Backing Up Your Data

There are a few different ways to back up your data in Smartsheet. Review the options in this section.

Follow these steps to set a backup.

Create a Backup Copy of Your Smartsheet Data

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

If you want to have 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. For information about exporting, see the article on Exporting Sheets & Reports from Smartsheet.

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

Backup Overview

Who Can Request Backups

You must be a licensed user to request a backup.

How Often Backups Can Be Created

You can create backups for sheets and workspaces as frequently as once every 24 hours. Daily backups must be requested one-at-a-time using the steps below (they can't be scheduled).

If you’re part of a multi-user 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. If your sheets contain comments, those will be captured on a separate Comments tab in each Excel workbook.
     
  • A folder containing any images that you included inline in your sheet. (For more information about inline images, see the article Adding Images to Grid View.)
     
  • A folder containing any attachments that were uploaded directly to your sheets from a computer or mobile device (note that attachments from online sources such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Egnyte, or URL are not included in the backup).

Reports and Smartsheet Dashboards cannot be backed up at this time. (You can export a report to save a copy of it. For information about exporting, see the article on Exporting Sheets & Reports from Smartsheet.)

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 (indenting or outdenting to create subtasks), the rows will be similarly grouped in outline format in the exported Excel file. Click the + (plus icon) to the left of the row numbers in Excel to expand any collapsed rows to reveal their subtasks.

For more information about using hierarchy in Smartsheet, see Hierarchy: Indenting & Outdenting Rows.

Request a Backup

To request a backup:

  1. On the left Navigation Bar, click Browse.  

  2. Right-click on the name of a sheet, folder, or workspace and select Request Backup.

    If a workspace doesn't contain any sheets, the option to Request Backup will be unavailable.
    Reports and dashboards are not included in the backup.

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

    Attachments from online sources such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Egnyte, or URL are not included in the backup.

  4. Click OK. 

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

 

Schedule Weekly Recurring Backups

If you are a licensed user on multi-user 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 weekly backups are generated automatically by Smartsheet each week between Saturday and Monday.

To schedule a weekly backup:

  1. On the left Navigation Bar, click Browse.  

  2. Right-click on the name of a sheet, folder, or workspace and select Schedule Recurring Backup. The Schedule Recurring Backup form appears.

    If the workspace doesn't contain any sheets, the option to Schedule Recurring Backup will be unavailable.

  3. Select the Enable recurring backups checkbox. Select the checkboxes if you want to include attachments and if you want to receive an email notification about the backup.
     
  4. Click OK.

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

  • If you are backing up a workspace, the email will be sent to the workspace owner only.
  • Attachments from online sources such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Egnyte, and URL are not included in the backup.
  • Reports and Dashboards cannot be backed up at this time.

Turn Off Recurring Backups

  1. On the left Navigation Bar, click Browse.  
  2. Right-click on the name of a sheet, folder, or workspace and select Schedule Recurring Backup.
  3. Under Recurring Backup Settings, uncheck the check boxes.

Download a Recent Backup

  1. On the left Navigation Bar, click Browse.  
  2. Right-click the Sheets folder or workspace name in the left panel, then select Request Backup or Schedule Recurring Backup to display the backup form.
  3. Click View Recent Backups.
  4. In the Recent Backups of Sheets window, select Download Backup to begin the download.

Backups are available for download for up to four weeks following the backup date. After four weeks, the links to the backups will become unavailable.