How to back up Confluence (and restore deleted data)

In short: Confluence Cloud moves deleted pages to a space trash that any space admin can purge, after which the page "and all its versions and attachments, are gone for good". Deleted spaces are permanently removed after 60 days. ProBackup snapshots your Confluence spaces, pages, blog posts, attachments and comments every 24 hours and restores deleted pages under their original parent.

Why Confluence's trash is not a backup

Confluence holds the documentation your organisation runs on: runbooks, policies, meeting notes, product specs. Atlassian protects the platform. It does not protect a page from the person who deletes it.

Atlassian's documentation (checked 2026-09-16) describes the native safety net:

• Pages: a deleted page "moves to the space's trash" and "can be restored, until or unless it is manually purged from the trash." Purging means "the item, and all its versions and attachments, are gone for good."
• Restored pages lose context: "a previously deleted item will lose its inherited permissions as well as its location in the sidebar." It is placed at the same level as the space home page, so it is invisible in the sidebar until you move it.
• Spaces: since 6 January 2025 Atlassian will "permanently delete spaces that have been in the trash for at least 60 days." Only a Confluence admin can restore a trashed space, and permanent deletion "cannot be undone".

Trash therefore protects against a single accidental deletion noticed quickly. It does not protect against a purge, an offboarded admin's clean-up, a space deleted three months ago, or a page rewritten by a bulk find-and-replace or an AI assistant.

How to back up Confluence with ProBackup

ProBackup is a SaaS backup service that takes automated daily snapshots of your cloud app data and lets you restore individual records, files or whole projects back to the original account.

Setting it up for Confluence Cloud:

1. Start a trial. Go to app.probackup.io/onboarding, choose Confluence and create your account. The 7-day trial needs no credit card.
2. Connect via OAuth. Click Connect Confluence and sign in to Atlassian. Choose the Confluence site to protect and grant ProBackup read access. ProBackup never stores your Atlassian password; it holds an OAuth token you can revoke from your Atlassian account settings.
3. Choose the scope. Select the spaces to include. Only content the connected account can see is backed up, so connect a user with view permission on every space that matters. Advanced scope control is available on Premium.
4. Check restricted pages. Pages with restricted access cannot be read through the Atlassian API unless the connected account is granted access. Update the page restrictions to include the ProBackup user, or those pages stay outside the backup.
5. Wait for the first snapshot. The first snapshot is taken within 24 hours; large sites with many attachments take longer. You receive an email when it completes. After that, a new snapshot every 24 hours, with no scheduling required.

Snapshots are stored on AWS S3, encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit, in one of nine AWS regions you select at signup. ProBackup is SOC 2 Type II certified (May 2025) and GDPR compliant.

What is and is not backed up

ProBackup backs up what the Confluence Cloud REST API exposes:

• Spaces
• Pages, including page hierarchy and body content
• Blog posts
• Attachments
• Comments

Not backed up:

• Pages with restricted access the connected account cannot see. This is an Atlassian API constraint, not a ProBackup choice; grant access to the connected user and they are included from the next snapshot.
• Site configuration: permissions schemes, templates, macros settings and app data are outside the backup scope [verify].

ProBackup captures the first 2,000 characters of a text field for table display; page bodies are stored in full [verify]. Snapshots are retained for 6 months on Plus, 2 years on Pro and without limit on Premium.

How to restore deleted Confluence pages

ProBackup supports two restore modes across its platforms: create new duplicates (originals left untouched) or overwrite existing records field by field. For Confluence, the help centre documents the duplicate mode [verify: overwrite mode availability for Confluence]:

1. Open the Confluence backup in ProBackup and pick the snapshot date before the deletion or the bad edit.
2. Browse to the space and select the page or blog post. Use Compare to check the content against a later snapshot if you are unsure which version you need.
3. Click Restore. A duplicate is created under the original parent page or, for top-level content, in the original space. Your live pages are never overwritten.
4. Review the restored page and move it in the page tree if needed.

Restore is documented for pages and blog posts. Comments and attachments are stored in every snapshot and can be viewed and downloaded [verify: whether comments and attachments are restored together with the page].

Restores go back to the original Confluence site only. ProBackup is a backup tool, not a migration tool.

Global Search (unlimited on Pro and Premium; 3 free uses per month on Plus) finds a page across every snapshot when you only remember a phrase from it. Smart Alerts (Pro and Premium plans) flag unusual deletions in the daily report.

Frequently asked questions

How often is Confluence backed up?

Every 24 hours, automatically. Each snapshot is a full copy of the API-available content, so you can browse any day in your version history, compare two snapshots and restore from the one you want.

Where is my Confluence backup stored?

On AWS S3, in the AWS region you select at signup (nine regions are available). Changing region after the first backup requires support assistance. Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit. On Pro and Premium plans you can also sync a copy to your own Google Drive.

Can I back up Jira and Confluence together?

Yes. Jira and Confluence are separate integrations in ProBackup, each connected via OAuth to the same Atlassian site. One licence covers your whole team on each platform; there is no per-seat pricing.

Protect your Confluence data today

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