How can I restore Gmail messages or Drive files to a specific label/folder?
By default, restored Gmail messages will have a label added that lists the date and time of restoration (i.e. "Restored 2021-08-11 10:15:02 am"). Google Drive files and folders will be restored to a similarly named folder. In most cases, we recommend that you keep this default when restoring emails or files, in order to distinguish restored data from original.
Customize the restore label or folder
In some cases, you may choose to restore the data to a specific label or folder.
Restore Gmail messages with a customized label
CubeBackup allows you to add any label you wish when restoring Gmail messages.
Tips:
CubeBackup will always restore all original labels for the emails, in addition to the label set in the restore dialog.
For example, if an email was labelled as "INBOX" and "Team" when it was backed up, and you choose to restore this email with "Restored 2021-06-18 10:13:01 am", then the restored email will now have three labels: "INBOX", "Team", and "Restored 2021-06-18 10:13:01 am".
If you clear the "Restore with what label?" textbox and click "Restore", no extra label will be added to the restored messages. That is, the restored messages will be placed under their original labels.
For example, if you want to migrate all emails from one account to a different account, with exactly the same labels, you can choose the new user from the user dropdown list, clear the "Restore with what label" textbox, then click the "Restore" button.
If the new label already exists in Gmail, CubeBackup will use it; if the label does not exist, it will be created.
Restored messages will never overwrite the original messages, even under the same label. If a message was restored to the same label as its current version, there will be multiple messages with identical subjects and content.
Restore Drive files to a customized folder
CubeBackup allows you to restore files and folders to a specific folder in Google Drive or Shared Drive.
Tips:
The target folder must be entered manually and is case sensitive.
If the target folder already exists in Google Drive or Shared Drive, CubeBackup will use that location; if the target folder does not exist, it will be created in the root directory.
To restore Drive files to the "My Drive" root folder, you can simply clear the "Restore to which folder" textbox.
Files in the target folder will not be overwritten. If a file is restored to its original folder, where the current version already exists, that folder will simply contain multiple files with identical names. You can distinguish the restored file by its created time.
Multi-level paths are not yet supported. That is, CubeBackup cannot support subfolders in the "Restore to which folder" textbox. For example, "RestoreFolder/Subfolder" will simply create a single folder with that name.
Clicking the "Restore file share permissions" checkbox will ensure that all original permissions are restored. However, if you choose to restore to a new user, please note that this user will become the owner of the files or folders, and the original owner will be excluded from all permissions. All other permissions will be restored as they were originally.
Shared folder scenario
In the case of a shared folder, where files are added and owned by many different users, CubeBackup's default behavior is to only create a single backup of each file, stored under the owner's account.
This is to prevent unnecessary duplication of backup files, which makes the backups much more efficient, but complicates the restore process if you wish to recover the entire shared folder structure to a specific point in time.
For example, suppose a folder named "team share" were shared with all members of your team. Anyone in the team may create or upload files to this shared folder, or even create subfolders inside of it. As time goes on, "team share" will fill up with many files and folders, all owned by different users. When this shared folder is backed up (if the "Backup files shared with me" option is not enabled), CubeBackup will store the individual files and folders under their owners' accounts, so that the shared folder is actually spread out over the accounts of all the users it is shared with.
The administrator can override this behavior by clicking "Backup files shared with me" under SETTINGS > Apps > Drive > Options, so that a copy of all shared files is included in the backup of every user they are shared with.
If the "Backup files shared with me" option has not been selected by the administrator, the process of restoring a shared folder is more complicated. Fortunately, CubeBackup preserves the directory structure for each user, and can use this information to merge all the backups into a single restored folder.
When restoring a shared folder, please choose a new folder to restore to and one user to become the owner of the restored folder. Each user the original folder is shared with must restore their files and folders to that single location and owner. Please do not start another restoration process before this one finishes, or the merging process may not complete properly.
For example:
If a folder named "team share" is shared with UserA, UserB, and UserC, and you want to restore the entire folder from the backups, please follow the steps below:
Create a "TeamShareRestore" folder in UserA's Google Drive. UserA will be the new owner of all files and folders.
An administrator must restore UserA's "team share" folder to "TeamShareRestore" with "Restore files share permissions" checked.
Then an administrator must restore UserB's "team share" folder to "TeamShareRestore" and select UserA as the target user, making sure "Restore files share permissions" is checked.
Then an administrator must restore UserC's "team share" folder to "TeamShareRestore" and select UserA as the target user, making sure "Restore files share permissions" is checked.
UserA is now the owner of the entire "team share" folder, which has been fully recovered in UserA's "TeamShareRestore" folder.