/w=3840,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
Data loss in Airtable through accidental error, incorrect automation setups, human-error, or anything else can be devastating. If you’ve just discovered the data loss or fear it will happen to you, this is the source you need.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn step-by-step what you need to do to restore your Airtable data.
For data backup best practices, we created On2Air Backups for Airtable, so you always have your company data with you. On2Air Backups creates automated backups of your Airtable data and sends the data to your storage drive in Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box.
If you were to completely lose your base, no 3rd party tool is capable of re-building it from scratch. Airtable doesn't yet make it possible through their API for a 3rd party tool to programmatically fully restore an Airtable Base, Table, and Fields (example: can't create Formula fields with the API, etc).
That’s why we created this tutorial to help you go through the steps to restore your data.
In this tutorial
- Data Loss and Prevention
- How do I restore my Airtable base data and layout schema (field types, formulas, etc)?
- What to do if data has been deleted in your base
- — Review Airtable Record Revisions
- — Check the Base Trash
- — Check the Workspace Trash
- — Restore from a Snapshot
- — Contact Airtable Support
- — Hire an Airtable consultant
- — Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst - Use On2Air Backups
- Why should you have data backups?
- How can I prevent Users from deleting bases, fields, or data?
- Implement Strict User Permissions
- Use an Airtable External Portal Tool
- Protect and secure your data stored in Airtable
Data Loss and Prevention
Data loss through accidental error, incorrect automation setups, human-error, or anything else can be devastating. That’s why we created On2Air Backups, so you always have additional versions of your company data.
But what about if it just happened to you?
You’ve just discovered you have missing data, fields, views, bases, or workspaces.
Once you’ve discovered there’s a data discrepancy issue, it’s best to immediately start working on restoring your data as history and revision features in Airtable are all time-limited for restoration.
Let’s walk through the steps of what it takes to restore, or at the very least, try to get a version of your Airtable data back into your hands.
How do I restore my Airtable base data and layout schema (field types, formulas, etc)?
If your Airtable base itself or a field was deleted, no 3rd party tool, including On2Air Backups, is capable of re-building it from scratch. If it’s been within 7 days since a workspace or base was deleted, you can find your base in the Workspace Trash. If it’s a table, view, field, or extension that’s been deleted within 7 days, you can find it in the Base Trash.
Airtable doesn't yet make it possible through their API (their connector) for a 3rd party tool to programmatically fully restore an Airtable Base, Table, and Fields. Example: You can't create Formula fields and Formulas with the API, so there’s no way to rebuild those except manually.
While some companies who have an Airtable backups app offer an automatic backup restore option, the process in which they both backup and restore your data violates Airtable’s Terms of Service. We do not recommend their method.
On2Air Backups is a service to provide you an additional backup location for your Airtable data in a separate location and format other than Airtable. We do not have a restore option at this time due to Airtable limitations.
What to do if data has been deleted in your base
If you discover your data or a base has been deleted or altered, follow these steps:
— Review Airtable Record Revisions
If a field value was deleted or altered in a record, we encourage you to first use Airtable’s Revision features to review changes in a record.
Inside of each record, you can see the history of record changes, when and if something was deleted and what was deleted. You’ll need to know what you’re looking for and look into individual records - Example: what record is missing data and what field value was possibly deleted or altered.
You can then see what happened and when it happened. Knowing a timeframe when it happened can help with the next steps.
Learn how to use Airtable’s record level revision history: Record-level revision history overview
- For the Pro plans, you will be able to see the past 1 years of revision history.
- For the Enterprise plans, you will be able to see the past 3 years of revision history.
— Check the Base Trash
To find tables, views, fields, extension, or records that have been deleted:
You can view the Base Trash. The trash function allows to see and restore the tables, views, fields, extensions, and records that have been deleted in a base in the past seven (7) days.
Open your base and click the History icon, then the Trash option
Learn how to use the Airtable Base Trash feature: Base Trash
You can view more in their Data Recovery and Deletion section
— Check the Workspace Trash
If you deleted a base or a workspace
When you delete a workspace or a base, it will temporarily be available in your workspace trash for seven (7) days.
Learn more about the Workspace Trash
— Restore from a Snapshot
Airtable periodically and automatically takes Snapshots of your entire Airtable base. This includes the entire base, fields, and data. How often they take Snapshots depends on how active users are in your base.
You can restore a base based on this Snapshot. When you restore a base, Airtable creates an entirely new base. They do not overwrite the current version of your base. You’ll be able to look at your data and either copy the missing data to your current base or start using the new one.
Automatic Snapshots are saved for a certain period of time, depending on your plan:
- For the Free plan, you will be able to see the past 2 weeks' worth of snapshot history.
- For the Plus plan, 6 months' worth of snapshot history will be saved starting at your time of upgrade.
- For the Pro and Enterprise plans, 1 year's worth of snapshot history will be saved starting at your time of upgrade.
Learn more about Snapshots in the official documentation - https://support.airtable.com/docs/taking-and-restoring-base-snapshots
How to restore a base snapshot:
- Click the base history icon, then snapshots, then choose the snapshot you'd like to restore:
You will then be prompted to select a workspace into which to place the restored snapshot of your base.
Snapshots are a previous version of the base. Since other changes may have occurred since the snapshot was taken, Airtable creates a new base in the workspace of your choice. They do not overwrite the current version of the base.
— Contact Airtable Support
If you’ve tried all of the above steps without much success, reach out to Airtable support. You can ask if they will restore your account to a specific point in time.
However, there’s no guarantee they can or will restore your base or data. They’ll likely guide you through all the steps we listed above and have you use a base Snapshot.
— Hire an Airtable consultant
If you’re using On2Air Backups and have a version of your data or have previous spreadsheets stored somewhere, you can reach out to an On2Air Partner or an Airtable consultant to help you manually restore your data using your CSV and Attachment files created by On2Air Backups. Once they understand all the moving parts of your data, they can restore and rebuild your base.
— Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst - Use On2Air Backups
With On2Air Backups, your data from Airtable is automatically exported on a schedule you choose to Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box. This automation can be Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Why should you have data backups?
Many of our customers create an automated Airtable backup with On2Air Backups for one or more of the following reasons:
- Backup Best Practices (3-2-1 backup structure)
- Compliance
- Protect their own data
- Protect their client’s data
- Data redundancy
- Company growth with more users editing Airtable data
- Full Revision history
- Failsafe if access to Airtable is lost
- Ability to always have your data, no matter the software used
- If ever needed to move to a software solution other than Airtable
Data backups aren’t meant to be an afterthought, they are deemed an essential element for ensuring cybersecurity in businesses and organization.
How can I prevent Users from deleting bases, fields, or data?
Implement Strict User Permissions
To prevent deletion or changes of your Airtable base layout like fields, tables, and views, you can create Users at an Editor level rather than an Owner/Creator.
More about Airtable User Permissions
You can also create Airtable Interfaces to give the user a front-facing portal without access to the database layer.
Use an Airtable External Portal Tool
For even further mitigation of altering records or base layout schema, use a portal/dashboard that displays your Airtable data, but doesn’t allow any schema edits. Tools like this include Airtable Interfaces, Glide, Noloco, Fillout, Softr, Pory, or Stacker and can come in extremely valuable to limit risk.
Protect and secure your data stored in Airtable
Hopefully, at least one of these steps has helped you recover your critical company data. While data loss and errors do happen, having preventative measures and automated backups of your data with On2Air Backups make the loss much less devastating.