ShareFile

Backup a ShareFile Account

The following information provides the steps necessary to back up a ShareFile account.

Back up data using ShareFile Applications

For infrequent backups of limited quantities of data 500GB or less, ShareFile applications provide a bulk download feature for folders and contents. The following instructions can be applied to Shared and Personal Folders allowing the download of data in bulk through the Web Application and the ShareFile desktop applications including Mac and Windows.

Before starting a backup of a ShareFile account, create a point in time utilizing a Storage Detail Report of the current contents of the account.

Requirements

  • An Employee with in the Super User Group; How to manage Super User Group.
  • System requirements of the selected application.

For Web Application

From a browser, sign in to your account at https://secure.sharefile.com/, then start a bulk download request for the folders you would like to select for backup.

Downloading Shared Folders with Subfolders

  1. From the navigation menu on the left, select Shared Folders.
  2. Select the folder or folders to download from the account Shared Folders directory. Note that top level folders can not be downloaded from the root Shared Folders view.
  3. Select the top left checkbox to select all content for download.
  4. Click the download link. This will prepare a download of a zip file containing the Shared Folder’s contents.

Backup Folder 1 The downloaded zip file will be named the same as the parent directory.

Backup Folder 2

Repeat the previous steps for each folder directly under the account root Shared Folders.

Downloading Personal Folders with Subfolders

Access an employee’s personal content through the manage employees page.

  1. Select the top left checkbox to select all content for download.
  2. Click Download. This will prepare a download of a zip file containing the employee’s content. Backup Folder 3

The downloaded zip file will be named with user’s email address.

Backup Folder 4

Repeat the previous steps to backup each user’s data.

For ShareFile desktop applications

  1. Downloaded ShareFile for Windows or ShareFile for Mac.
  2. Sign in to ShareFile.
  3. Right-Click to open the folder context menu and select Make Available Offline.
  • On Windows 11 if ShareFile is not shown Click “Show more options” Backup Folder 5

  • The folder icon switches to a faded green check mark indicating that the folder is in a mixed state but selected for caching. Once the folder and its contents have been successfully downloaded locally, the icon will change to a solid green check mark.
  • When the content is fully cached locally, the folders should be copied from the drive and archived as required as if it were a local folder.

Custom backup solutions using ShareFile SDK

For larger and recurring backups, the available ShareFile SDKs allow for better backup customization and scheduling. These SDKs work by providing a repeatable interface with the ShareFile API. These capabilities can be applied to downloading Shared and Personal Folder contents. The section describes:

  • How to get started with the ShareFile API and SDKs.
  • A use case with a sample implementation for backing up a ShareFile account using the ShareFile PowerShell SDK. Before starting a backup of a ShareFile account, create a point in time utilizing a Storage Detail Report of the current contents of the account.

Requirements

  • An Employee with in the Super User Group; How to manage Super User Group.
  • System requirements of the selected SDK.
  • For unattended backups, a non-expiring ShareFile credential.

Getting started with the ShareFile API and SDKs

The ShareFile API is available for every account to any properly authenticated and authorized user. This allows you to perform specific requests on a ShareFile account and allows for scripting and scheduling common actions.

For an introduction into the ShareFile API and available endpoints, visit our documentation page: https://api.sharefile.com.

For direct links to the available ShareFile SDKs, visit: https://api.sharefile.com/sdks. Use case and sample PowerShell script

Scheduling an annual ShareFile account backup

To schedule an annual backup of a ShareFile account, create a script using the available SDKs and configure the script to execute on a schedule with commonly available system tools.

This example uses a sample PowerShell Backup script and the Windows Task Scheduler to automate an annual backup.

Prerequisites

  1. Download and install the PowerShell SDK: https://github.com/sharefile-org/ShareFile-PowerShell#sharefile-powershell-sdk
  2. Create a script or download and use the sample provided: https://github.com/sharefile-org/ShareFile-PowerShell/blob/master/Samples/BackupShareFileAccount.ps1
  3. Provide a local path with enough free space for the data to download.

To run the script unattended

Add-PSSnapin ShareFile; New-SfClient -Name \.sfps -Account Example: Add-PSSnapin ShareFile; New-SfClient -Name D:\Backup\<admin@email.com.sfps> -Account mycompany

To run the script as a scheduled task (using Microsoft Task Scheduler)

  • The task should be configured to run at the desired intervals. For annual backups configure a trigger to run monthly, and select the month you would like it to run in.
  • For the provided example, the Task definition would be:

Action: Start a program Program: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Backup a ShareFile Account