How to Back Up a GoHighLevel Sub-Account

To back up a GoHighLevel sub-account properly, you need more than one export. HighLevel splits a sub-account into setup (workflows, funnels, fields), records (contacts and opportunities), and history and files (messages, calls and uploads). Each one comes out a different way, and some don't come out natively at all. This guide covers each layer, the native method for it, and the gaps to plan for.

Why you need a backup at all

HighLevel runs your data, but your agency is the one clients call when something goes wrong. Common reasons agencies need a copy they control:

• A user bulk-deletes contacts or overwrites a field across thousands of records.
• A workflow edit breaks something and nobody remembers how it was set up.
• A client leaves and asks for everything, including documents and conversations.
• A regulated client needs records retained for a set period.
• You're migrating the sub-account and want a fallback.

The four layers to back up in a GoHighLevel sub-account

Layer 1: Configuration, with a snapshot

A snapshot is HighLevel's template system, and it doubles as a configuration backup.

1. In the agency view, open the snapshots area (labeled Account Snapshots in most agencies as of October 2026).
2. Create a new snapshot from the sub-account.
3. Name it with the sub-account name and date, such as Acme Roofing 2026-10-18.

A snapshot captures workflows, funnels and websites, templates, pipelines, calendars, forms, custom fields and values, and tags. It does not include contacts, conversations, users, or integrations like payment connections and API keys. It's a blueprint, not a data backup.

Take a fresh one before any significant build change, and keep a few dated versions.

Layer 2: Records, with CSV exports

Contacts

1. Go to Contacts > Smart Lists.
2. Click Manage Fields and turn on every column you want. HighLevel only exports columns visible in the table, so this step matters.
3. Select all contacts.
4. Choose Export from the More or three-dot menu.
5. Download the file from Contacts > Bulk Actions when it's complete.

Per HighLevel's docs as of October 2026, completed export files are available for 30 days, only admins can export, and scheduled exports aren't available. Each sub-account is exported separately.

Opportunities

Pipelines and opportunities can be exported to CSV from the Opportunities area. Export each pipeline you care about, and include the opportunity's contact ID so it joins back to the contact file.

What the CSVs miss

The contact export includes only the latest note, up to 255 characters. It doesn't include message history, tasks or the files attached to contacts. What the GoHighLevel CSV export leaves out goes through this in detail.

Layer 3: Activity, through the API

There's no button to export conversations in the standard UI as of October 2026. Your options:

• The Conversations API. The "export messages by location" endpoint returns SMS, email, call and other messages for a date range, with direction, timestamps and IDs. See how to export SMS conversations.
• Call recordings come from a separate API endpoint, one call at a time. See how to export call recordings.
• Notes and tasks have per-contact API endpoints. Native bulk export for tasks is still a request on HighLevel's ideas board.

Layer 4: Files, the layer most backups forget

This is where most agency backups fall short. Files in a sub-account live in several places:

• File upload custom fields on contacts and opportunities
• Attachments in conversations (MMS images, email attachments)
• Call recordings
• Form and survey uploads
• The media library
• Signed documents and contracts

None of these come out in the contact CSV. The media library lets you download folders as a ZIP, but there's no native bulk download for files attached to contacts. Downloading all files from GoHighLevel contacts covers the manual and API options.

Files matter more than they seem. For a lending or legal client, the bank statements and signed agreements are often the most valuable data in the account.

A practical backup schedule

Store backups somewhere outside HighLevel, name them consistently, and write down who has access.

Where the native way gets slow

Snapshots and CSVs are quick. The other two layers are the problem. Messages need API work, and files need a script that finds every place a file can live, downloads it, survives rate limits, and records which contact it belonged to. Doing that monthly across every sub-account in an agency is real engineering, not a checklist item.

How Backup & Insights handles the file layer

Backup & Insights from RGS Tools covers the files that HighLevel's export leaves out.

• File backup copies contact and opportunity file fields, conversation attachments, call recordings, form and survey uploads, the media library and signed documents. Backups run monthly and incrementally across the agency, resume on their own and respect HighLevel's API limits. Each file is tied to its contact, opportunity, conversation or submission in a manifest that joins back to your CSVs.
• Zip downloads and share links let you download a backup as zip parts or send someone a link that expires.
• Master search searches every backed-up sub-account at once by name, email, phone, filename or field value.

Files whose source link has already expired, such as some old carrier MMS images, are marked "gone at source" so you know exactly what was saved. Backup & Insights is $99/mo per agency with unlimited sub-accounts and a 7-day free trial. For the message layer, Conversation Exporter covers calls, SMS and email.