Microsoft Entra ID Gets New Backup and Recovery Tool

Microsoft has introduced a new Backup and Recovery feature in public preview in the Entra admin center. This new built-in solution helps organizations restore critical Entra directory objects after accidental changes or security incidents.

“Microsoft Entra Backup and Recovery takes backups of supported objects automatically, once a day, retaining up to five days of backup history. The solution helps restore your tenant to a productive and secure state. Microsoft regularly improves and expands the solution to support more directory objects and more attributes,” Microsoft explained.

This Microsoft Entra Backup and Recovery solution protects core identity and access configuration, including users and groups, applications and service principals, Conditional Access policies, named locations, authentication method, and authorization policies. It also supports Agent ID, which is built from user and service principal objects. Microsoft plans to expand the list of supported objects over time.

According to Microsoft, the backups are created automatically once per day, and Microsoft keeps a rolling history of the last five days. Administrators won’t be able to disable, change, or delete, and backup data remains in the same geographic region as the tenant.

Key features: automated backups, comparisons, and granular restores

Microsoft Entra Backup and Recovery gives administrators the tools to easily manage tenant protection by providing access to recent backups and insights into how the environment has changed over time. It allows them to compare current settings with past snapshots, restore everything or only selected objects as needed, and track the status and history of all recovery actions in one place.

To get started, administrators will need to head over to the Microsoft Entra admin center and click the Backup and recovery option in the left navigation pane. They can view the Backup and Recovery overview, browse available backups, generate and review difference reports,
and initiate recovery operations.

Microsoft notes that recovery with the Entra Backup and Recovery solution should be planned carefully, as the time required largely depends on the volume of changes being restored. Restorations are applied gradually and cannot simply be reversed once completed. This feature is best used alongside existing safeguards (such as soft delete) rather than as a replacement for them.