Guides. Getting your data out
How to export your data out of Zoho CRM
The short answer is to request a full account backup from Setup, then Data Administration, then Data Backup, and separately export each module you care about from Setup, then Data Administration, then Export Data. Keep every record ID column. Attachments arrive with the backup and not with the module files, and your automations don't come out at all, so somebody has to write them down by hand.
The rest of this page is the order to do it in, what to check before you trust the files, and the parts no export screen will give you.
Last updated 2026-09-01
Before you start
What you need in front of you
An administrator login, because everything that produces a complete copy lives under Setup. And somewhere to put the files that isn't tied to the subscription you're exporting.
Export limits, backup allowances and download windows differ by edition, and they change over time. Read the numbers on the screen in your own account. Don't trust a figure written on a page like this one.
The procedure
Eight steps, in this order
- 01
Write down what "your data" actually means
Before you open an export screen, list what you'd need to rebuild your sales operation somewhere else. For most companies it's five things: the records (leads, contacts, accounts, deals, quotes, invoices), the files attached to them, the notes and activity history, the users and their roles, and the configuration that shapes all of it.
The first four come out in files. The fifth doesn't, and that's the part that surprises people. Write the list first and you won't find out later that the only copy of your approval logic was a screenshot nobody took.
- 02
Request a full backup before you change anything
In Zoho CRM, go to Setup, then Data Administration, then Data Backup, and request a backup of the whole account. It's the widest single pull Zoho offers. What comes back is a set of CSV files, one per module, plus your attachments, bundled into a downloadable archive with a limited download window.
Do it before any cleanup or field renaming, and while the subscription is still fully active. Don't wait until you're in a grace period. How many backups you get without an extra charge depends on your edition, so check the count on the page before you spend one on a test.
- 03
Export the modules you care about, one at a time
The per-module route is Setup, then Data Administration, then Export Data. Pick a module, export it, repeat. It's slower than the backup and it's the version you'll actually work with, because you can take it whenever you want and it lands as a plain CSV.
Keep the record ID column in every file. It looks like noise. It's the most valuable column you have, the key that reconnects a contact to its account, a note to its deal, an attachment to its record. An export without IDs is a pile of lists. An export with IDs is a database.
- 04
Pull attachments, notes, and email separately
Files live beside records, not inside them. Contracts, signed quotes, site photos and scanned purchase orders come through the backup archive, and the module CSVs won't have them. They arrive named by ID, so nothing in that folder looks like a filename a person chose. Keep the mapping file that comes with them.
Email is its own question. Mail sent or logged through the CRM is usually reachable. Mail that lives in a connected mailbox isn't part of the CRM export at all, and threads on closed deals are the ones people miss. Open the export and check what's in it.
- 05
Capture the configuration, which no export will give you
Custom fields, picklist values, layouts and their conditional rules, validation rules, workflow rules, blueprints, approval processes, assignment and scoring rules, and every integration hanging off the account all stay behind. None of it comes out as data you can reload somewhere else. That's years of decisions about how your company works, and it lives only inside the platform.
Record it while you still have access. Export the field list per module, then put every automation in a plain table. What fires it, what it does, who it notifies, and whether it still matters. That table is the most useful thing you'll produce in the whole exercise, and it's just as useful if you stay.
- 06
Verify the export against the live system
Open each module, note the total record count, and compare it to the row count in the matching file. When they disagree, it's usually a filtered view, a permission limit on the account that ran the export, or records already sitting in the recycle bin.
Volume isn't the whole check. Pick a few records you know well and confirm that lookup fields carry an ID and not a blank, that multi-select values survived, and that currency and decimal fields didn't round. Ten minutes here saves you a migration built on a file that was quietly missing a column.
- 07
Store the copy somewhere you control
Put the files in storage your company owns. Not the laptop of whoever ran the export, and not a drive attached to the subscription you might be canceling. Add a short readme naming the date, the account, who ran it, and which modules are included.
Then set a reminder to do it again. A yearly export is a backup. A backup that's three years old is a souvenir.
- 08
Only then ask about cancellation, and get retention in writing
Every vendor keeps your data for some window after a subscription lapses, then deletes it once that window closes. Ask Zoho support what the window is for your edition and data center, and keep the reply in writing. Don't trust a number somebody quoted in a forum.
The order matters. Export, verify, store, then talk about canceling. Do it the other way around and you're negotiating a renewal while the only copy of your history sits on the other side of the table.
The gap nobody plans for
What a complete export still does not contain
Run every step above perfectly and you'll hold your records, your files and your history. You still won't hold the reason your business runs the way it does. Somebody at your company decided how a lead gets routed to the right person, which stage rules stop a deal skipping approval, and what the quote template looks like. Those decisions are readable only inside the account that holds them.
That's the real cost of a platform, and it never shows up on the invoice. Money buys the subscription. Years of your own time build the configuration sitting on top of it. Anyone weighing a platform against a system they'd own should weigh that part too. How to make that call is on the page about whether you need custom software, and an honest read on this specific platform is on the Zoho page.
Questions
What people ask about exporting a CRM
Do I have to be an administrator to do this?
For the account-wide backup, yes. It lives in Setup, and standard user profiles can't get there. A user with export permission on a module can usually pull that module from its list view, which covers one team and won't give you a complete copy. If you own the business and somebody else holds the only admin login, fix that before you start on anything above.
Should I do this even if I'm staying on Zoho?
Yes, and it may matter most if you're staying. A current export plus a written record of your automations is cheap insurance against a bad data import, a deleted module, a departing administrator, or a renewal you'd rather walk into with options. Nothing above commits you to leaving.
Will the export bring my workflows and blueprints with it?
No. An export returns records and leaves the logic behind. Workflow rules, blueprints, approvals, validation rules, layout conditions and scoring rules are configuration, and configuration stays in the platform. That's why step five is a documentation job with no download attached. Every CRM on the market works this way, so it isn't a Zoho complaint.
How do I keep relationships between records intact?
Keep every ID column, including the lookup IDs that point at parent records. When you load the data anywhere else, import parents first (accounts before contacts, contacts before deals), keep the old ID in a legacy field, and map relationships on that field rather than on the name. Matching on company name is how one customer becomes three.
Is a completed export the same thing as a migration?
No. An export is the raw material. A migration is deciding what to carry over, cleaning it, mapping fields that don't line up, rebuilding the logic that never exported, and testing the result before anyone works in it. The export is the part you can do yourself, and that's exactly why it's worth doing first.
If the export turned into a bigger question
Plenty of people run this procedure, look at what came out, and decide their setup is fine. If yours turned up something harder, send a short note or book a call. You'll get a straight answer on whether this is a configuration fix, a different platform, or a system of your own.