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5 Common SaaS Data Loss Scenarios (and How to Prevent Them)

Gary David
24 Apr
2025
5
min read

Most teams trust their data is safe in the cloud. You're using trusted apps like ClickUp, Airtable, Trello, or Asana, so what could go wrong?

Here’s the truth: these platforms are great at keeping their systems running, but they don’t take full responsibility for your individual account data. If someone on your team deletes something important or a bad sync wipes your records, it’s on you to fix it. Let’s look at five of the most common ways businesses lose SaaS data and what you can do to avoid a nightmare recovery situation.

1. Human Error

Clicking the wrong button. Deleting the wrong project. Overwriting the wrong field. It only takes a second to make a mistake that costs hours or even days of work.

Real example: A marketing team deleted a key ClickUp folder by accident while cleaning up old tasks. No built-in recovery options, no backup, and the project had to be rebuilt from scratch.

How to prevent this:

  • Set clear permissions so only the right people can delete or edit sensitive data
  • Use tools that show version history or activity logs
  • Set up automated daily backups that let you restore lost work with a few clicks

Pro tip: ProBackup gives you a snapshot of your workspace every day. One click, and you're back to normal.

2. Glitches & Downtime

Even the biggest SaaS apps break sometimes. A bad update, a sync issue, or a full-blown outage can leave your team stuck.

Real example: In 2021, a Salesforce outage locked thousands of users out of their accounts for hours. Sales teams couldn’t access customer data mid-pitch.

How to prevent this:

  • Stay informed using the platform’s status page
  • Don’t assume the app will always be accessible or stable
  • Keep an off-platform backup of critical data so your team can keep working during issues

3. Malicious Users

Sometimes the threat comes from within. Disgruntled employees. Team members with too much access. Even someone making changes without realizing the impact.

Real example: A former employee at a small startup deleted all Trello boards they had access to before their account was removed. No backup, and no way to recover. 

How to prevent this:

  • Immediately revoke access when someone leaves
  • Use role-based permissions to limit what users can see or delete
  • Make sure your backup tool keeps older versions and deleted data

4. Wrong Data Imports or 3rd Party Integrations

Connecting other apps or importing data from spreadsheets seems easy - until it goes wrong. One wrong format or bad field mapping and your clean database turns into chaos.

Real example: A nonprofit imported a CSV into Airtable with the wrong column format. Thousands of contacts were overwritten or duplicated. The team had no way to undo it.

How to prevent this:

  • Always test imports in a copy of your workspace first
  • Double-check all field mappings and formats
  • Have a backup from before the sync so you can roll things back quickly

5. Ransomware Attacks

Cloud apps don’t protect you from ransomware. If a hacker gets into your account, through a compromised password or a third-party app, they can delete or encrypt your data. 

Real example: A small business had a team member install a malicious Chrome extension. It accessed their Google account and wiped key Docs and Sheets. Google couldn’t recover it.

How to prevent this:

  • Use two-factor authentication on all your apps
  • Regularly review and remove unused third-party connections
  • Back up your data in a secure, separate system that hackers can’t reach

Final Thought

SaaS platforms are reliable, but they weren’t built to protect you from every risk. If something goes wrong inside your account, it’s often up to you to fix it, and without a backup, that can mean hours of lost work or even permanent damage. ProBackup helps you avoid that. We automatically back up your data every day from apps like ClickUp, Airtable, Trello, and Asana. If something gets deleted, broken, or messed up, you can restore it in seconds.

Don’t wait until you lose data to think about backups. Set it up once, and stay protected.

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