If you don’t automate Make scenario backups, you’re setting yourself up for headaches down the road. Make.com is a great automation tool, but it doesn’t back up (or even save!) your scenarios for you. Set up your own backup automation today to take care of this problem.
Make.com (formerly known as Integromat) is a great no-code automation tool, but like any software, it has its downsides. For many, the biggest downside is that there is no easy way to back automations up inside Make.
Combined with no autosave feature, things can go wrong very quickly. If you know, you know.
Don’t wait for things to go wrong – be prepared instead! Slashrepeat has got the solution: back everything up outside Make.com!
Let’s say you delete a scenario but later change your mind. You should be able to restore it, right?
Wrong.
You’ve now got a problem, because Make doesn’t have a trash can. Deleted files are permanently deleted, not hidden away from view. Once you delete something on the platform, it’s gone forever with no taksies-backsies. This is something that often catches out Make newbies, since it’s easy to assume that there must be some kind of fail-safe.
If you only have small, non-essential automations running that can easily be redone, then this is just annoying. But when you accidentally delete a complex automation that you use every day, it can become a huge problem. Imagine losing your ability to automate invoices, or your advanced content marketing system that is the engine behind all of your social media and blogging activities disappearing into the ether.
It’s the stuff of nightmares! Don’t leave things to chance and fat fingers. Instead, protect your investment in your automation ecosystem with a backup.
Prevention is always better than cure. In this article, we’ll show you how to build an automation that will back up all your automations like clockwork on a schedule of your choosing. It takes just five minutes to build and we’re even giving you the Make.com scenario blueprint for free.
Stay safe and automate Make scenario backups. You have no excuse not to!
If you automate Make scenario backups, you’re protecting your hard work. This is an easy scenario that’s ideal for beginners who are just starting out on Make. There are only four modules to set up, and, aside from mapping everything to your folders in Google Drive, there is very little customization. It’s a great introduction to no-code automation that requires no special skills or advanced knowledge.
Setting backups early in your Make.com career also gives you much more security when you tinker about with your Make.com scenarios. Since you’ll always have a copy, even if you make a horrible mess of a scenario or delete it, you’ll be able to experiment and make mistakes without losing (too much) progress! Just remember that this automation will always save your blueprint exactly you last saved it.
Click on the link to download your copy of this blueprint to automate Make scenario backups from Gumroad for free. All the modules are already set up, so all you need to do is change the details to match your Google Drive and Make.com configuration as shown in this guide.
You should already have a Google Drive account. You can also use Dropbox or any other online cloud storage, but bear in mind that this guide is focused on Google Drive, so you won’t be able to follow along or use the free blueprint if you decide to use another cloud storage solution.
In Google Drive, create a dedicated folder for your Make scenario blueprints. Give it a suitable name like “Make Blueprints Backups.” The name doesn’t matter – just make sure it’s one that helps you to easily identify what is inside the folder.
This folder can be a main folder in Google Drive. If you already have a dedicated folder for your automation work, you can also consider putting your backup folder in there as a subfolder. This will keep everything organized and in a logical place when you go hunting for the files manually.
That’s all you need to do to set up Google Drive. The reason you’re doing this first is so you don’t need to go back and forth between browser tabs to set everything up. Setting up your tools first lets you focus on building the automation later.
Now you can open up a new scenario in Make.com and start building your Make.com backup automation.
Start the scenario with the Create a Folder module using the Google Drive integration. Find the backup folder you made in the last step and choose that as the location for all of your backup files. Doing this means that every time you backup, your scenarios will be saved in this file.
To keep things organized, every time you make a backup, your file will be created with a timestamp in the folder name. In the New Folder Location field, go through the folders until you reach the backup folder. I keep my backup folder inside the Slashrepeat folder for easy access.
Next, copy and paste the following code into the New Folder’s Name field. Make will automatically parse it and make it fancy for you:
formatDate({{now}};MM/DD/YYYY)This module is now set up and configured. Click OK to save your settings. We’re now going to set up the two Make.com modules.
Next, you will want to add the List Scenarios module from Make.com. Set your Organization ID, Team ID, and Folder ID as needed. You can also choose whether to back up all your scenarios or just your active ones. For most people, leaving this empty is fine.
More important is the Limit field, as this determines how many scenarios you will be able to backup. Set this to 1000 so the scenario gets everything – if you have more than 1,000 scenarios, set it higher! If you set it to a lower number, like 10, you will only be able to list and save 10 scenarios. While there are situations where limits are useful, this isn’t one of them – set the number high and forget about it.
Add the Get a Scenario Blueprint module to your scenario. If you’re following this guide closely, you should be on your third module. Now add the Scenario ID from the second module. Click OK when you are finished.
You’re almost done! Add the variables as shown in the image; take the Folder ID from the first module, choose to map your files, then add the Name variable from the second module to the File Name field. Take care to add .json after this without any spaces. Finally, add the Blueprint Data variable from the third module.
You’re done! Congratulations, you’ve finished building the scenario and you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll. But hold onto your horses, because you need to test the scenario and make sure that everything works as expected first!
Before doing anything else, save your scenario. Unlike many software tools today, Make doesn’t autosave your hard work – so get into the practice of saving often. While losing all your work in a scenario of this size isn’t a big deal, it can be crushing on a larger and more complex scenario. Get into a habit of saving to avoid this fate!
Once the scenario is saved, click the run once button to the bottom left of the page and the scenario will run through the modules.
You’ll know everything has been done correctly if you head over to the Google Drive folder you set up and see a new folder inside it with today’s date. If you open the folder while the automation is running, you’ll see it slowly fill up with freshly backed-up .json files.
These .json files are your Make.com scenarios in their raw form. Remember how we added the .json extension to the file name variables in step 3? That saved us the work of having to add this to every single file on upload.
Now that you have verified that this automate Make.com backup scenario works as expected, finalize your automation schedule. This can be as often as you like. If you’re constantly tinkering with your scenarios, then a weekly (or even daily) scenario is best.
If you rarely update your scenarios, then consider making backups every month or every few months. This backup automation can consume a lot of operations if you have a lot of scenarios, so take this into account when deciding how often to run your backup system.
Finally, turn the automate Make scenario backups workflow on. It will now work in the background, automatically running the scenario at the time you choose until you turn it off. If you want to be certain that everything is working, write a reminder on your calendar to check your Google Drive folder after the first automation run to check that everything worked as expected.
The scenario will run consistently according to the schedule you set until you turn it off.
Most of the time you won’t need to use your backups. This is, after all, just a security measure for your peace of mind. If you ever accidentally delete a scenario, then you can just grab the latest backup and update it.
One other use case for having a backup system in place is that you will have an easy way to roll back a scenario that might have gone horribly wrong. You can go back to previous versions of a scenario inside Make, but having other options never hurts when you want to turn the clock back on some bad workflow ideas.
So, how do you actually use your backup files in Google Drive? That’s simple – you grab the .json file from Google Drive then import it into a scenario.
You know what’s better than backing up all your Make.com scenarios in Google Drive?
Backing up all your Make.com scenarios in Google Drive and on a fully searchable database that also lets you rename scenarios without needing to open up multiple pages, that’s what.
And while this more complex scenario doesn’t include folder renaming and reorganization via database, it’s certainly possible.
The beauty of automation is that you can build almost anything you want. In this article, I’ve given you everything you need to build a basic backup automation, but you don’t need to stop there. If there’s a feature that you want to add to your backup, add it!
I promise you, it’s very rewarding once you get it set up.
For example, when OpenAI deprecates models that you’re using across your scenarios, it can be tough finding them to fix them in vanilla Make. An automation like this that includes database information about GPT models and a workflow for quickly switching models makes everything a breeze.
Backups are boring, but they’re also essential – if you’ve ever lost an important document because you failed to back it up (oh, the agony), then you don’t need me to explain why! This simple automation can be set up in less than five minutes and automates the process completely.
This Make.com backup scenario is a set-and-forget automation that means you never need to worry about accidentally deleting a scenario ever again. Spend a little more time on your setup to add extra features that fit your needs and you’ll have a powerful organizational system that puts you ahead of the vast majority of Make users.
Now that your Make backup system is up and running, why not start enhancing the organization of your scenarios? We recommend using emojis to quickly scan and find automations in a list, but you can also take it a step further by creating a database that keeps track of all your automations and backup locations for an even smoother automation.
While Make might not give you great organizational tools straight out the box, it does give you everything you need to organize and back up your scenarios exactly how you want them.
Book your consultation now. It’s free and friendly, with no pushy sales tactics. We can start your project as early as tomorrow!
