Restoring

Restoring in Tenvara starts with the thing you are looking for, not with a list of customers and devices. Backup > Restore is one search box across every backup you may see: devices, servers, Macs, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Whatever you find, and however you found it, goes back through the same restore sheet, so a single email and a whole OneDrive are restored the same way.

This page covers the everyday restore. For browsing a backup like a file manager, versions and deleted items, see Searching and browsing backups. For starting a restore from a ticket, a device or a user, see Restoring from anywhere and sharing.

Searching every backup#

1. Open Backup > Restore, or press Restore at the top of the Backup overview.
2. Type in the box: a file or folder name, part of a path, an email subject, a sender or recipient, a device or a user. Every word must appear somewhere in the result, in any order, so "invoice bob" finds Bob's invoices. The search runs as you pause typing, and / jumps to the box from anywhere on the page.
3. Narrow it if you need to:
   • Choose a customer, then one of their devices or users.
   • Every type: files, email, SharePoint, Teams, calendar, contacts, or devices, users and sites.
   • Any date: a date range.
   • Deleted items only: only things that have since gone. With a customer, device or user chosen and nothing typed, it lists everything of theirs that was deleted.

Results are newest first, with more loading as you scroll. Each row shows:

• Item: the file, message, event or contact, with the sender and recipients for mail.
• Where it lived: the device or user, then the folders, and the customer underneath. Each part is a link.
• Date and Size, and "deleted on ..." when the item has gone.
• Versions: open the list to see each version with when it was backed up, its size, when it changed and how many recovery points hold it.

Every row and every version has Restore, Download, Preview and Show in browser. Right-click a row for Restore the previous version and Add to the basket.

Under the box, Recent restores lists the last few restores, each opening its progress page. With nothing typed, Browse by user or device opens the lists of everything backed up instead.

Tip: The keyboard works throughout: j and k move, Enter previews, r restores, d downloads, b shows the item in the browser, a adds it to the basket and v lists its versions. Escape clears the box.

Switching on Deleted items only is the quickest way to answer "I deleted something last week".

How soon a new backup can be searched#

• Windows volume images and Linux disk images: the device lists its files during the backup and sends the list with it, so a new backup is searchable within about a minute of finishing.
• Folder backups, whole Macs, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace: read in the background shortly after the backup.
• Virtual machine images, and disk images without a file list: read only when someone asks. The results page offers to read that backup, and keeps what it found for next time.

If some backups in your search are still waiting to be read, the page says which above the results, with a Browse link to the newest one, so "nothing found" never hides a backup that has not been read yet. An alert is raised if search falls a long way behind (Alert when search is behind by, under Restore search on the Defaults tab of backup settings).

The restore sheet#

Whatever you restore, from a search result, the browser's basket, a device or a ticket, opens the restore sheet. Nothing changes until you press the button at the bottom.

What lists the items, grouped by the backup they come from, with their total size. A restore can take items from several recovery points at once.

Where to offers:

For Back where it was, choose When something with the same name is already there: Keep both, rename the restored copy, Keep what is there, skip the restored copy, or Replace what is there. Replacing warns that newer changes will be lost, so only use it on purpose. Mail, events and contacts always come back beside what is there; nothing is replaced.

For Somewhere else, pick Another user, Another site, Another device, A new shared mailbox or A folder I name, then the user, site, device or folder. It is offered when every item comes from one place.

For Download, choose the format: a zip for files; a PST, EML files or a zip for mail (one message defaults to .eml, more to .pst); .ics for a calendar and .vcf for contacts.

Before you press the button, the sheet checks the plan and shows it: where each backup's items will go, the size, what is already there and what the restored copies will be called. If your approval rules hold this restore, it says so and asks why. See Restore approval below.

Note: Files from a Linux or Mac disk image have no single original place, so the sheet starts on Download for them. Whole volumes, disks and virtual machines go to a folder on a device or a download, never back over a running disk. To bring back a whole machine, use Instant recovery or Bare metal recovery.

Restore everything here#

Restore everything in ... at the top of the browser restores the whole unit or folder you are looking at: a whole mailbox, OneDrive, site or library, a backed-up folder, or a device's volume, disk or virtual machine. The sheet offers only what makes sense for it. A whole mailbox can go into a new "Restored" folder, back in place, to another user, into a new shared mailbox, a folder or a PST download. A download of 50 GB or more warns that it can take hours, and that restoring to a device or folder is usually quicker.

Following a restore#

Once started, the restore has its own page with live progress: items and size done, speed, time left, and anything skipped or failed with the reason. It updates by itself while it runs.

When it finishes, What came back says exactly what was restored and where to find it: the device and folder, the Microsoft 365 user or site with a link to open it, or the download. The same summary goes on the customer's and device's activity, and on the ticket when the restore was started from one.

If some items failed (for example a message Microsoft refused), Retry failed items starts a new restore of exactly those.

Rebuilt emails#

A message Microsoft could not export is backed up as a copy rebuilt from Microsoft's message data, marked with a wrench in the browser and a note above its preview (see Searching and browsing backups). It restores like any other message, with its subject, body, sender, recipients and attachments. A meeting request, response or cancellation comes back as an ordinary message with its text, not as a meeting.

The restore's job log says how many messages were rebuilt. In a download, a zip of mail carries a manifest.csv listing every message with the note on the rebuilt ones, and a PST or EML download's job log says how many of them were rebuilt.

A restore to a device that loses Tenvara part-way, for example during an update, waits and carries on when it is back. If the wait runs out, the restore ends interrupted rather than failed, what was already written stays, and Carry on in its job panel restores the rest.

Restores are also listed in Backup > Jobs, in the Restores and downloads view, and the newest are under Recent restores at the top of both pages.

Restore approval#

Some MSPs want a second person to agree before data moves. On the Restores tab of Settings > Backup, under Restores that wait for approval, choose which restores wait for another administrator:

• Downloads and exports: data leaving where it lives as a file.
• Restores to somewhere else: into another user, site or device, or a new shared mailbox.
• Restores that replace what is there.
• Any restore by someone who is not an administrator.

None are on by default. A customer can have its own rules on its Backup tab, under Restore approval. A restore that matches waits in Approvals with who asked, what, where and why. Approved, it runs; turned down or left unanswered, it is cancelled with the reason. Turning a rule off needs a second administrator.

The same tab sets, under The restore sheet, what a restore does by default: Where a restore goes first, the Name of the new folder, and how long Download links last and Share links last.

Who may restore and delete#

Restoring is a switch in the person's role, on top of managing backup. Without Restore backups, someone can see that backups ran, their sizes and their jobs, but cannot browse, search, preview, download or restore what they hold, look at an eDiscovery result or make recovery media. Deleting a recovery point or a device's backups needs the role's Delete switch for Backup. A customer or tenant marked Confidential is open to administrators only, and so are its SQL Server databases, test restore files, exports and restore links. See Roles and permissions.

Malware scans before a restore#

Every restore written back to a device or a Microsoft 365 tenant starts held while Tenvara scans exactly what it would write: each file's SHA-256 against known bad hashes, and the file itself with ClamAV. Clean restores carry on by themselves.

If something is found, nothing is written. The restore shows Held: malware found with each flagged file, and a critical alert is raised. Open it and restore only the clean selections, restore everything anyway (which waits for a second administrator), or cancel.

Downloads are not held, because nothing is written to a device or tenant. See Test restores, boot checks and malware scans.

Deleting backups and getting them back#

You can delete a recovery point, a Microsoft 365 item's backups, all of a device's backups or a whole repository. Deleting is safe:

• What you delete is kept, restorable, for the recovery window (14 days by default) in Backup > Recycle bin, with who deleted it, why and when it will be purged. Click a row and press Restore to bring it back as it was, or Purge now... to ask for it to go early.
• Deleting a whole repository, or purging before the window ends, waits for a second administrator in Backup > Approvals.
• A pinned recovery point, or anything under a legal hold, cannot be deleted.

See Storage locations and immutable backups for the recovery window and approval settings.

Good habits#

• Prefer the default. "Back where it was, in a new folder" never overwrites anything, and the person can move what they need.
• Restore from the ticket. Starting from the ticket puts the user's mailbox and devices first and writes the result on the ticket for you.
• Test restores. Tenvara runs scheduled test restores and boot checks; add a hands-on restore from each customer now and then.