One researcher was extremely annoyed when she noticed that the commercial survey tool had not saved her last version of her questionnaire. However, both the company's in-house support and customer service were unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the incident. The unsaved version had to be recreated. Thanks to the researcher's existing local backup this was possible with reasonable effort.

Even if commercial products offer an integrated backup, it is necessary to test its functionality at regular intervals. Running your own automated backup regime can also increase system redundancy and reduce the likelihood of data loss. The connection between the online tool and the server should not be interrupted to ensure data transfer. Common reasons for interruptions are application errors (e.g. session time out) or internet connection problems. An alternative to working online can be working locally before uploading content.