Unsupported scenarios and limitations on M365 backup powered by Veeam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Microsoft SharePoint / Teams – Backup limitations & Unsupported scenarios

  • Backup exclusions cannot be set for SharePoint or Teams.
     
  • The SharePoint site collection recycle bin is not supported for backup.
     
  • A SharePoint Site Collection hierarchy is not supported if the root site was not configured.
     
  • External SharePoint lists are not supported for backup.
     
  • As part of Microsoft Teams data backup, M365 backup powered by Veeam backs up only the following types of channel tabs: Website, Planner, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, PDF, Document Library, OneNote, SharePoint, Stream, Forms, Power BI, Power Automate (ex Flow) and Azure DevOps.
     
  • SharePoint objects cannot be backed up without a valid Microsoft 365 license with SharePoint plan enabled.
     
  • Due to API limitations, version history backup is not supported for the Microsoft SharePoint .aspx web pages.
     
  • Backup of the SharePoint App Store applications that use JavaScript redirects is not supported.
     
  • Comments on SharePoint list items are not supported for backup.
     
  • If a SharePoint item has several versions with identical “owshiddenversion” values, only the latest version of this item is backed up, all the rest versions are skipped from processing.
     
  • Backup of a SharePoint site created within the last 24 hours before the backup job run may be performed with an error because of the time required for its configuration update.

  • Backup of a team with one hundred (100) owners or more may fail.
     
  • When you perform a backup of Microsoft Teams data, M365 backup powered by Veeam does not back up the following objects:

 

  • One-on-one and group chats. For more information about chats in Microsoft Teams, see this Microsoft article. You can use Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Exchange to explore data from user mailboxes and view chat messages as MSG files.
  • Audio and video calls.
  • Video recordings saved to Microsoft Stream.
  • Contacts.
  • Calendar: information about meetings and meeting chats.
  • Code snippets in posts.
  • Audio files in posts.
  • Banner notifications in posts.
  • Data of applications added as channel tabs other than Website, Planner, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, PDF, Document Library, OneNote, SharePoint, Stream, Forms, Power BI, Power Automate and Azure DevOps and other 3rd party applications if their data does not reside in the SharePoint document library of the team.
  • The TeamsMessagesData folder of the group mailbox that belongs to the Microsoft 365 group associated with the backed-up team.
  • Wiki tabs are not supported for backup when protecting Microsoft Teams objects.
  • Microsoft Teams applications from Microsoft AppSource Marketplace and custom applications from the organization’s app store are not supported for backup.
  • Microsoft Teams calls, meeting notes, and meeting chats are not supported for backup.
  • Microsoft Teams tags
  • The ‘Allow members to upload custom apps’ team property in Microsoft Teams.
  • Instant meetings (Meet Now) and scheduled meetings cards in Microsoft Teams posts.
  • Team channel settings.

Microsoft Exchange - Backup limitations & Unsupported scenarios

  • Due to Microsoft limitations, M365 backup powered by Veeam does not back up the  Dynamic Distribution Groups for Microsoft 365 organizations with enabled security defaults.
     
  • Backup exclusions cannot be set for Public Mailbox objects.
     
  • M365 backup powered by Veeam backs up public folders that are located under the IPM_SUBTREE folder only.
     
  • User mailboxes cannot be backed up without a valid Microsoft 365 license.

  • Permissions of shared folders and shared calendars cannot be backed up.

  • Grouping of lists with To Do tasks is ignored.

 General - Backup limitations & Unsupported scenarios

  • Microsoft 365 China and Germany regions have limited support.
     
  • Project Web Apps backup is not supported.
     
  • If the size of a OneNote notebook is greater than two (2) GB, this OneNote notebook is saved as a folder with OneNote items.
     
  • OneDrive for Business objects cannot be backed up without a valid Microsoft 365 license with SharePoint plan enabled.
     
  • Backup jobs management can only be performed by Sherweb (per the Backup-as-a-Service model).

  • The backup retention level cannot be customized. You can choose between one (1) year of retention or *unlimited retention through your Cumulus account management portal.

  • Backup retention levels cannot be combined. When a retention level is chosen through the Cumulus account management portal, that retention level applies to all included M365 users in the backup.

    * Unlimited retention for M365 backup powered by Veeam is limited to twenty (20) years.

Restore limitations & Unsupported scenarios

General

  • Some restore options of OneNote notebooks may not work. Please use export procedures for OneNote notebooks.
  • Using the Self-Service Restore Portal, items of distinct types that you added to the restore list (for example, mailbox items, OneDrive and SharePoint files) will not be restored simultaneously. You must configure and run different restore operations for Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams items.
     
  • A guest user cannot be used as a restore operator.

  • Restore sessions are not closed automatically and keep running for an hour (1h) after a user who logs in to the Restore Portal refreshes their browser during the current login attempt.
     
  • Using the Self-Service Restore Portal, sorting items in the list by Restore Status on the Restore List tab is not supported.
     
  • Using the Self-Service Restore Portal, searching by part of a word is not supported. Only word prefix search is supported.

     

Microsoft Teams

  • Restoral of OneNote tabs from backups of Microsoft Teams data may fail if the OneNote tab name includes non-Latin or special characters.
     
  • Microsoft Teams messages cannot be restored directly back to Teams.
     
  • You can restore Microsoft Teams data to the original organization only.
     
  • Restoral of OneNote notebooks from backups of Microsoft Teams data for organizations with enabled security defaults using multi-factor authentication is not supported.

  • Restore of a team with one hundred (100) owners or more will fail.
     
  • When restoring a channel tab, "Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Teams" does not preserve relation between the link to a file published on the tab and the file itself. You will need to link the tab to the file manually after restore. This limitation does not apply to the scenario where you restore an entire team.
     
  • "Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Teams" does not restore posts to their original location in the team channel. Instead, "Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Teams" exports posts to a file of the HTML format, creates a separate tab in the original channel and attaches the HTML file to this tab.
     
  • M365 backup powered by Veeam does not restore posts to their original location in the team channel. Instead, M365 backup powered by Veeam creates a new tab in the original channel and restores posts to this tab.
     
  • In the restore wizard, team guest members are shown as regular members. For restore, guest membership status is preserved.
     
  • Long channel names are cut to thirty-one (31) characters after restoring to include the restore timestamp and fit the maximum of fifty (50) allowed characters.

  • Restore of a tab with more than one hundred twenty-seven (127) characters in its name is not supported.

  • Restore of a team with more than one hundred twenty-seven (127) characters in its name is not supported.

     

Microsoft Exchange

  • Public folders can only be restored if they are located under the IPM_SUBTREE folder.
     
  • Bulk restore (restoral of multiple objects) is not supported for public folder mailboxes. Use the regular per-object restore instead.
     
  • Bulk restoral of Exchange mailboxes can be performed to the original location only. Use the regular per-object restore if you want to restore mailboxes to another location.
     
  • Restore of group mailboxes and comparing them to production using a username and an app password for authentication is not supported.

  • Mailboxes can be restored only to mailboxes of the same type.
     
  • Using the Self-Service Restore Portal, items of other Exchange types (Appointment, Contact, Task) than Email that you restore may not be displayed properly if a different restore location is chosen.

     

Microsoft SharePoint

  • SharePoint Sites can only be restored to the existing site collection. Creating a new collection is not supported.
     
  • Some lists (including hidden lists) are not supported for restore using Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint, please see the list here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/unsupported_sharepoint_lists.html?ver=120

  • Even though the option is available in “Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint” to restore to alternative locations than the current tenant (like On-Premises Microsoft SharePoint server), sites can only be restored to the existing site collection. Creating a new collection is not supported.
     
  • Even though the option is available in “Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint” to restore to alternative locations than the current tenant (like On-Premises Microsoft SharePoint server), document libraries and lists can only be restored back to the source site from which they were backed up.
     
  • Export of empty SharePoint folders is not supported when using “Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SharePoint”.
     
  • The SharePoint web part customized template cannot be preserved upon a restore. All web parts will be restored with the default template
     
  • The “Allow multiple responses” setting in survey lists within team modern sites is not preserved upon a restore.
     
  • A SharePoint team site restore does not preserve team site owner, nor Microsoft 365 Group members are restored.
     
  • The SharePoint root site node restore is not supported if only subsites of this root were included in a backup.

  • If an .ASPX page references an item using ItemID, this reference may fail to restore (as the item will be created with a different ItemID).
     
  • SharePoint App Store applications restore is not supported.
      
  • If a personal SharePoint Online site was enabled for Multi-Geo after it had been backed up, it can only be restored to the location which was current at the time of backup. Restore to a new location after a site has been moved to new geo is not supported.
      
  • The restore of personal sites to an organization where the Custom Scripts option is disabled for personal sites is not supported.
      
  • A SharePoint Team site restore to a new alias or to another location is not supported for the STS#0 and STS#3 site templates.

  • A SharePoint item with minor versions is restored with major versions if the target library or list is set for major versions only.

  • SharePoint site custom RSS settings are not preserved upon site restore.

  • Restore of custom apps added to a SharePoint site from the organization’s App Catalog is not supported.

  • SharePoint site group settings are not preserved upon site restore.

  • Custom SharePoint site templates are not preserved upon site restore.

  • Information Rights Management (IRM) settings for SharePoint lists and libraries are not preserved upon restore.

  • Shortcuts to shared folders are not supported for restore.

 

Microsoft OneDrive for Business

  • Restoring Shortcuts to shared folders is not supported.

References

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbo365/guide/vbo_considerations.html?ver=80

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/vet_considerations.html?ver=120


https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/vesp_recovery_specials.html?ver=120

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/explorers/vex_considerations.html?ver=120