AhsayOBM Google Workspace Limitations

Ahsay Limitations

Below are some Limitations of the Google Workspace module for AhsayOBM.

Account Limitation

When trying to create a Google Workspace Backup Set, during the "Test" phase of the process where users will have to login to Google, only Google Workspace user accounts will have the ability to create a Google Workspace backup set.

Trying to use a regular Google Account will result in an error message popping up on AhsayOBM, and a failed 'test' for account linking.

Restore Limitations

Below are the Restore Limitations on AhsayOBM for Google Workspace

Alternate login account

When restoring, regardless of the account type used (Admin or User Account) and Data type (Users or Shared Drives), the account used must be a Google Workspace account.

Hidden Files

When restoring Google Tasks items, there may be a discrepancy between the number of files backed up by AhsayOBM and the number of files restored. This is due to Google having "hidden files" that store metadata that is currently not included in the restore process.

These files are, however, still included in the backup process.

Modified File Restore

Currently, modified items on Drive and Shared Drives cannot be restored (wherein the item restored is the modified one). This is due to an API limitation that prevents the latest iteration of an item from being restored.

A second backup job has to be run after modifying a file. That backup job must then be selected during the Restore process in order to restore the modified file.

Removed Shared Drive

When trying to restore to Shared Drive that has been removed, has no manager, or has been permanently deleted, AhsayOBM will ask the user to restore to an alternate drive instead.

Lossless Backup Limitation

Due in part to the limitations of the Google Workspace API, AhsayOBM does not support Lossless Backup for Google Workspace through export of files/documents to a user selected Backup Destination. This means that items from several Google services such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. will not be backed up to a user chosen Backup Destination in their original formats. What occurs instead is that these files are exported into other file formats based on the original Google service they are from.

Files from Google Sheets, for instance, will be exported into an Excel (.xlsx) file, and Google Slides files into Powerpoint formats (.pptxs) and so on. This export introduces a loss in data, particularly Google-specific features that won't carry on into the exported file.

As a workaround to this issue, AhsayOBM will allow the user to select a Google Drive account where copies of unsupported file types or file sources will be shared briefly to, to allow for copying by the user.

Google Workspace Limitations

For more information on the limitations of Google Workspace itself, please refer to this article.