Step-by-Step
When you delete content from a SharePoint site, it's sent to the site's Recycle Bin (also called the first-stage Recycle Bin) where you can restore the deleted content if necessary.
If someone deletes content from the site Recycle Bin, it's then sent to the site collection Recycle Bin (also called the second-stage Recycle Bin).
- Only a SharePoint site collection administrator can view and restore a user's deleted item from the site collection Recycle Bin (second-stage Recycle Bin) to its original location.
- Items in the first-stage Recycle Bin never go to the second-stage Recycle Bin unless someone deletes them from the first stage Recycle Bin.
If an item is deleted from the second-stage Recycle Bin, or it exceeds the retention time, the item is permanently deleted.
- The default retention time is 93 days for both recycle bins.
- So if a user deletes an item from the first-stage Recycle Bin, it goes to the second-stage Recycle Bin and the original 93 day countdown continues.
Note: The SharePoint Recycle Bin is different from the Recycle Bin in Windows. To recover files that were deleted in Windows from your desktop or an application, try restoring from the Windows Recycle Bin first.
To restore from the SharePoint Online Recycle Bin:
- Click Recycle bin on the left side of the screen.
- Locate the file you wish to restore and single click it.
- Click Restore.
- The document is restored in its original location, before it was deleted.
Things to know about restoring from the Recycle Bin:
- Securable objects bring all their contents back with them. For example, if you restore a list, library, folder, or document set, the restored version contains all the documents and other items that it contained when it was deleted. If you restore a file or other item that has multiple versions, the restored file or item includes all the versions it contains when it was deleted.
- Most objects can't be restored if their container objects aren't present. In other words, if you delete an object and then delete the object that contained it, you must restore the container before you can restore the object. If you delete the file and the library where it was stored, you must restore the library before you can restore the file. If you delete an earlier version of a file and then delete the current version of the file, you must restore the file itself before you can restore the earlier version.
- An exception is an object deleted from a folder can be restored without first restoring the folder. The folder will be automatically re-created in its former location, but now contains only the object that was restored. You can alternatively restore the folder manually as above from the Recycle Bin. If you do restore manually, it is restored with all the contents that it had when it was deleted.
For more information on restoring deleted items from SharePoint, please see the following Microsoft article, https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Restore-deleted-items-from-the-site-collection-recycle-bin-5fa924ee-16d7-487b-9a0a-021b9062d14b