google-apps-script/auto-backup

Goal

For when you need to regularly back up google docs into a google drive folder

Features:

• back up any google file
• choose a custom backup schedule per file(s)
• optionally: delete backups older than X days

How

Note: to get the id of a file/folder navigate to it and copy the id from the URL, it's something like kjhhdao87ah42hd98e9h29ud

1. create a new google drive folder where you want your backups - get its id BACKUP_FOLDER_ID
2. create a new google sheets document (anywhere but can be in that folder)
3. open the sheet, go to "Extensions > Apps Script" and a new tab will open (if you close the sheet, the new tab closes automatically)
4. look at the code.gs and adapt it to your needs, see the functions comments and code.
5. the main function can be used to group files which should be backed up at the same time, you can have others like mainDaily or mainWeekly and then put the files logic there: backup + optional removal of old backups
6. you can save and run to see if it works as expected
7. still in the "Apps Script" environment, go on the left side and switch to the "Triggers" tab
8. add a new trigger and select the main function, then select the event source as Time-Driven and add the desired interval. you can do this for multiple functions, in case you want some files backed up with different frequencies.
9. you can also decide to receive error notifications immediately upon failures
10. optional: explore the other tabs in the "Apps Script" since they give more info on previous executions and configurations.

Result

You will get the following file structure for the example in code.gs:

• backups_folder
  • MY_SHEET
    • 1 yyyy-dd-mm folder per day
      • original_name_timestamp
      • ... other backups in that day ...
  • PRESENTATION_DOC
    • 1 yyyy-dd-mm folder per day
      • original_name_timestamp
      • ... other backups in that day ...
  • WORD_DOC
    • 1 yyyy-dd-mm folder per day
      • original_name_timestamp
      • ... other backups in that day ...