Microsoft has announced a major upgrade to Microsoft 365 Backup that will make recovering lost files faster and far more precise for businesses. We’ll break down what’s changing, why it matters, and what organizations should know as we sit down and sync up with Rocket IT’s weekly technology update.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about:

• A major upgrade to Microsoft 365 Backup.
• How Microsoft’s new feature allows recovery of individual files and folders.
• How the new feature can speed up file recovery.
• Who can access the feature.
• What organizations should review before the rollout.

Video Transcript

Microsoft recently announced an upgrade to Microsoft 365 Backup that aims to make recovering lost files much faster. The update introduces what is called granular restore, which allows administrators to recover individual files or folders instead of restoring entire environments.

To understand why this matters, it helps to look at how Microsoft 365 backups have worked up to this point.

Previously, if a single file in SharePoint or OneDrive was accidentally deleted or became corrupted, administrators often had to restore the entire site or drive just to recover that one item. That meant restoring a large amount of data, which could take time and sometimes risk overwriting newer information that had been added since the backup.

With this new update, administrators will be able to browse existing restore points, search for specific files or folders, and restore only the items that were lost. Instead of restoring everything, they can target exactly what needs to be recovered, which can significantly reduce recovery time.

This improvement affects the services where businesses store and collaborate on most of their information in Microsoft 365, including SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange.

However, this is not a feature that most employees will interact with directly. The capability is available only to organizations that already have Microsoft 365 Backup enabled, and restore actions can only be performed by administrators who have the SharePoint Backup Administrator role.

For most users, the change will happen entirely behind the scenes. If it is deployed correctly, employees will not notice any difference in their day-to-day experience, but IT administrators will have more precise tools available if something goes wrong.

Microsoft announced this update through its Microsoft 365 message center, and the feature entered public preview in early March of 2026. The company expects it to reach general availability between late April and early May of this year, when it will begin rolling out to organizations worldwide.

Before that rollout reaches their environment, Microsoft recommends that organizations review their Microsoft 365 backup coverage for services like SharePoint and OneDrive, ensure their backup administrators understand the new restore process, and update internal recovery procedures to account for file and folder level restores.

This is also where working with an IT partner can help. Rocket IT works with organizations to  review backup protections, prepare recovery procedures, and test restore processes so that when the feature becomes available, businesses are ready to take advantage of faster and more precise data recovery. For help, reach out using the link in this video’s description. And to stay up to date on trending technology news, hit that subscribe button and the bell to catch us on next week’s episode of Sync Up with Rocket IT.