Posts

Google Drive Down Worldwide: Averting Problems with Google Drive Backup

/in , , , /by

Google Drive Down Worldwide: Averting Problems with Google Drive Backup

Google Drive Down WorldwideHere’s the scenario: you get to work, ready to pull up the spreadsheet you’ve been working on from Google Drive. But there’s a problem: Google Drive is down. You wait. Check again. Google drive is still down, and it stays down. For over an hour. What are you going to do now? The answer: keep waiting, even as you waste time. While there is certainly nothing wrong with using Google Drive to back up your G Suite apps, recent issues like this one prove that Google Drive alone is not reliable enough to be your only backup. CloudAlly’s G Suite/Google Apps Backup gives you the security that your data will be protected, even if Google Drive fails.

Right now, Google Drive aims to simplify G Suite users’ storage and file sharing in the cloud, but the program regularly has its snafus.

Case in point about Google Drive’s unreliability: on the morning of September 7, Google Drive users started receiving error messages from the file storage service. Users around the world could not load their files.

At 10:37am EST on September 7, 2017, Google announced that it was working to resolve the issue:

“We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive.” Google Drive was down for an entire hour. By 11:38am EST, the program had been restored for some users, but it was still down for others.

Google issued another message that users could “expect a resolution for all users in the near future,” but the company could not provide a concrete timeline. Only by 12:24pm EST – nearly two hours after Google started working on the problem – was Google Drive restored for all users. The tech giant apologized for the inconvenience and said that it planned to develop “continuous improvements to make our systems better.”

Sure, Google says they’re working to make Google Drive infallible, but what if they don’t deliver on their promise, like they most likely will? If Google Drive fails when you need important data, you’re stuck, waiting until Google recovers. Without a third-party program, there is nothing you can do about Google Drive’s unreliability.

You might think, Google Drive was down for a few hours. So what? The problem speaks to a common issue of unreliability with the service. Just a few days after the first issue, on September 11, nearly 3,000 people reported issues with Google Drive again.

Sure, Google Drive is helpful. But it is by no means complete.

Google Drive’s Unreliability?

Google Drive does back up your files and data. However, the protection it provides is not enough.

Take malware and ransomware. Does Google Drive protect your files from these malicious viruses?

Nope. Even if your files are stored on the Google Drive cloud, your data could be infected. Only a third-party software like CloudAlly can protect your Google Drive files from corruption or ransom.

But, you might think, at least Google Drive will be around forever, right?

Again, the answer isn’t certain. Google Drive’s future is at risk. In early September 2017, users feared that Google Drive was shutting down altogether. While this turned out to be hype, Google is shutting down its Google Drive app for Windows and Mac, replacing it with a new backup up.

Right now, though, take a breath. Google Drive is still accessible to all users through browsers on all devices, but this replacement demonstrates Google doesn’t love Google Drive enough that they’ll never change or replace it. Google Drive may not be around forever, and while Google Drive will likely not shut down without notice, it still makes sense to have a third-party software like CloudAlly to back up all your data.

CloudAlly’s G Suite/Google Apps Backup

Returning to the interruption of Google Drive on September 7.

Google Drive users without third-party backups just had to wait. And click to see if Google Drive had come back online. And wait. And click.

But if you were using CloudAlly, you could have exported critical documents instantly. You wouldn’t have wasted any time. CloudAlly lets you export your data to any and all of the programs or devices you need using efficient zip downloads. Instead of waiting for Google to repair Google Drive on September 7, you could have kept on working like nothing was wrong.

Besides, CloudAlly’s Google Apps Backup does more than protect your Google Drive files, too. It backs up all your G Suite apps, including Gmail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and chats on an automated, daily basis.

Don’t put your data safely entirely into Google’s control; take matters into your own hands! Want to see for yourself how CloudAlly is more reliable than Google Drive? Try our free backup for 15 days.

How to recover your G Suite?

/in , , /by

Lost and found part 2: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps drive, contacts and calendar.

This is our 2nd article on how to recover lost online data on Gmail/Google Apps. On the 1st part of “Lost and found” we discussed recovering lost Gmail/Google app emails. In this second and last part we will explain how to recover lost online data in your Drive, lost contacts and deleted calendar events.

Let’s get to it!

As before – first ask your self: When did you delete it? If it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next instructions.

How To Recover Gmail Contacts

Google has a built-in system that saves older versions of contacts for some time to help recover any contact data that is lost accidentally. Here is how you can use this feature to recover your Google contacts.

Step 1: Click on “Gmail” in the top left corner of the window, then select “Contacts” in the drop down menu that appears.

Step 2: On the Google Contacts page, click on the “More” button on the top left part of the screen, and select “Restore Contacts” from the dropdown menu.

 

Your recently deleted contact data should be restored under a new group with the current date as the title. However, Google deletes Contacts’ data as well after 30 days, so make sure you recover contacts sooner, rather than later.

How To Recover a Deleted Calendar Event

If you accidentally delete an event, you may not be able to recover all your details, but can retrieve some information through an XML feed.

Step 1: Click on the Undo option right on top that appears as soon as you delete an event. It stays there for a few moments so you need to be quick about it, otherwise, you’ll have to recreate the calendar event.

Step 2: If you missed undo link, look for any invitations you might have sent for that event in your Gmail’s Sent folder.

If you can’t find any invitations, you’ll have to recover the data the hard way. If you’re not well versed with Google Apps or aren’t an apps administrator, it would be better to simply recreate the event.

How To Find Calendar’s Public XML Feed

Step 1: Change your domain’s calendar sharing settings in the Google Admin console to Share all information, and outsiders cannot modify calendars.

Step 2: In the list on the left, click on the drop down option of your calendar, and select calendar settings.

Step 3: Scroll down until you see Private Address column with two sections, XML, and ICAL. Click on XML.

Step 4: You should see a popup with a URL on it. Click it.

Step 5: Once clicked, add the string “?showdeleted=true&showhidden=true” to the end of URL in your browser’s address bar. You should see an XML feed with all the event details in your calendar, including the ones you just deleted.

You can see limited information about your events such as a brief description and the event title, but the invited guests’ information isn’t recoverable though.

How To Recover Deleted Files from Google Drive

Step 1: Go to your Google Drive and click on the  Trash option on the left.

Step 2:  Once there, select the file you want to recover and click the “Restore” button.

Step 3: In case you can’t find the files there, go to the Google Admin console and navigate to the users section.

Step 4: Find the user in the list, and then go to their account page. Once there, click on the three vertical dots on the top left corner, then select “Restore Data” in the drop down menu.

Step 5: Select the date range for when you deleted the files, and check the box for Google Drive files, then click Restore. That should do it.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that lost Google App data (Drive, Contacts, Calendar)  you were looking for, then you must have deleted it over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted data, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

 Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the data type (email/drive/calendar/contacts)  and date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered data to your account or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost online with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

 

Why Backup Online Data - FREE overview

Download our FREE overview on data loss in the cloud: what causes it and what you MUST do to prevent it.

How to recover Gmail/Google Apps?

/in , /by

Lost and found part 1: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

You have thousands of emails in your Gmail inbox, which you deleted because you didn’t want to bother sorting through them all. Sounds familiar? I’m sure it does. We get so many emails each day, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it, so we simply erase what we think we don’t need. So lets discuss: how to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

One day, you are looking for an important email and you just can’t find it. Suddenly, you realize that you probably deleted it, and end up scratching your head with panic, wondering how you can recover that data!

So – don’t panic we’re here to explain how you can recover your lost emails.

First is first: Ask your self, when did you delete it? if it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next steps:

Step 1: Type in the keyword, preferably a long-tail one, related to your email in the search box.

In order to find and recover lost emails, you need to know some relevant keywords related to those emails, as with the dates they were sent or received. This will help narrow down the search.

Step 2: If you don’t find the email you’re looking for, scroll down to the bottom and look for the deleted message link.

Step 3: Click on “View It” and it will show you all the messages related to your keyword in the trash

Step 4: If you’ve found the email you were looking for, make sure you move it to the inbox as Google automatically empties the trash folder, after 30 days.

All you need to do is click on the check box for the email, and then click the “Move to Inbox” button. You can also go directly to the Trash folder to search for and move emails to the inbox.

Step 5: If you still didn’t find what you’re looking for, click on the spam folder on the left-hand side of Gmail and search with the same keyword in that folder.

Step 6: If you find the email you were searching for, make sure you click on the corresponding checkbox and mark it “Not Spam” to move it back to the inbox.

Step 7: If you still can’t find the email, try looking through your custom labels, if you’ve created any. If you still can’t find it, chances are, your email was deleted by Google permanently.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that email you were looking for, then you must have deleted your email over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted email, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

step 8: Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the email/date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered email to your inbox or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost emails with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

Read the second part of  how to recover Google Apps: Deleted Contacts, Calendar and Google Drive!