Release Notes

The first full release

1.00

GWS Backup is version 1. current

Released 31 October 2026 · cPanel & Linux, Windows and Docker.

GWS Backup backs up Google Workspace (mail, Drive, shared drives, calendars and contacts) to storage you own, and restores anything from a single email to a whole workspace. It is free for up to ten client workspaces, for personal and commercial use alike.

What it backs up

• Every part of a Workspace account. Gmail with its labels, My Drive with its folder tree, shared drives, calendars and contacts. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are kept as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
• Only what changed. After the first full backup, each run copies only new and changed items. A file that has only moved is re-pointed, not copied again. Each client’s schedule runs from every hour to once a day.
• Read-only access to Google. A backup asks Google only for read-only permissions. The permissions a restore needs are asked for only when it restores.
• Results you can trust. Each run says exactly how it ended: OK, with errors, partly done, paused by Google’s daily limit, interrupted, stopped or failed. After every backup, a sample of the stored copies is checked with your storage.
• It keeps going. A backup paused by Google’s daily limit carries on with the next run. One cut off by a server restart carries on by itself once the app is back, skipping what it had already copied.

Restore

• Anything, from one page. A single email or file, one account, one shared drive or a whole workspace, with one search and filters for each kind.
• From any backup. Pick a backup and get things back as they were then, including an earlier version of a changed file.
• Into any account. Restore an absent colleague’s mail or files into someone else’s account, labelled and kept together in a named folder.
• Resumable. A restore that stops part way carries on where it stopped, without duplicating anything.

Your storage

• Four kinds of destination. Google Drive, S3-compatible storage (Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi, Backblaze B2 and others), Azure Blob storage and, on Windows, a local folder. Each is tested with a real write before it is used.
• Changing where backups go is safe. The old destination becomes restore-only, and the next backup at the new one is a full one. When you no longer need the old one, Rescue copies across anything held only there, Retire deletes it client by client or for every client once each has a complete backup at the new destination, and Forget drops the console’s records of storage it can no longer reach.
• Retention you set. Earlier versions of changed files are kept on a schedule you choose. Items deleted in Google stay restorable for a year, or for ever if you prefer.

Security

• Encrypted in your storage. AES-256, with one key that you keep. Mail, with its subjects, senders, recipients, dates and labels, calendars, contacts and the console’s own backups are always encrypted, and Drive files are by default. File and folder names stay readable, by design. decrypt-backup.mjs reads your backups without the app, with your key.
• Three roles. An Admin can do everything. An Operator looks after the clients that are there, restores included, but cannot add, archive or delete a client, delete anything or change settings. A Viewer only looks.
• Safer sign-in. Anyone can turn on two-step sign-in. Wrong passwords are slowed down, then lock the account. The recovery key you save at setup resets the Admin made at setup.
• A record of everything. Activity lists every backup, restore, sign-in and settings change in a plain sentence, with who did it and when.

The console

• One look tells you how things are. Overview shows what needs attention and what is running. Clients is one list with one word for each client’s health: OK, Warning, Failed or Running. Each client has Status, Restore, History and Settings.
• Quick to set up. First run is one short setup, and Overview keeps a checklist until the essentials are done.
• Two looks, Ember glass and Glass, each in light and dark. It works on a phone.

It looks after itself

• Its own backup. The console’s database is backed up every night, encrypted, to your destination.
• Nightly housekeeping tidies and checks the app’s own databases, with nothing to set.
• Updates from the console. It tells you when an update is out. On cPanel and Windows an Admin clicks Install update, and on cPanel the previous version is put back if the new one will not start. On Docker the console shows the two commands to run.
• It keeps running. On Windows a startup task runs it before anyone signs in. On cPanel a small job starts it again after the host restarts its web server. Docker restarts it with the host.

Good to know

• Restored Google Docs, Sheets and Slides come back as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Drive opens and edits them as they are; File → Save as Google Docs makes a Google copy beside them. Drawings come back as images and Forms as PDFs. Sharing, comments and Drive’s own version history do not come back.
• Not in 1.00: searching mail, events and contacts across a whole workspace at once (file names are searched across every account), and opening backed-up content in the console. Restore an item into an account to see it.

Getting the current version

Everything is on the download page, with SHA-256 checksums for each file. Installation is covered per platform: cPanel & Linux, Windows, Docker. Already running GWS Backup? The FAQ explains how to update.