduled).

If you’re part of a Business or Enterprise plan, you can schedule weekly recurring backups for your top-level sheets directory or for any workspace that you own or have Admin rights to. (Not sure about what account type you have? See Identify Your Smartsheet Plan and User Type.)

What a backup contains

A backup consists of a ZIP folder containing the following:

• Excel (.xlsx) files of the data from each sheet that you requested to have backed up
  Do your sheets contain comments and sheet summaries? Those will be captured on separate tabs in each exported Excel workbook.
• A folder containing any images that you included inline in your sheet
• A folder containing any attachments uploaded directly to your sheets from a computer or mobile device 

What you won’t see in the backup file

• Reports and Smartsheet dashboards: At this time, you can only export a report to save a copy of it. If a workspace you requested to back up doesn’t contain sheets, you will see this error message: “Unable to schedule backup. Please specify a valid item to back up.”
• Attachments from online resources: Examples of these files include the following but are not limited to:
  • Google Drive
  • OneDrive
  • Box
  • Dropbox
  • Evernote
  • Egnyte
  • URL

Tips for Using the Backup

Not all formatting will be preserved in the Excel file, so you may need to reapply formatting such as word wrap (the Wrap Text command in Excel).

If your sheet includes hierarchy, the rows will be similarly grouped in outline format in the exported Excel file. To expand collapsed rows to reveal their subtasks, in the left side of the row numbers, select the + icon.

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Request a backup

1. On the left Navigation Bar, select Browse.  

2. In the left pane, right-click the name of a sheet, folder, or workspace; then, select Request Backup.

3. In the Request Backup dialog, select whether you’d like to include attachments or receive an email upon completion.

4. Select OK. 

After you request a backup, you can download the backup directly from Smartsheet.

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Schedule weekly recurring backups

If you’re a licensed user on a Business or Enterprise plan, you can schedule weekly recurring backups for all sheets in your sheets directory and any workspace that you own or to which you have Admin-level permissions.

These backups provide content in a ZIP file format, with individual sheet data stored in Excel workbook format (comments will be saved to a Comments tab in the workbook).

Once you've enabled them, these backups are generated automatically by Smartsheet each week between Saturday and Monday.

To schedule a weekly backup

1. On the left Navigation Bar, select Browse.
2. Right-click the workspace; then, select Schedule Recurring Backup so the form appears.
3. In the Recurring Backups Settings section, select the Enable recurring backups checkbox. 
   • Optional: Select these checkboxes:
     • Include attachments 
     • Send the workspace owner an email when the backup is completed
       If you’re backing up a workspace, the email will only be sent to the workspace owner. You can only receive email notifications for sheets you want to back up.
4. Select OK.

After you request a backup, you can download the backup directly from Smartsheet.

Turn off recurring backups

1. On the left Navigation Bar, select Browse.  
2. Right-click the name of a sheet, folder, or workspace; then, select Schedule Recurring Backup.
3. In the Recurring Backup Settings section, clear the Enable recurring backups checkbox.

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Download a recent backup

1. On the left Navigation Bar, select Browse.  
2. To open the backup dialog, in the left pane, right-click the sheets folder or workspace name, then select Request Backup or Schedule Recurring Backup.
3. Select View Recent Backups.
4. To begin the download, in the Recent Backups dialog, select Download Backup.Backups are available for download for up to four weeks following the backup date. After four weeks, the links to the backups will be unavailable.