Backup Your Google Sheets Automatically
FileDrop automatically backs up your Google Sheets on a schedule you choose — daily, weekly, or monthly. Save a copy to Google Drive or have it emailed to you as Excel. No scripts. No plugins. No remembering.
The problem
Google Sheets doesn’t have built-in scheduled backups. If someone overwrites a formula, deletes a tab, or corrupts data, your only options are version history (which disappears after 30 days on free plans) or whatever manual snapshot you last thought to take.
For sheets that matter — a client database, a sales pipeline, a financial tracker, a content calendar — that’s not good enough.
FileDrop solves it with one automation.
Set a schedule, pick a format, choose where it goes. FileDrop handles the rest, every single time, without you touching it.
How it works
1. Create a backup automation
Go to Automations → New Automation. Pick your Google Sheet as the source and set the trigger to Scheduled.
2. Choose your schedule
- Daily — runs every day at a time you choose
- Weekly — runs on a specific day and time each week
- Hourly — runs every hour (useful for high-frequency sheets)
3. Set your timezone
Pick the timezone your schedule should run in — not UTC, your actual timezone. “Friday at 5pm” means Friday at 5pm where you are.
4. Choose your format
- Google Sheet — a full copy saved directly to Drive, all tabs intact
- Excel (.xlsx) — a complete workbook with every sheet, delivered to Drive or emailed
5. Choose delivery
- Save to a Drive folder — organised, dated copies in a folder of your choice
- Email as attachment — the file lands in up to 5 inboxes automatically
FileDrop runs the backup silently in the background. You get a log entry for every run — what ran, when, whether it succeeded.
What gets backed up
The entire spreadsheet file — not just the active tab. Every sheet, every formula, every named range, every piece of formatting. FileDrop uses Google’s own file copy API, so the backup is byte-for-byte identical to the original.
| What’s included | Google Sheet backup | Excel backup |
|---|---|---|
| All tabs / sheets | ✓ | ✓ |
| Formulas | ✓ | ✓ |
| Formatting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Charts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Named ranges | ✓ | ✓ |
| Comments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data validation | ✓ | ✓ |
File naming
Name your backups however you like using template variables. The file name is generated fresh on every run.
| Variable | Resolves to |
|---|---|
{sheet_name} | Name of the spreadsheet |
{date} | Date the backup ran — YYYY-MM-DD |
{time} | Time the backup ran — HH-MM |
{datetime} | Date and time combined |
Examples:
{sheet_name} — {date}→Pipeline — 2026-07-03Weekly export {date}→Weekly export 2026-07-03{sheet_name} backup {datetime}→Sales backup 2026-07-03 17-00
Delivery options
Save to Google Drive
FileDrop saves the backup file directly into a Drive folder you choose. Files accumulate in that folder with dated names — so you can scroll back to any point in time.
Works with:
- Personal Drive
- Shared drives
- Team folders
Email delivery
FileDrop sends the backup file directly to up to 5 email addresses. Useful for:
- Sending a weekly report to a manager who doesn’t have Drive access
- Emailing a daily snapshot to an external accountant or client
- Building a personal email archive of important data
The email includes the file name, the spreadsheet name, and a link to open the original sheet.
Schedule examples
Weekly pipeline backup — Monday 8am
Every Monday morning, a fresh copy of your sales pipeline is waiting in Drive before the week starts. If anything goes wrong during the week, last Monday’s snapshot is one click away.
Friday Excel report — 5pm
Every Friday at 5pm, an Excel export of the week’s data lands in your manager’s inbox — without anyone having to remember, export, or attach anything.
Daily financial snapshot — midnight
A dated copy of your accounts sheet saves to Drive every night. Your monthly reconciliation is a folder of 30 files, each a clean daily record.
Hourly high-stakes sheet
A shared inventory or booking sheet that dozens of people edit gets backed up every hour. Accidental bulk deletes are recoverable within the hour.
Use cases
Sales teams Weekly backup of the CRM pipeline sheet. Quarterly snapshots emailed to leadership. Instant recovery if a rep accidentally deletes a column.
Finance & accounting Daily backup of the budget tracker. Monthly Excel export emailed to the accountant. Year-end archive of every weekly snapshot saved to a shared Drive folder.
Operations Daily backup of the master ops sheet before the day starts. Weekly Excel export of staffing or project data shared with stakeholders outside Google Workspace.
Marketing Weekly backup of the content calendar — every campaign, every status, every owner. Monthly Excel export shared with agency partners.
HR Weekly backup of the applicant tracker. Automatic Excel copy of the headcount sheet emailed to finance every Monday.
Client services Automatic daily backup of client data sheets. Compliance-ready archive in Drive for audit purposes.
Why not just use version history?
Google Sheets version history is useful for undoing recent edits, but it has real limitations:
| Google Sheets version history | FileDrop Backup | |
|---|---|---|
| Retention | 30 days (free), unlimited (Workspace) | Unlimited — you keep the files |
| Format | Google Sheet only | Google Sheet or Excel |
| Delivery | Only inside Google Sheets | Drive folder or email |
| Schedule | None — every save creates a version | Daily, weekly, hourly |
| Named snapshots | No | Yes — dated file names you control |
| External sharing | Not without export steps | Email delivery built in |
| Off-Google backup | No | Yes — Excel to any inbox |
Version history is great for “what did this cell say an hour ago.” FileDrop backups are for “I need a clean, named snapshot of this sheet from last Friday that I can email to my CFO.”
Availability
Backup sheet is available on Pro, Business Plus, and Max plans.
| Plan | Backup sheet | Schedule types | Email delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | — | — | — |
| Lite | — | — | — |
| Pro | ✓ | Hourly, Daily, Weekly | ✓ |
| Business Plus | ✓ | Hourly, Daily, Weekly | ✓ |
| Max | ✓ | Hourly, Daily, Weekly | ✓ |
FAQ
Does it back up the whole file or just one tab? The whole file. Every tab, every sheet — all included. FileDrop copies the spreadsheet at the file level, so nothing is left out.
How many backups can I create? As many as you need. Each backup automation watches one sheet on its own schedule. Create separate automations for each sheet you want to protect.
Can I send the backup to someone who doesn’t use Google? Yes. Choose Excel (.xlsx) as the format and email delivery. The file lands in any inbox as a standard Excel attachment — no Google account needed to open it.
What happens if the backup fails? The failure is logged in the automation run log with an error message. FileDrop won’t silently skip a run. After 5 consecutive failures, the automation pauses and you get a notification.
Can I pause backups without deleting the automation? Yes. Toggle the automation to Paused from the list. Resume it any time — the schedule picks up from the next scheduled run.
Is the Drive folder required for email delivery? No. For email delivery, FileDrop makes a temporary copy of the sheet, converts it if needed, attaches it, and sends it. You don’t need to choose a Drive destination folder when using email delivery.
Your most important sheet deserves a backup. Set up your first automated backup in under two minutes.