Getting StartedLast updated: 2026-01-24

Welcome to SmartBackup docs. SmartBackup is the solution for organizations who want to use the Industry’s leading platform for securing their Smartsheet data. SmartBackup is a comprehensive solution for company-wide deployments, addressing business needs such as data backup and export, business continuity, audit trails, disaster recovery, data migration, and other key scenarios. It is available in a tiered pricing model, based on the number of Smartsheet Members in the organization.

PLEASE NOTE: This version of the documentation is for SmartBackup R11 and above. If you are running an older version of SmartBackup you can find that documentation here: https://docs.acuworkflow.com.

SmartBackup is the most sophisticated, capable, and comprehensive backup solution for Smartsheet customers available in the industry.

The purpose of SmartBackup is to create incremental backup copies of a customer’s Smartsheet data (Sheets), and optionally Dashboards and Reports – automatically, for all users in the customer’s Smartsheet account, and to save those copies in Smartsheet itself (online backups) and/or to save copies outside of Smartsheet (offline backups).

Note that SmartBackup is not designed to make daily backup copies of ALL the customer’s data in Smartsheet. In general, for SaaS solutions like Smartsheet – trying to make a copy of ALL the data becomes less and less viable as the amount of data grows over time. Backing up SaaS based data requires a modern approach, as older approaches no longer work effectively. Read our article titled "Modern Backup Strategies for SaaS Platforms" for more details here: https://qrl.be/UVCB

Our recommended approach is to adopt a modern, thoughtful backup process which includes a combination of tools and techniques. In this documentation, we will describe how to install, configure, run, and manage SmartBackup to secure your organization’s Smartsheet data.

Getting started

Getting started with SmartBackup is very simple and can be achieved in three easy steps.

Purchase a SmartBackup license, then download and install the latest version of SmartBackup, which can be found here.
Next, you will need to generate a Smartsheet sysAdmin Token which will then be entered into SmartBackup via the console and will be used to maintain a list of all Smartsheet Users automatically.
Use LiveCopy to run your first Online Backup and ShadowCopy to run your first Offline Backup.

Then further customize scheduling and other options.

Watch Demo

When working with a backup application like SmartBackup, it's important to be comfortable with the interface and to know how to perform basic tasks. Watch the video below to learn how to navigate the SmartBackup interface and complete your first backups.

Why Backup?

There are various reasons for having backups. In climbing, a backup can save your life, but with data, a backup can save your business.

More Smartsheet users means more people are sharing. People are not infallible. They make mistakes, and actually, they make them quite often. There’s no reason to fear this if you take frequent incremental backups.
The IRS and regulatory commissions really don’t care that you had a data disaster. All it means to them is that you’re not compliant and they can fine you. Ensuring that you’ve got an offsite backup of critical Smartsheet information can really save you if something goes wrong.
You are responsible for your Smartsheet data. In the event of a minor or even major mishap, having a backup means your operations can recover quickly.
As a Smartsheet Power user, you most likely know that Smartsheet provides a convenient backup capability, but the challenge comes when you want to recover from those backup copies and you realize that features like automations, column settings, forms, cell formats, links etc. cannot be recovered because the copy you have is limited and outside the Smartsheet environment. With SmartBackup, it's easy-peasy.

Biggest Threats?

Let's take a look at some of the biggest threats to your Smartsheet data.

User Deletion	A collaborator may accidentally delete a shared attachment, or you may delete some rows and then later learn that the data is still required.
Data Overwrites	Smartsheet sheets typically contain large amounts of data that are constantly updated by multiple users. When large data sets are imported, accidental overwriting may become quite common.
Data Corruption	Due to various scenarios, your data can get corrupted and become inaccessible, and you would be stuck without a robust backup solution in place.
Data migration issues caused by incorrectly mapped fields	If incorrectly mapped fields are imported, the correct data may be overwritten in your sheets.
Third-party applications errors	Third-party applications can modify data in ways you didn’t intend. With Smartsheet's wider adoption and inter-operation in the Enterprise, this becomes a major threat.
Data Loss	Data can be lost due to reasons other than malicious intent. Under new data protection rules, data destruction and corruption of personal data are considered forms of data breaches and would require appropriate notifications.

Learning SmartBackup

People come to SmartBackup from different backgrounds and with different learning styles. Whether you prefer a more theoretical or a practical approach, we hope you’ll find this section helpful.

Get yourself orientated by watching the intro video: Watch Now.
Familiarize yourself by watching the how-to-use-it video: Watch Now.
Browse the Playbooks.
Sign-up for a free, no obligation 30-day free, no-obligation trial of the full Enterprise Edition: Request Now.
Start exploring by reading the various Guides, especially the Reference Guide.

Then further customize scheduling and other options.

Latest Release Notes – R11

Due to unforeseen changes to the Smartsheet API which caused many existing functions to fail, it has been necessary for us to re-write SmartBackup in a short amount of time.

However, at the same time, we decided to take the re-write as an opportunity to improve overall stability and consistency, and overall performance of the solution, by applying multi-threading and other advanced techniques and to integrate some of our latest approaches on how to backup SaaS solutions like Smartsheet, and this major new release includes several new functions and capabilities - all offered at the same pricing structure - which equates to increasing the value of the solution tremendously while maintaining the overall costs.

New Functions and Capabilities:

LiveCopy - the new, super-fast and greatly enhanced "online backup" function, replacing the old "Backup" function. By applying processor multi-threading techniques, we have been able to achieve speed increases of 15x that of the previous functions. LiveCopy now also has the old "Archive" vault management capability built in. This means that you no longer have to setup a separate job schedule to perform the archive clean-up process - now it runs automatically with no Admin or user intervention required, and you as the Admin, can decide how many month's worth of online backup copies to retain in the vaults.
ShadowCopy – the new, fast, reliable replacement for the earlier "Export" function. ShadowCopy also benefits from the new processor multi-threading technique with greatly improved performance and overall speeds. Another enhancement in ShadowCopy is that the files are now saved in a flat file structure and arranged by date and time. As before, ShadowCopy can save either Sheets, or Attachments, or both, and the new file naming convention makes it really easy to find the offline copies of Sheets and their associated Attachments.
DRP Report – the new reporting function which provides automatic and scheduled exports of key Smartsheet organizational data in support of disaster recovery planning (DRP) and general data recovery. Currently the reports include a list of all Groups, and a list of all Members at the time each DRP Report process runs.
Housekeeping Services – the new internal scheduling engine which allows for SmartBackup Admins to automatically run functions such as LiveCopy, ShadowCopy, Refreshmembers, and DRP Reporting automatically on pre-defined schedules.
JobCentral - the centralized monitoring and management hub, purpose-built for SmartBackup environments. Once configured, JobCentral becomes your single source of truth for all SmartBackup activities, seamlessly integrated into your selected Smartsheet workspace. It includes automation rules that trigger alerts and notifications, dynamic dashboards and reports delivering real-time insights, helper sheets to track key metrics like SmartBackup Heartbeat status, and all SmartBackup job information is captured as attachments in Smartsheet for deep visibility into your deployment.
Multi-Node/Single Host – SmartBackup now also includes the ability for a SmartBackup Admin to install, configure and run multiple instances of SmartBackup on the same computer/Windows Instance. The key to enabling this capability is a new configuration file called "config platform". All that is required is to customize one or two parameters in the new configuration file for each new SmartBackup instance.

More details about each of these functions is available in subsequent sections of this documentation space.

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