Sync is not backup: why your drive does not protect your files
A drive keeps your files in step across every device, and that includes your mistakes. A deleted folder, or a file encrypted by ransomware, reaches every computer within minutes.
Plenty of small businesses consider their files backed up because they live on kDrive, Google Drive or OneDrive. They are stored online, with a reliable provider, and you can reach them from any computer. But a drive is built to sync files, and sync works in both directions.
This article covers what that means in practice, what the trash and version history can get back, and where they stop.
How sync works
The drive app on each computer watches a folder. As soon as a file is created, changed or deleted, it sends the change to the server, which passes it on to every other device connected to the same account or shared folder.
The app has no way to tell whether a change was intended. Delete a file by mistake and it goes from the other computers too. Save an old version over the right one and the old one spreads. If ransomware encrypts the folder on a single computer, the encrypted files replace the originals on the server.
1. A folder deleted from one computer
Someone tidies up their synced folder and deletes a subfolder they think is theirs. It was shared, so it disappears for the whole team. The trash keeps it for a while, as long as someone notices in time.
2. Ransomware on one computer
Ransomware encrypts every file it can reach, including the synced folder. The drive app sees modified files and uploads the encrypted versions to the server, then to the other computers. Depending on the drive, you can go back to earlier versions, but across thousands of files, and only while those versions are still kept.
3. An employee’s account is deleted
On Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, files belong to the account that created them. When the account is deleted, its files go with it, unless someone transferred them first. An administrator then has only a short window to restore the account.
4. A file is overwritten
Two people edit the same spreadsheet offline, or an old copy gets dragged over the current one. The drive keeps whichever arrived last. Version history lets you go back, provided you know which version you need and it has not been removed yet.
What the trash and version history can recover
Drives have built-in protection, and it is useful. How long it lasts depends on the plan:
- kDrive: the trash keeps files from 30 days on free kSuite up to a year depending on the plan, and version history keeps between 30 and 200 versions per file, for 30 to 365 days. The Rewind feature puts a folder back the way it was on a past date.
- Google Drive: the trash keeps files for 30 days. For files that are not Google Docs, a version is removed after 30 days or once there are 100 newer ones. A Workspace administrator can still recover a file for 25 days after the trash is emptied.
- OneDrive: the recycle bin keeps files for 30 days on a personal account and 93 days on a work account. Microsoft 365 subscribers can roll their whole OneDrive back to any point in the last 30 days.
Where they stop
These protections have limits worth knowing:
- they expire: once the period is over, the file is gone for good, whether anyone noticed or not;
- they live in the same account as the files: if the account is deleted, hacked or suspended, they go with it;
- restoring is often done file by file, which takes a long time after ransomware or a large deletion.
What a drive backup needs to do
A backup is a separate copy, taken on a schedule and kept somewhere else.
- Files are copied to a different provider, with credentials separate from the drive’s.
- Deleted files and older versions are kept for as long as you decide.
- You can restore a whole folder as it was on a given date.
- It runs on its own and alerts you if it fails.
- A shared folder is backed up once, not once for every user who can open it.
Where istorel fits
Today istorel backs up mailboxes on the same principles: a copy in France with a different provider, deleted items kept, and an alert when a backup fails. We explain why in Why back up your email?
Drive backup (kDrive and WebDAV) is in development. It will run in the same console, on the same schedules.