3️⃣Administrator Guides
Updated: 15 August 2025.
Welcome to the SmartBackup Guides for Administrators. SmartBackup is the solution for Smartsheet customers who want to use the industry’s leading platform for securing their Smartsheet data. SmartBackup has been designed to address three primary use case: Multi-user collaboration, DRP and BCP Requirements, and Regulatory, Auditing, or eDiscovery needs.
Introduction
This section provides information for SmartBackup Administrators on the topics of restoring deleted Smartsheet data or reverting to an earlier version of a user's Smartsheet data. In these cases, an Administrator will need to be familiar with the SmartBackup End User Restore Guide, so that they can assist end users with restoring their own data using the backup copies in their SmartBackup vault workspace.
And as an Administrator, you will also need to be familiar with the processes for restoring sheets and data using the exported backup copies that are saved outside of Smartsheet using the SmartBackup Export or ShadowCopy functions.
SmartBackup Architecture
When considering the backup, export, and restore processes, it is important to keep the SmartBackup Architecture in mind.
SmartBackup is a software application that is downloaded from the AcuWorkflow website and installed on a local Windows computer under the full security, control and management of the customer or the customer’s IT team. The software can be installed on a physical computer, or it can be installed on any Windows instance, including virtual machines on local or cloud-based servers and services such as AWS and Microsoft Azure.
All customer data is always under full control of the customer SmartBackup administrator, or IT team. This provides the highest possible security for customer data.
SmartBackup includes the following key functional areas:
A - Each user's Smartsheet area; including Home, Workspaces, folders, and data.
B - Each user's designated Backup Vault area.
C - Your organization's designated external storage area for Export and ShadowCopy.
Backup - Obtains a list of all workspaces and assets in “A”, then decides what to backup based on what was recently modified and creates a copy of those items in “B”, the Vault. At any time, a user can restore deleted or damaged data in “A” by copying the data from the most recent backup copy in the vault, “B”.
Archive – This is a "vault clean-up" helper process which removes older copies from the vault to ensure that the vault does not get filled with old, irrelevant backup copies. [NOTE: in the latest release of SmartBackup, the Archive function no longer saves those older copies outside of Smartsheet. ShadowCopy is designed to save copies outside of Smartsheet]. In a future release, Archive will be fully integrated into the Backup function
Export - At scheduled intervals the SmartBackup Admin can run the Export function which will export all sheets that meet the export criteria for all active and enabled users in the Member list. Those exported copies will be saved to the designated Export area, “C” on the Windows instance. Note that due to changes to the Smartsheet API, the Export function will cease to function in the near future and is being replaced by the new ShadowCopy function.
ShadowCopy – Similar to Export, when it runs, the new ShadowCopy function identifies Sheets that meet the job criteria, and it exports copies of those Sheets, together wit all available "metadata", and saves them to the designated Export area, “C” on the Windows instance. ShadowCopy is much faster and more reliable that the original Export function and is designed to replace the Export function.
In addition to these key functions, the latest release of SmartBackup includes several unique functions, including the new (6) Housekeeping Services section and capabilities such as (5) Refresh Members, and (7) DRP Reports.
Restore Guide for Administrators
Then the next step will be to study the following SmartBackup Detailed Restore Guide. This guide covers both scenarios of restoring using the backup copies in the vault workspaces, and also restoring sheets and data using the backup copies saved externally using the SmartBackup Export and ShadowCopy functions or from files that were exported using High Speed Offloader/Onloader (HSO).
We have included additional Administrator Guides in this section below, which are focused on best practices for Smartsheet deployments that have an impact on the configuration of your SmartBackup deployment.
Troubleshooting Guide
The SmartBackup Troubleshooting guide is an aid for SmartBackup Administrators that can be used when you encounter issues with SmartBackup. Consult this guide before contacting AcuWorkflow for support.
As a SmartBackup Administrator, the first step will be to review all of the materials and videos provided in the SmartBackup End User Restore Guide section.
Smartsheet File Attachments Storage Guide
For Smartsheet customers, one of the great features available in the platform is the ability to attach an unlimited number of attachments to a sheet. However, if you are using this feature extensively, you should be aware that you will encounter significant challenges in the future if you would also like to back up your data or eventually move to a different platform.
In this guide, we will be describing several use cases that we have encountered where Smartsheet customers are using the “attach file to sheet” feature extensively. We will discuss the resulting challenges and will propose several alternative solution approaches to consider.
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