In a base-isolated building, the rubber bearings, being as protectors of the superstructure, sometimes should also be protected from failure because the failure of rubber bearings may result in serious damage to superstructure. In this paper, three failure-prevention approaches of rubber bearings are proposed. The simplest way is to limit maximum stroke of rubber bearings with stoppers and buffers. This is called soft pounding protection. Another way is to arrange additional stiffness components at abutments in certain distance from the protected rubber bearings, which is called stiffness variable protection. The third way is to install backup supporters with friction sliding plate on their top beside rubber bearings. This is called soft landing protection. The principle, working mechanism and analytical models for these safeguard devices are studied. The effectiveness of these approaches for protecting rubber bearings is discussed by examples.