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Review Backups
Every review the platform syncs from Google is stored in the platform's own database. When Google removes a review, your copy stays, marked with the date it disappeared.
Google removes reviews. Sometimes a reviewer deletes it. Sometimes a spam filter catches a real one. Sometimes a whole batch vanishes in a sweep and comes back a week later, or does not. Without a copy, a five-star review a client earned is gone with nothing to show for it. With a copy, it is still evidence: for a client conversation, for a support case, or for an appeal.
What is stored
For each review, the platform keeps:
- The star rating
- The review text
- The reviewer's display name
- The date the review was written
- Your reply, and the date it was posted
- The date the platform first saw it, and the date it was last seen on Google
- The sentiment score and label the platform assigned (positive, neutral, negative)
- Links to any photos or videos the reviewer attached
The photo and video files themselves are not part of the promise. They are shown from Google's links, and once Google removes a review its photos may stop loading. Treat the backup as the text, rating, name, dates, and reply.
How the backup works
The platform reads every review on every monitored profile on each monitoring check, once a day by default. A new review is stored the first time it is seen. An existing review is updated if the text or the reply changed. To sync a profile right now, open its Reviews tab and click the sync icon.
When a review disappears
If a review that was on Google is not returned on a check, the platform:
- Marks the stored copy Missing, with the date it was last seen.
- Writes a Review removed entry to the profile's Activity Log and the dashboard feed.
- Emails the org members who have the Review removed by Google toggle on. See Reviews.
The stored copy is not deleted. Google removing a review never removes it from the backup. The copy stays for as long as your organization exists on the platform.
If Google's response on a check looks incomplete, the platform skips the missing check for that profile rather than mark reviews missing by mistake. It tries again on the next check.
When a review comes back
Reviews do come back. A reviewer restores it, or Google's filter releases it. When a Missing review is returned by Google again, the platform marks it Active, writes a Review reappeared entry, and clears the earlier removal alert.
Finding removed reviews
Open the profile's Reviews tab. The summary at the top shows the count of Active and Missing reviews. Click Missing to filter the list to removed reviews only.
A removed review shows a red Removed from Google chip with the date the platform noticed it was gone.
Exporting reviews
From the Reviews tab, the export menu offers Export CSV and Export JSON. Owners and admins see the export menu. The export follows the filter you have set: all reviews, active only, or missing only.
Each CSV row carries the rating, the text, the reviewer's display name, the review date, your reply and its date, a numeric sentiment score, and an is_deleted column so a removed review is marked in the file. The JSON export carries the same reviews as structured records, with the status, the sentiment label, the dates, and the media links, wrapped in a small export header. Neither format includes Google's raw API payload. Both are capped at 10,000 reviews per profile.
Use the export to:
- Give a client a record of the reviews they had before a sweep
- Attach evidence to a support case with Google
- Keep an offline copy at the end of an engagement
Where the backup is used
- Reports. The reviews section of a client report reads from the stored copy, so a report covering a period still shows the reviews that were live during it.
- Reinstatement. The readiness checklist has a check for reviews being backed up with dates, authors, and text. It is answered automatically from the stored copy. See Reinstatement.
- The ledger. Removals and reappearances are entries in the Profile Ledger.
Limits
- No history before the profile was connected. The backup starts on the first sync. A review Google removed before that was never stored.
- Photo files are not promised. The text, rating, name, dates, and reply are the backup. Photo links are kept, but a removed review's photos may no longer load.
- Removal is detected on the next check, not instantly. Once a day by default, or when you click the sync icon.
- Export is for owners and admins. Members see the reviews and the Missing filter, not the export menu.
- The backup is a record, not a restore. Google does not let anyone re-post a removed review. What the backup gives you is proof that it existed, what it said, and when it went.
Related
- Reviews, for replying, automatic replies, and reporting spam.
- Profile Ledger, for the full change record on a profile.
- Reinstatement, for using the backup in an appeal.