Back up offline is not available v2026.5
When will this feature to back up offline be available for the latest version v2026.5. When searching for answers the useless chat response is to go to: Set Up, Preference and enable offline backup ...
Forum Discussion
URGENT ATTENTION REQUIRED
It is now the End of Financial Year and the urgency is Payroll FY2026 and finalising previous financial year/s. MYOB is now hindering this process too, as we can't back up offline. MYOB needs to URGENTLY action this request to reinstate OFFLINE BACKUP.
QUESTIONS FOR MYOB:
Are there any Australian representative that can action this? Overseas people use Western names so I don't know where Amanda is located? Where are the programmers located, Australia, Philipines, USA etc?
Hi MJBook , MYOB employees represent us, regardless of their name and where they are located. There is no reason to request an 'Australian' representative.
Offline backups operate on the same technology that supports operating a file offline. As AccountRight PC 2026.5 no longer supports working offline, this also means it no longer supports an offline backup.
As per my reply above, and another here, the reasons for needing an offline backup are now solved by modern enhancements to software.
If an offline backup is still important to you, then you can request a server backup retrieval from MYOB.
The best thing to do you be to take a point in time online back up, name it FY26 (or whatever works for you) and then request a copy.
There is currently a fee for this service of $49.95, but if you read my linked post, you can hopefully start to consider the new way of working with an online file/backup system.
Hi Mike,
I hope your day is going better than all the MYOB subscribers.
- Records for ATO is required for 7 years; not 90 days as proposed by myob. How do people supply info to the ATO if the file has been purged.
- Who instigated the update 7 days before end of financial year. Seems ludicrous to me, and myob needs to reverse the update and enable people to be able to backup using usb,etc.
- I don't think you know, but to be an ISO member you have to be running a backup and taking it of the premises. This is mandatory if you want to supply big corporate companies. MYOB is actually hindering companies from doing business.
- I shouldn't have to request a server backup
- Now we know why?, $49.95 fee. Very disappointing.
Regards
Jaci
Hi jaci , thanks for the post, i'm happy to help clarify some of these points based on having an online file (and backup) instead of an offline one.
- ATO require records for 7 years, not 90 days.
- With an online file, old data is not purged, and when accessing your file via the browser, you can view all file history by simply changing the date in the report you are viewing. You do not need an offline backup to have 7 years of records.
- Timing for end of financial year.
- I definitely acknowledge that this was a difficult time to make the change, we announced the update to offline mode in April to give people plenty of time ahead of EOFY to make the necessary changes however.
- Big companies need to have a running backup taken off premises.
- Are you able to share any more supporting information around this? To my knowledge most/all of our competitors don't offer an offline backup, so I would like to take a further look at this mandatory rule and how it applies.
I would assume that MYOB hosting the online backup will be considered a back up that is not held on premise for that business.
- Are you able to share any more supporting information around this? To my knowledge most/all of our competitors don't offer an offline backup, so I would like to take a further look at this mandatory rule and how it applies.
- You shouldnt have to request a server backup.
- And ultimately you shouldn't need to do this either. The process (and cost) for a server backup retrieval has existed for years, this is not new or introduced to profit off the change to offline backups. Requesting a backup retrieval is an option I have been mentioning to customers who are concerned at the loss of offline backups but is definitely not something you need to do.
- If you are still operating your file offline using Server Edition, then you can still take offline backups.
- If you are operating your file online in PC Edition, then you have the online backups available and you can use report packs via the browser to download your important data if you close the business (for the 7 year record keeping)
ATO require records for 7 years, not 90 days
We don't use the browser ever. The interface is awful, if you are a hardened Desktop user. On the desktop, you cannot get reports outside 2 years for some critical reports, including:
Entitlements (necessary if somebody queries their LSL accrual- 10+ years data required)
GST Reconciliation Reports
Trial Balance
Cashflow
Job Profit & Loss
Many of the Analysis reports and several reports under the Accounts tab
Perhaps you better check the browser version for these reports and the ability to backtrack 7 years (10 for personnel reports).
Otherwise, it is 100% necessary to go to backups to get this information. On a post back in April, one of your staff (Amanda) said that backups that were restored from your Cloud are not reversible... so they would be useless to us, if we can't restore a current version, once we've sourced the data we need.
Timing for end of financial year.
We are using Desktop version online, and have been for years, not the SE offline version that you have dumped, so we got no prior notice that you were stopping the facility to take an offline backup of Cloud based information. A week before EOFY is ridiculous. It's the time we take/need the most time sensitive manual backups.
Big companies need to have a running backup taken off premises
MYOB holding both an online version of the original data and an online backup of that data... is not a backup. If the server is hacked, is destroyed (eg: fire) or dies completely, both sets of data are lost. That's why there is a requirement that the backup data is held in a completely different location, preferably at another site (in the case of fire, etc). That's just good business. Anyone that has ever lost their data, will tell you they do regular backups and keep them off site. It will cost you a fortune, if you lose all your client's data and their backup too. To be honest, I think this is an incredibly poor and high risk decision that MYOB has made. We've experienced a hack of our online data held by MYOB and lost all of our payroll/staff information to the hacker. Every one of our staff are now permanently flagged by the ATO. You can't guarantee that the data is 100% secure or free from ransom.
You shouldn't have to request a server backup
You are 100% correct. We should NEVER have to request or pay for a server backup. We should have control of OUR data Ourselves and our own backup available any time we need it, stored in whatever secure location/facility that we choose. If you are going to take away the facility, which I think is the wrong decision, for all of the reasons listed above, you should at least offer unlimited free server backups. Good luck with handling the volume and frequency of requests! At least then you might actually appreciate how important it is to your customers to have this facility and how often it's used.
- ATO require records for 7 years, not 90 days.
Hi Mike,
For all the reasons other users on this platform and feed have stated MYOB must restore the ability to perform offline backups for their paying Clients. It isn't about 2026.5 no longer supporting working offline. It is about your online clients performing their own locally held backups, which is a necessity for businesses to enable reporting to the ATO if there are any taxation enquires, which could be from years ago. I don't particularly care if MYOB don't support working offline. They absolutely need to provide support to restore a backup from years ago if the ATO case comes up.
Is your post above suggesting we need to pay MYOB to access our backups that MYOB makes us store online?
Should we contact the ATO?
Thank you, Bronwyn
Keep the fight going - totally agreed - the offline capability and backups is the 'Elephant in the room' in this argument.
There are a multitude of scenarios around an ATO audition that can happen at any time; or a company has a court case to fight and needs data back 15 years ( happened to me for a very long time client that predicated on a local govt agency assuming that records do not exist that far back and predicated their argument in court on this assumption) - they got a nasty surprise when I found the data backup I kept for my client - opened a very old MYOB file and extracted the invoice for the argument) - my client did eventually win. I digress a little but the argument is relevant - data backups and their responsibility should lie completely in the hands of whomever owns that data.
The argument does not change whether it are records for an potential ATO audit, a client court battle, a client's wish to get ISO 270001, SOC2 accreditation or whatever.
In fact, I believe it is a fundamental right for businesses to dictate where they want their data backed up to, a fundamental right that we should not need to debate; notwithstanding daily occurrences of businesses being hacked, that hold someone else's data - MYOB you are not immune.
The Doc
Mike is still not listening to the people! MYOB take me out of SPAM and post my concerns!
Did you know that the AccountRight Premier PC 2026.5 version currently allows backups offline so why can't AccountRight Plus PC 2026.5 version? Or is this a temporary oversight?
Hi Bronwyn, I will try and cover your questions here and also in your second post (here) with one response.
There is a distinction between a backup you already have. And then backups in the future.
If you already have an offline backup stored somewhere, then you can open this to view it in either AccountRight Server Edition, or in a version of AccountRight PC edition earlier that 2026.5.
Going forward, backups are done online. Customers can export their data using report packs from the browser, and then would have the data readily available with no need to consider restoring backups.
The other solution I have mentioned is that customers could request a server backup retrieval from MYOB for $49.95. As of today, if that backup was taken from a file operating in AccountRight 2026.6 or beyond, there would not be a way to open and view the backup, this is something that we are looking into.
For 7 year reporting purposes, customers are covered.- Existing offline backup, can be opened in a software that still supports offline mode
- New online backups
- While there is an active subscription, the full history of the file can be viewed via the browser, no backup needed.
- Before ending a subscription, use report packs to export your company data.
- If an offline backup is requested from MYOB, this can be provided to customers, but cannot be viewed without a subscription
For the production company example, they can use report packs before they cancel.
There is also the option for a low cost read only subscription that would be offered by the cancellations team or they could pay for the server backup retrieval for record keeping.Thanks Mike. Would you please guide me to the report packs instructions so I can check it out for a file I will be canceling this month? We didn’t upgrade the file to 2026.5 and have redownloaded 2026.4 but when attempting to access MYOB simply states we must upgrade b4 we can open the file.
