FAQ’s / Frequently Asked Questions
Installation / Trials
How do I install Spanning Backup?
How many domain users can I backup through my trial?
Why am I stuck in an authentication loop when accessing Spanning Backup?
What’s different between Individual and Domain accounts?
Licensing & Purchasing
Do I have to back up all users in my domain?
Can I reassign a paid seat if a user I was backing up leaves?
Should I be worried performing a restore could cause me to lose data?
How do I get a Spanning Backup discount code?
Administrator Actions
Can an admin set up Spanning Backup for domain users?
How do I assign an admin user to Spanning Backup?
Can I hide Spanning Backup from a subset of domain users?
Can I lock the settings for Spanning Backup so they can’t be changed?
How do I enable the Provisioning API?
Subdomains
Can the primary domain admin manage sub-domain users in Spanning Backup?
Will Spanning Backup back up a primary domain and its sub-domains?
What happens if I get locked out of my Google account or it gets deleted?
Backups
Is there a way to see individual items in my backup?
Can I download my backed-up data to my computer?
Can a user delete their backups?
Why does the email status report show so many items in my backup?
How do I enable Gmail and Google Sites backup for my domain?
How is restoring Google Sites different from restoring other data types?
Installation / Trials
How do I install Spanning Backup?
You can install Spanning Backup by going here, then:
*For domain installs, please select the “Domain” install type
*For individual installs, please select the “Individual” install type
How many domain users can I backup through my trial?
Up to 100 domain users can be backed up through a Spanning Backup trial account. Paid accounts are not limited in how many domain users can be backed up.
Why am I stuck in an authentication loop when accessing Spanning Backup?
This is usually due to the Provisioning API being disabled in your Google Apps Console. You can enable it here:
Google Apps Console-> Domain Settings-> User Settings
Please contact support if enabling the provisioning API does not resolve the login issue.
What’s different between Individual and Domain accounts?
Both account types have the same $40/year pricing ($35/year with a discount code) and unlimited storage as long as the account is paid and active. Domain accounts receive Google Sites backup and have access to the Admin Console. Individual accounts do not receive Google Sites backup and do not have access to the Admin Console.
Licensing & Purchasing
Do I have to back up all users in my domain?
No. You will purchase only the number of paid seats that you’re needing for the domain. You will then use the license manager to assign those paid seats to the domain users that you’re wanting backed up. Any domain users that are not assigned a paid seat will not be backed up.
Can I reassign a paid seat if a user I was backing up leaves?
Yes! The domain admin can use the license manager to remove the paid seat and reassign it to another domain user.
*If you want to retain the backed up data for the user that’s leaving, a paid seat must be assigned to that user account.
Should I be worried performing a restore could cause me to lose data?
No. Spanning Backup doesn’t overwrite anything that’s currently in your Google account when you perform a restore. We simply place a new “Restored From” item in your Google account. You can then move data out of that “Restored From” item to wherever you’d like. Once you’re done, simply delete the “Restored From” item and you’re done!
How do I get a Spanning Backup discount code?
You might have noticed a discount code field on the Spanning Backup checkout page. That field is for using a “Save 5+Make 5” discount code to save $5/user per year on your Spanning Backup purchase. Anyone that has a paid Spanning Backup account has a “Save 5+Make 5″ discount code they can give you. You might have been given a code from a friend, co-worker or even someone you spoke with at Spanning. If you have one, great! Use it! If not, you can find one here:
Spanning Backup discount codes
Everyday we take the last 5 customers that opt into the “Save 5+Make 5″ program and post their discount code on that site for everyone to see and use. If you use one of those discount codes, not only will you save on your purchase, but we’ll also pay the person whose code you used $5 for each paid seat you purchased!
After you’ve purchased Spanning Backup and opted into the “Save 5+Make 5″ program, you’ll get your own discount code to give out to your friends, family and co-workers. We’ll also post your discount code on the discount code site for everyone to use!
Administrator Actions
Can an admin set up Spanning Backup for domain users?
Yes! When signed into Spanning Backup as a domain admin, you can click the down-arrow next to the domain name to see a list of Spanning Backup users in the domain. You can choose which user in the domain you’re wanting to “impersonate”, allowing you to set up or modify the backup settings for that particular user. You can also perform on-demand back ups and restores on their behalf.
How do I assign an admin user to Spanning Backup?
Spanning Backup automatically assigns admin priveleges to any domain user that has been given admin status through the actual Google account.
Can I hide Spanning Backup from a subset of domain users?
No. When you install Spanning Backup into your domain, by default Google enables Spanning Backup in the Google Apps navigation bar for all domain users. For more information, see this Google knowledge base article.
Can I lock the settings for Spanning Backup so they can’t be changed?
Yes! The domain admin can lock the settings for Spanning Backup so no other user can make changes to what’s being backed up. The user can still initiate on-demand back ups and restores, but cannot modify the Spanning Backup settings for their account.
How do I enable the Provisioning API?
You can enable the Provisioning API from your Google Apps Console. Here’s where to find it:
Google Apps Console-> Domain Settings-> User Settings
Subdomains
Can the primary domain admin manage sub-domain users in Spanning Backup?
Yes! The primary domain admin has the ability to license and manage the primary domain users as well as any associated sub-domain users. This is all done in Spanning Backup through the primary domain admin account. Please contact support if you have any questions.
Will Spanning Backup back up a primary domain and its sub-domains?
Yes! Spanning Backup can back up the primary domain and any sub-domains associated with it.
What happens if I get locked out of my individual Google account or it gets deleted?
As a security measure, Spanning Backup will only restore data into the individual Google account from which it was backed up. If your Google account gets deleted, you can simply recreate it and you’ll have access to the backups for that account. If Google locks the Google account, you’ll need to contact Google about getting it opened again.
Backups
Is there a way to see individual items in my backup?
Yes! When you select a restore date and click “Restore”, you will then see a list of all individual items contained in that backup. You can then pick and choose which items you’re wanting to restore back to your Google account.
Can I download my backed up data to my computer?
Yes! Starting with Spanning Backup v4.0, in addition to restoring selected mail, docs, calendars, contacts or sites directly into a Google Apps account, users can export and download that data in industry-standard formats.
Can a user delete their backups?
Backed up data cannot be deleted once it’s been backed up, not even by the domain admin. Each user’s backups will be saved for as long as their Spanning Backup account is paid and active.
Why does the email status report show so many items in my backup?
The email status report is displaying how many items are available for restore in the account. Here’s a list of reasons why the number of restorable items may appear inflated:
* Google Drive/Docs- We make a copy of each document when it changes, so there’s multiple versions of the same document that can be restored.
* Google Contacts & Calendars- We make a copy of each calendar and every event each day. We also make a copy of each contact group and every contact in the group each day.
* Gmail- We make a copy of each email only once, but can count it multiple times if it’s associated with multiple folders or labels.
How do I enable Gmail and Google Sites backup for my domain?
Here’s how to enable Gmail and Google Sites backup if they’re not accessible in your Spanning Backup user account:
- Authorize Spanning Backup to access your Gmail and Google Sites data
- Open your Google Apps dashboard at https://google.com/a/your-domain-name
- Scroll down to the Google Apps Marketplace section and find “Spanning Backup”.
- If you see “Update data access requirements” under the product name (shown here), click on the “View and grant access requirements” link to the right of that text.
- If you don’t see this text, your domain has already provided authorization for the Google Sites backup service; skip to step #2 below.
- Within the Spanning Backup settings section, go to the “Data access” section (shown here). Click the “Grant data access” link at the bottom of the “Data access” section.
- Upon successful authorization, you will see a green checkmark icon with the text, “Granted” beside the “Data Access” text (shown here).
2. Contact support@spanning.com
- Contact support@spanning.com and let us know you’d like to have Gmail and Sites backup enabled. (Be sure to include your domain name!) We’ll get you set up and let you know when the backups will begin.
How is restoring Google Sites different from restoring other data types?
Spanning Backup is the only product on the market that provides comprehensive restore for Google Sites. Because of the nature of Google Sites there are some important things to note when restoring your Google Sites data. The following is a list of those things:
*The Google Sites API does not report a page move as a site change, so we are not able to back those up. If you restore a page that has been moved, you will have to manually restore the link.
*The Google Sites API does not grant us access to Google Gadgets, so we are not able to back those up either. If you restore a page that contains Google Gadgets, you will have to rebuild and customize those Gadgets.
*The Google Sites API does not grant us access to comments (those are moving to Google+), so we are not able to back them up.
*Spanning Backup only supports Google Sites backup for domain customers. This is due to the way that Google grants access (or doesn’t grant access, in this case) to Sites for non-domain users.
*We do everything we can to maintain link relationships between Google Sites pages. This can be tricky, as sites are made up of a combination of absolute and relative links that can change as pages are moved, including during the backup and restore process. There are two specific instances that need special attention:
1. If you delete a page, Google maintains the link but directs it to an error page. If you then restore that page from Spanning Backup, you will have to manually restore the link.
2. If you use Announcements pages (a specific Google Sites page type) and have a need to restore it, any links in individual posts on the Announcement will be broken and have to be manually fixed.
Please contact our support team at support@spanning.com if you have any questions.
