How do I restore backed-up files?

Restore a single file

  1. Sign in to the Code42 app.
  2. See a list of backed-up files:
  • Code42 app version 6.8.3 and later:
    1. Click Restore Files.
    2. (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
  • Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier:
    1. Click Get Files.

  1. If you back up to multiple destinations, select the destination from Restore files from.
    For Code42 federal cloud destinations, the backup set list appears after Restore files from if you have multiple backup sets that use the same destination. Select the backup set that contains the files you want.

  2. (Optional) If you want to restore an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
  3. Navigate to the file you wish to restore.
    Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below.
  4. Mouse over the file, and click the download icon Download.
    Your download is added to Downloads with the default files options. Download Activity displays the status of your download.

Restore multiple files

  1. Sign in to the Code42 app.
  2. See a list of backed-up files:
  • Code42 app version 6.8.3 and later:
    1. Click Restore Files.
    2. (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
  • Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier:
    1. Click Get Files.

  1. If you back up to multiple destinations, select the destination from Restore files from.
    For Code42 federal cloud destinations, the backup set list appears after Restore files from if you have multiple backup sets that use the same destination. Select the backup set that contains the files you want.

  2. (Optional) If you want to restore an earlier version of your files, click As of Today to select a previous date from a calendar.
  3. Select the checkboxes for the folders and files you want to restore.
    Learn more about finding files (including hidden or deleted files) below.
  4. Select Restore Files (or Get Files in Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier).
    The Restore Files Options (or Get Files Options) window appears.
    Get files
Download tips
  • It is safe to close the Code42 app while the files download in the background.
  • If you are downloading a large amount of data, consider optimizing your computer settings to prevent disruptions.
  • Alternatively, if you don't want to download all of the files at once, you can shut down or put your device to sleep and the download will resume where it left off when it is powered on again.

Find files to download

Search
 

 

To download a specific file, first search for it by providing all or part of the file name or extension. Click the search icon and enter your search term.

Search Rule Example Results
Search for any part of a file name win winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt
Searches are not case-sensitive Winter.txt winter.txt
Spaces are treated the same as any other character

winter c

winte c

Winter Campaign-Ad 1.mp4

(0 results found)

Question mark ( ? ) is a placeholder for one character

winter?.txt

winters.txt
Asterisk ( * ) is a placeholder for any number of characters, including no character win*.txt winter.txt, winters.txt, winner.txt
Toggle between searching and browsing
You can click a folder within your search results to resume browsing. To return to your search results, click the search icon. Your search term is retained until you clear the term, close the search bar, or exit the Restore files or Get files view. Files selected for restoration remain selected when toggling between search and browse.

Deleted files

The Code42 app stores deleted files based on your deleted file retention settings. To see or search for deleted files:

  1. From Home, navigate to a list of backed-up files:
  • Code42 app version 6.8.3 and later:
    1. Click Restore Files.
    2. (Applies only if you have multiple devices) From the menu, select the device that originally backed up the files you want to restore.
  • Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier:
    1. Click Get Files.

  1. If you back up to multiple destinations, select the destination from Restore files from.
    For Code42 federal cloud destinations, the backup set list appears after Restore files from if you have multiple backup sets that use the same destination. Select the backup set that contains the files you want.

  2. Click the options menu.

Restore deleted files

After you enable Include deleted files, your deleted files appear in the file browser and can be downloaded. You may also search for deleted files by entering a term in the search bar.

Previous file version

To browse all of the file versions backed up for a particular file, mouse over the file in the Restore files (or Get files view in Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier) and click the versions icon Versions icon. All versions of the file backed up prior to the selected As Of date display.

Versions

To restore a previous version, you can either:

  • Mouse over the version and click the download icon Download to add the file to Downloads.
  • Select the radio button for the version. Then, either browse back to the folder containing the file to select additional files, or click Restore Files or Get Files to view options for restoring the file.

Hidden files

Some temporary and system files are hidden in the Restore Files view (or Get Files view in Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier) because you do not typically need to interact with these files. Hidden files and locations do not appear in the file selection list by default. To view hidden files:

  1. Choose the options menu The options menu.
  2. Select Show hidden files to view hidden files.
    Hidden Windows files are always listed
    Code42 does not support metadata for hidden Windows files. Therefore, hidden files in Windows always appear on Restore screens in the Code42 app and Code42 console, regardless of whether you've chosen to show or hide them.

Files options

The Code42 app suggests default settings for restoring your files. You can change these settings before restoring your files.

Customize options for restore or get files
If you modify the default settings, the Code42 app will use the modified settings until you either exit the Restore files view (or Get files view in Code42 app version 6.8.2 and earlier) or close the Code42 app. However, when you use the download icon Download for a single file, the Code42 app will always use the default options.

Get files options

Save selected files to

By default, the Code42 app restores files to your device's Downloads folder. To change the restore location, select Downloads.

Choose one of the following locations:

  • Desktop
  • Original location
    Original location is disabled if you are restoring files to a different operating system than the original device.
  • Other (opens a file browser for selecting a folder on your device)

Original Location No Longer Exists
If you restore files to their original location, but that location no longer exists, the Code42 app recreates the folders used by the original location.

For example, suppose you back up the folder C:\Users\Jim\Documents. Later, you replace your device and use a different username. Your new Documents folder is located at C:\Users\James\Documents. If you restore your Documents folder to the original location, the Code42 app creates a folder labeled Jim under the C:\Users directory and restore the Documents folder there. In this scenario, you probably don't want to restore files to their original location.

If file already exists

If a file is restored to a location that already contains a file with the same name, the Code42 app defaults to renaming the original file with the prefix original1. Choose how the Code42 app handles matching file names by clicking Rename:

  • Overwrite: If a duplicate name is detected, the Code42 app replaces the existing file with the restored file.
  • Rename: If a duplicate name is detected, the Code42 app renames the existing file with the prefix original1.
Rename your files
If you aren't sure whether you want to rename or replace, choose the rename option. You can always delete duplicate files later.

Permissions

Two settings are available:

  • Current: (Recommended) When the file is restored, its ownership is changed to match the ownership of the folder where the restored file is saved. 
  • Original: When the file is restored, it retains the ownership that the user had on the file when it was backed up.

Restore files with Current permissions instead of Original permissions to avoid file access issues. For example:

  • If you did not originally have permissions to a directory where files were backed up, restore the files using Current permissions to give yourself access to the restored files in that directory.
  • If files were originally backed up on a different device, restore the files using Current permissions to give yourself access to the restored files on your current device.

Restore files to a different operating system

These considerations apply if you are, for example, moving from a Windows device to a Mac device.

  • Restore your files to a specific location rather than the original location because the device you are restoring to has a different file-system structure than the original device.
  • The option to save selected files to Original Location is automatically disabled when restoring files from a different operating system.
  • Some file metadata may be lost when restoring files to a different operating system. To preserve all file metadata, restore to a device with the same operating system as the original.
  • Filenames containing characters that are illegal on the operating system you restore to cannot be restored to that device. Restore those files to a device of the same operating system or use the Code42 console to restore those files.
How to restore Mac files to a Windows device
If you plan to restore Mac files to a Windows device, use the more restrictive Windows naming rules with your Mac files to prevent any potential problems.
Only Linux devices honor case-sensitivity (Code42 version 6.5 and later)
Files whose names differ only in capitalization are recognized as distinct files on Linux devices when you select files for backup, as well as when you select files for download. On Windows and Mac devices, files whose names differ only in capitalization are treated as the same file. When you restore two or more Linux files whose names differ only in capitalization to a Windows or Mac device, the files have "original<number>" prefixed to their names to differentiate them from one another.

Restore an external hard drive

If you try to restore files that were originally stored on an external hard drive, and that hard drive is not currently connected to the source device, the Code42 app treats the files as missing. To restore:

  • If you are replacing the original drive (due to failure or another loss), see our guide to Download files after replacing a drive. 
  • If you are not replacing the drive, but it is not currently available (or you don't want to connect it because you are only restoring a few files), you can select Show deleted files to restore the files.

Download order

When restoring files, the Code42 app gives priority to newer files. Files backed up less than 7 days ago are restored first (smallest to largest), followed by files backed up more than 7 days ago (smallest to largest). 

To Restore the Contents of an Entire Hard drive after replacing.

 

We recommend replacing your drive using the same letter (Windows) or name (Mac) as the original. This way, the Code42 app sees the new drive as a continuation of your existing backup and the version history of your files remains consistent.

Step 1: Update your new drive with the old drive name or letter

  1. Connect or install the new drive.
  2. Rename the drive to match the name of your previous drive, if necessary.
    If you don't remember the original drive name or letter, check the file path in Details > Manage Files in the Code42 app. The original drive name or letter will be marked "File is missing" and the corresponding missing file icon Missing-5_0.png displays.
  3. (Windows) If your device automatically assigned the drive a different letter than your previous drive, then update the letter to match the previous drive.

Step 2: Download your files from a date prior to replacing the drive

Code42 for Enterprise allows you to download a "snapshot" of your file selections from a time before the Code42 app identified them as deleted.

  1. Open the Code42 app.
  2. Click Get Files.
  3. Click As Of Today.
    The date and time selection window opens.

Get Files

  1. Select a date and time prior to replacing the drive.

Download Files As Of A Date

  1. Select your device name to navigate to your device's root folder.
    Click the breadcrumb overflow menu Breadcrumb Overflow Menu if your device's name is not visible.
  2. Select the files to download.
  3. Click Get Files.
  4. From Save selected files to, select Original Location.
  5. (Optional) Choose to Rename or Overwrite existing files.
  6. Click Go.

Alternative process

We strongly recommend that you replace your drive using the same letter (Windows) and name (Mac) as the original drive, as described above. If you choose to replace the new drive using a different letter or name than the previous drive, then:

  1. Your old drive's files are marked as deleted. Download your files using the include deleted files option, or download from a date prior to replacing the drive.

  2. Update your backup file selection to include the new drive.

Don't deselect your old drive from your backup selection
If you deselect your old drive before completing backup on your new drive, the archive-maintenance process deletes the files from the backup archive the next time it runs, and the files cannot be retrieved.
  1. Allow a complete backup of the downloaded files on your new drive. The Code42 app de-duplicates any files that have already been backed up to the destination.
  2. If you want to preserve file versions backed up before the drive was replaced, you must continue to include the old drive in your file selection, even after the new drive is backed up.
    See below for more information on retaining your file version history.

File version history

Including the replaced drive in your file selection preserves the version history of your files, allowing you to download an older version of a file. When a drive is replaced with a different drive name or letter, your file history is split between the two drives. If you deselect the drive from your file selection, the version history of your files on your old drive will be lost.

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