Backup vs Sync: Why Google Drive/OneDrive Is Not a Backup

Hi, thanks for stopping by—Joko here. I’m writing this because I keep seeing the same painful pattern: a team thinks they’re “backed up”. After all, their files are in a sync app. Then one bad day happens—ransomware, accidental delete, or ex-employee cleanup—and the business learns the hard way that backup vs sync is not just semantics.

Before we start, here’s what we’ll cover: what sync really does, why Google Drive vs backup is an important distinction for recovery, and a practical way to implement the 3-2-1 backup rule for a small business in Indonesia—without turning your office into an IT lab.

Sync feels like backup—until you need a restore.

Sync tools are great. They keep devices consistent. If you edit a file on your laptop, it appears on your other devices. That convenience is why people confuse backup vs sync in the first place.

But the goal of a backup is different: it’s designed for recovery. Recovery means you can roll back to a known-good point in time, even if your data is corrupted, deleted, encrypted, or tampered with.

A quick mental model: sync helps you continue working, backup helps you undo disasters.

What “sync” actually does (and why it can spread problems)

When you use a sync service, it’s constantly trying to make “Version Now” identical across devices and the cloud. If something bad happens on one endpoint, sync can faithfully replicate it across all endpoints.

This is where Google Drive vs backup becomes really important. Consider a few common cases:

Accidental deletion: someone deletes a folder to “clean up,” and that deletion syncs.

Ransomware: a laptop gets encrypted; the encrypted files can sync as the “latest” state.

Insider or ex-employee action: someone with access removes or overwrites files; sync treats it as a legitimate change.

Even with features like trash bins or limited version history, you’re still relying on a tool that wasn’t built with “clean-room recovery” as its core purpose. Backup vs sync is about the design goal, not the marketing page.

Why “version history” still isn’t the same as backup

People often tell me: “But Drive has versions,” or “OneDrive has restore.” Yes, those features help, and you should use them. But they typically come with constraints that don’t satisfy serious recovery requirements:

Retention limits: versions may be kept for only a limited time, depending on the plan and policy.

Scope gaps: not everything you care about is covered equally (shared drives, permission states, certain metadata, or app data).

Admin visibility and control: recovery can require specific admin roles, and in a crisis, you don’t want uncertainty.

Attack surface: if an attacker compromises the same identities that manage your cloud files, they can delete your version history, too.

That’s why, when clients ask, “Is sync enough?” I return to the Google Drive vs backup risk conversation: what happens on your worst day, not your best.

A simple Indonesia example: school admin + finance folder chaos

Let’s make it real. Imagine a small private school in Indonesia with a shared folder for student documents, HR, and finance spreadsheets. The staff uses a shared Drive/OneDrive folder on two admin PCs.

One afternoon, a staff PC gets infected by a “delivery note” attachment. The ransomware encrypts local files. Sync runs quietly and uploads the encrypted versions. The next morning, both admin PCs open the folder, and everything is scrambled.

This is the moment where backup vs sync decides whether you lose a day, a week, or your entire archive.

With a proper backup, you restore yesterday’s clean snapshot. With only sync, you start bargaining with version history and hope the retention window is still there.

The practical fix: implement the 3-2-1 backup rule (explained)

When I say 3-2-1 backup rule explained, I mean a simple, time-tested structure:

• You keep 3 copies of important data on 2 different storage types, with 1 copy offsite.
• Notice what’s missing: it doesn’t say “use one app.” It is a strategy, not a brand.

For a small team using email and a collaboration tool, a realistic setup might look like this:

• Primary working copy: your cloud sync (Drive/OneDrive) plus laptops.
• Secondary copy (local): a scheduled backup to a NAS or an external drive that is not always connected.

Offsite copy: encrypted cloud backup storage that is separate from your sync identity, or an offsite location with controlled access.

That’s the 3-2-1 backup rule explained in a way that survives accidents and attacks.

What to back up (beyond “files”)

Another place people get surprised: the most painful data loss isn’t always documents. It is operational stuff: WordPress sites, databases, and configuration.

Suppose your business site is on Sabako. If (or you manage a WordPress instance tied to sabako.id), your backup plan should include:

• Website files (themes, plugins, uploads)
• Database dumps (the real heart of WordPress content)
• Server configuration (so you can rebuild fast)

If you only sync “files,” you might still be unable to restore a working site. Again: backup vs sync.

Here’s a short example I’d run on a Linux server to create a dated database dump (just an example pattern; adjust database name/user safely):

# logged in as JokSilo on the server
mkdir -p /home/JokSilo/backups/sabako-id
mysqldump -u wp_user -p wordpress_db > /home/JokSilo/backups/sabako-id/wp-db-$(date +%F).sql

That dump then needs to be copied into your backup system and ideally versioned or made immutable, not left sitting on the same server forever.

How to test if you truly have a backup

The easiest “adult test” is this: could you restore a clean copy today, without guessing?

Ask yourself:

• Can I restore a single file from last week?
• Can I restore an entire folder to a new location without overwriting the current work?
• Can I restore my WordPress site (files + database) to a fresh server?

Suppose the answer is “maybe,” you’re still living in sync-land, not backup-land, no matter how good the sync tool is. That’s why Google Drive vs backup keeps coming up in audits: businesses think they’re safe because they can see files in the cloud.

Bringing it together (without turning it into a huge project)

My advice for most SMEs is to keep using sync for collaboration. Stop calling it a backup. Add a separate automated, versioned, and protected backup layer.

If you want SABAKO to help audit your current setup and implement a practical plan (including 3-2-1 backup rule explained for your team size and budget), get in touch—start here: https://sabako.id/services/web

Have a nice day!