Frequently Asked Questions on Remote Desktop Access

Google Workspace Backup is a Cloud Applications Backup, SaaS backup and recovery service that offers a comprehensive backup, export, and restore solution for your Google Workspace data. Google Workspace Backup Backup adds an additional layer of security against accidental data deletions, cyber-attacks, and ransomware encryptions.

According to Google Workspace's Shared Responsibility Model, Google is responsible only for the bulk of security and service uptime on the platform. The onus of securing the data on the platform against loss falls solely on the user.

Additionally, in-built tools like Google Vault and Google Admin provide only data archival, and partial recovery flexibilities. With no options for backups, versioning, or point-in-time data recoveries, your Workspace data is rendered vulnerable to loss due to human error, malware, or hardware failure. Hence, it is essential to protect your Google Workspace data with a reliable third-party backup and recovery solution.

Google Workspace Backup supports backup of Gmail, Google Drive, Google Shared Drives, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar.

Below are brief details of the data that can be backed up and restored using the application.

Gmail

• Search data by username or email address
• Backup and recover specific data, labels, or individual messages
• Backup and restore an entire label or entire mailbox

Google Drive

• Backup, search, export, and recover data from My Drive
• Backup items included in Shared Drives

Google Contacts

Users can backup, export and restore all contacts or individual contact cards.

Google Calendar

Users can backup, export, and restore entire Calendars or individual Calendar events.

RemotePC^™ Google Workspace Backup has the following limitations in the current version regarding the types of data that can be backed up.

Google Contacts

• External contact profiles (Directory profile, Google profile) and contact photos are not included in the backup.
• The Other contacts folder and the Directory folder are excluded from the backup.

Google Calendar

• Reminders, appointment slots, event conferencing fields, and folders attached to events are excluded from backup.
• The automatically-accepted invitations are excluded from backup.

Google Photos

• Photos and videos stored in Google Photos cannot be backed up.

Yes, Google Workspace Backup automatically detects and backs up all the Shared Drives of your Google Workspace account including those that are accessible as well as those that are not accessible to the Super Administrator.

To get started,

1. Sign in to your RemotePC account.
2. Click Google Workspace.
   
3. Click Enable. You will be redirected to the account connection page.
   
4. When connecting using a Workspace app, the admin of the Google organisation will need to perform two steps. First is to Install the IDrive App from Google Marketplace. After the installation is completed, the user should wait several minutes, so that the permissions are applied.
   
5. After that, the user should go back to the account connection page and click on the step 2, Connect Google Account.
6. Click the account you want to connect. Once authorized, you will be redirected to the dashboard of your Google Workspace Backup account.
7. Click Create.

Your Google Workspace will be automatically synced with RemotePC Google Workspace Backup application for backup, and the user data will be displayed on the screen. You can now manage backups, exports, and restores for all the users and shared drives in your Google Workspace account from the web console.

Note: By default, the Unit Administrator will have access to the backup details of the Google Workspace Backup account. However, they are not allowed to cancel the subscription.

Yes, RemotePC supports the backup of Personal Google accounts which lets you secure your Gmail, Drive, Calendar, and Contacts.

To backup your personal Google account,

1. Sign in to your RemotePC account.
2. Click Google Workspace.
3. Click Enable.
4. Select a Region from the drop-down list to store your Google Workspace backups.
5. Click Proceed.
6. On the Google account connection page, click Connect Google Account under Personal Google Account Backup.
7. Select the Google account you wish to connect and click Select all to grant access permissions. This is necessary for successful backups.

Your personal Google account will be automatically synced with RemotePC for backup.

Personal Google Backup has the following limitations in the current version regarding the types of data that can be backed up.

Google Drive: Shared With Me data that has read-only permissions is excluded from the backup.

Google Photos: Photos and videos stored in Google Photos cannot be backed up.

Google Calendar: The following items are excluded from backup:

• Reminders
• Appointment slots
• Event conferencing fields
• Folders attached to events
• Automatically accepted invitations

Google Contacts: The following items are excluded from backup:

• External contact profiles (e.g., Directory profile, Google profile)
• Contact photos
• The Other Contacts folder
• The Directory folder

These exclusions are important to note when setting up or managing your Personal Google Backup.

Yes, you can access your backed-up data from OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams. via the web console. Similarly, you can manage backups and restore the backed-up data from any location via the web.

The web console has the following sections:

• Overview: Get an overview of the total Google Workspace user accounts, total backed-up accounts, and the last backup time across OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams.
  
• Seat Management: Add, view, and manage user accounts across the entire Google Workspace Suite.
  
• Recovery: View, manage and restore point-in-time backups of all users across OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams. Search, download, restore and monitor specific data from specific users across Google Workspace suite.
  
• Activity logs: View activity logs, for all users across the account.
  

Google Workspace backup prioritizes data security in the following ways:

Automated data backup

Your data is automatically backed up three times a day, providing regular and reliable protection for critical business data.

Multi-layered data security

• Google Workspace backup stores your data across top-notch data centers and secures with industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption on both transfer and storage.
• Each authenticated data transmission and user interaction from Google Workspace are processed through TLS 1.2 encrypted connections.
• 0Auth-based authentication is used to verify your Google Workspace user accounts without requiring their passwords.

Business compliance

We implement data control measures across operations, software, and infrastructure to assist companies in adhering to various regulatory standards such as HIPAA, SOX, GLBA, SEC/FINRA, and PCI DSS.

Google Workspace backup uses IDrive® e2 technology. IDrive® e2 ensures the following and assists users to meet HIPAA compliance:

• Physical security of the data centers
• Strong authentication and authorization controls for cloud, storage, and networking infrastructure
• Encrypts data at rest and in transit to safeguard confidential patient information

When using a new IP address to export or restore data you must authorize the IP address by entering a verification code sent to the email address of the account administrator. This provides an additional layer of security for your data.

When backing up Google Workspace files (such as Docs, Sheets, etc.) to the cloud, the files cannot be downloaded in their original Google Drive format. Instead, they are exported to a standard format, which typically results in larger file sizes. Additionally, the previous and deleted versions of the files are also considered in the size calculation, contributing to the increased overall size.

Backup of users under Google Workspace Business/Enterprise - Archive User Licence is not supported. However, once a Google Workspace account has been backed in RemotePC, you can always restore or export its data, even if the account is suspended, archived, or deleted in the Google Admin Console.

You can also use RemotePC to affordably retain and preserve the data for user accounts that have not been actively backed up.

You will need to reactivate the archived account in the Google Admin Console before we can back up the data. After the backup is completed, you can archive the account again, or even remove it from your Google Workspace domain, without worrying about data loss or paying high charges for Archived User Licenses.

Once configured with Google Workspace, Google Workspace Backup runs a full automated backup of your Gmail, Google Drive, Google Shared Drives, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar for all users.

Google Workspace Backup enables automated data synchronization, so that after the full initial backup, all the subsequent changes are incrementally backed up.

Google Workspace Backup runs up to three automated backups every day for all the users of your organization. These system backups run on a predefined schedule for the entire organization.

In the event of a failed backup, the backup is run again immediately till successful.

Yes, Google Workspace Backup enables automated data synchronization. After the full initial backup, all subsequent changes are incrementally backed up.

To perform backup for any specific user,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select the required application from which you want to backup data for the user:
   
   1. Drive - To backup the user's drive data.
   2. Gmail - To backup the user's Emails and Folders data.
   3. Calendar - To backup the user's calendar schedules and events.
   4. Contacts - To backup the user's contact cards.
3. Click the user account for which you want to backup data.
4. Click Backup now.
   

The backup progress will be displayed in real time. The backup details can be viewed under Backups.

Note: Running a manual backup does not affect the auto-scheduled backups.

To perform Shared Drives backup for any specific user,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select Shared Drives.
3. Click the shared drive for which you want to backup data.
4. Click Backup now.

The backup progress will be displayed in real time. The backup details can be viewed under Backups.

Note: Running a manual backup does not affect the auto-scheduled backups.

The previous versions of the backed-up data are retained as point-in-time snapshots, enabling you to run point-in-time restores of your data to the exact state it was in at the time of your backup.

The snapshots are retained and consolidated in the following manner:

• Daily backups are done three times a day and kept for 30 days.
• After 30 days, one of the three daily backups is saved.
• After 90 days, one weekly backup is saved.
• After 365 days, one monthly backup is saved.

Note:

• Deleted files are stored indefinitely, as long your subscription is active.
• If multiple versions are saved in the daily, weekly or monthly backups only one version is retained.

The Overview tab gives you a quick glance of the backups, exports, and restores of your users. You can view the summary of the following information across all the Google Workspace Office Suite applications:

• Total users: The total number of active users in your Google Workspace account.
• Users protected: The number of active users added to the backup list and who have completed backup within the last 24 hours.
• Users not protected: Number of active users not included in the backup list.
• Last backup activity: This displays the last date when every module in the application successfully completed a backup within a 24-hour period.
• Last 10 days backup: This displays the status of the last 10 days, represented by the following icons.
  
  1. backup failure
  2. backups were 100% successful
  3. backup has not yet commenced
  4. backup was partially successful
• Backup in progress: Total number of ongoing backup operations.
• Exports in progress: Total number of ongoing export operations.
• Restore in progress: Total number of ongoing restore operations.

A seat refers to a Google Workspace user. Each seat added to the account is billed as per the subscribed plan.

You can access records of all the users under the Seat Management tab in your Google Workspace Backup web console, regardless of their backup status.

Navigate to the Users or Shared Drives tab under Seat Management to access the following management tools:

• Auto-add: Discovers and automatically syncs all the new users/shared drives added to your Google Workspace account.
• Activate all users/Activate all: Activate backup for all unprotected users and shared drives.
• Filter users/shared drives: Filter records of users or shared drives according to their backup status — active, paused, and unprotected.
• Search users/shared drives: Look up specific users and shared drives among the records.
• Download CSV: Download a list of all the selected users and shared drives in CSV format.
• Manage Drive, Gmail, Contact, and Calendar data: Manage specific Drive, Mail, Contact, and Calendar data for a user by clicking on the respective icons
• Backup status: Hover over View details to view the summary of backup status, or click the button to view a detailed backup status summary.
• Backup actions: Pause, add, or remove users and shared drives from backup set. For details, refer How do I change seat status for users and shared drives?
• Refresh seats: You can refresh the seats by clicking this button. Depending on the Auto-add status, new seats will be added with the corresponding backup status. If auto-add is enabled, the newly discovered seats are automatically protected, if not, they remain unprotected until the user manually changes it.
• Unprotect all: You can unprotect all the seats using this option. The unprotected seats will be excluded from the daily backups and will not be accessible in the Recovery module.
  

You can add and remove the users from the backup set, or pause backups by changing their seat status.

To change the seat status for users,

1. Go to the Seat Management tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Go to Users
3. Under the Backup actions column corresponding to the user, set the seat status as required.
   
   • Pause: Pause the backup for the user.
   • Unprotect: Remove the user from the Google Workspace Backup set
   • Protect: Resume/start backup for unprotected/paused users

The status of a user added to the backup set will be displayed as Active.

Note: On changing the seat status to Unprotect for a user, all backups associated with the user will be deleted.

Users in your Google Workspace are automatically detected and added to the backup set once you configure your Google account for backup. Auto-add will be enabled by default to discover new users in your Google Workspace. To manually add new seats, you can click to refresh the data.

To enable auto-add,

1. Go to the Seat Management tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Users tab.
3. Enable the toggle switch next to Auto-add.
   

You can re-add unprotected users to the active backup set by changing their seat status to active.

To activate backup for users who are not included in the backup set,

1. Go to the Seat Management tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Navigate to the Users tab.
3. Under the Backup actions column next to the paused/unprotected user, select Protect from the dropdown menu.
   
4. To activate all unprotected users click Activate all users on the top right. Alternatively, click Activate all for all unprotected users.
   

To activate all unprotected users, click Activate all users on the top right. Alternatively, click Activate all for all unprotected users.

The Backup status next to each user or shared drive provides an overview of their backup results for each module within the past 24 hours. Click View details to view the following backup status parameters for each module:

• Backup status: Success/failure status of the backup in the past 24 hours, denoted by Completed / Failed
• Storage used: Total space occupied by the backup
• Last backup: Timestamp of the last backup
  

To view the summarized backup status for each module, hover on View Details.

To restore the backed-up Google Workspace data,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select the required application from which you want to restore data.
3. Click the user account from which you want to restore data.
4. Select the appropriate recovery point under Snapshots if you want to perform a point-in-time restore. To restore a specific file or folder, select the item from the list of backed-up items. You can also search for a specific file or folder.
5. Click Restore. A popup window will appear.
6. Select Snapshot or Selected Item as required.
   
   
   Note: The Selected Item option will be enabled only if you have selected items for restore. If nothing is selected, Snapshot is selected by default.
7. Select the user account from the Restore to drop-down menu to which you want to restore the snapshot or the selected item. You can restore the data to the same user account or a different user account.
8. Click Restore.

Yes, Google Workspace Backup retains the source file permissions, which are restored to the files during a restore operation.

Yes, Google Workspace Backup enables you to search and recover specific files, entire folders, images, videos, emails, and even contacts and calendars at a granular level.

You can perform both point-in-time and file-level searches across multiple search parameters to perform a granular restore for a specific item.

To perform a point-in-time search for restoring a specific version of the backed-up data from a user account or a shared drive,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select the required application from which you want to restore data.
3. Click the user account for which you want to perform the search.
4. To search for all the snapshots for a specific data, select the date on the calendar. A list of all the recent snapshots will be displayed on screen. Select the required snapshot. Click Latest Snapshot to find the latest snapshot.
   

A file-level search enables you to locate specific backed-up files and folders from a user account.

To perform file-level restore,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select the required application for which you want to restore data.
3. Go to the Search tab.
4. Enter a valid search term, set the required date and time for snapshots, select single or multiple users from the dropdown menu.
   Note: The closest snapshot to the selected timestamp will be displayed.
5. Click Search.

To restore the file(s)/folder(s), refer to this FAQ.

To export the backed-up data,

1. Go to the Recovery tab on your Google Workspace Backup dashboard.
2. Select the required application for which you want to export data.
3. Click the user account from which you want to export data.
4. Select the appropriate snapshot under Snapshots if you want to perform a point-in-time export. To export a specific file or folder, select the item from the list of backed-up items. You can also search for a specific file or folder.
5. Click Export. A popup window will appear.
6. Select Snapshot or Selected Item as required.
   Note: The Selected Item option will be enabled only if you have selected items for restore. If nothing is selected, Snapshot is selected by default.
7. Click Export.

You can download the generated export files in the Exports tab by clicking next to successful exports. Alternatively, click *icon* to delete the exported data.

Note: Exported data will be downloaded as zip files.

Yes, you can preview the content of any backed up email. Go to Recovery > Gmail and click on the required email. The content of the email will be displayed in a preview pane. You can download any attachments to your computer.

Yes, you can restore deleted or corrupted files and folders directly to the user account or shared drive. You can also download them on your device while retaining their exact folder structure.

Yes, you can view the logs or generate summary of the scheduled System Events and Admin Actions like backup, restore, search, and web operations performed manually, across RemotePC Google Workspace Backup under the Activity Logs tab.

To view activity logs for system-generated automatic backups,

1. Navigate to the Activity Logs tab.
2. Click System Events.
3. Select Date range. To set a custom start and end date, select Custom range.
4. Next, specify the following parameters:
   1. Event Type: By default, it will be set as Scheduled.
   2. Status: By default it will be set to All.
   3. Module: Choose the backed-up service (OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams).
   4. Seat: Generate log for specific user(s), or all users.
5. Click View Event Logs.

A list of all the scheduled backup activities including timestamp, seat, module, backup status, event (backup), destination (for restore), performed by, will be displayed on the screen.

To generate a detailed summary report of the activities, click Generate Summary.

You can also download the activity log reports on your system in CSV format by clicking Download CSV.

To view activity logs for admin-initiated actions,

1. Navigate to the Activity Logs tab.
2. Click Admin Actions.
3. Select Date range. To set a custom start and end date, select Custom range.
4. Next, specify the following parameters:
   
   1. Event Type: Select the type of operation (All, backup, export, restore, and search)
   2. Status: Generate log for all events, completed or failures.
   3. Module: Choose the backed-up service (OneDrive, Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams).
   4. Seat: Generate log for specific user(s), or all users.
5. Click View Event Logs.

A list of all the manual backup activities including timestamp, seat, module, backup status, event (backup), destination (for restore), performed by, will be displayed on the screen.

To generate a detailed summary report of the activities, click Generate Summary.

You can also download the activity log reports on your system in CSV format by clicking Download CSV.