We back up both group plans and personal plans. However, due to current API limitations, personal plans are only eligible for backup if they contain tasks assigned to other users.
Group plans—as well as personal plans that have been shared with a Microsoft 365 Group—are backed up regardless of whether tasks are assigned.
Locate the plan
1) Sign into the Backup portal
2) Click your username at the top-right corner and select Planner plans from the drop-down menu.
3) On the left you can see all groups that contain any backed up Planners. You can filter by group, user or Planner name by typing in the search box.
4) Once you have located your Planner, open it by clicking the planner name. The latest planner version is opened by default. There is a date selector that you can use to select a past date from the calendar, starting from the Planner's very first backup date. When you select a date from the calendar, the Planner is always displayed as it was on that date, allowing you to compare the contents between different dates.
Note
Labels for tasks are backed up and restored, but they are not displayed in the Backup portal and they are not included in the excel download.
Restore a plan
1) Once you have selected the planner version / date, click Restore this version.
2) You will need to type a new name for the planner before starting the restoration. The planner will be restored with the new name.
3) Click Restore to initiate the restoration process.
4) The Planner will be restored to the original group or user with the new planner name. The restoration always creates a new planner, regardless of whether the planner already exists in Microsoft 365. Also file attachments for the tasks are restored.
Note
Comments for the tasks are not included in the restore process. However, you can download the whole planner to your workstation, including comments. See the instruction below.
Download a plan
1) Once you have selected the planner version / date, click Download.
2) The Planner version from the selected date will be immediately downloaded to your workstation as an Excel worksheet (.xlsx).
3) The downloaded Excel worksheet will contain the names and links for all files attached to the tasks. You can also download attachments from the planner backup page. Open a task to see attachments at the bottom of the window. To download an attachment, click the attachment name and the file is immediately downloaded to your workstation.
Note that if you restore a planner, all task assignments will be restored together with the planner.