How to Restore a Deleted SharePoint Site in an Instant?

Read time: 5 minutes

The SharePoint Site serves as the central hub for users to store, retrieve, arrange, and distribute information effortlessly. It facilitates seamless collaboration among multiple users working on projects together. However, what happens when a user accidentally deletes a Site?

Accidental deletion is one of the most common reasons for data loss. Deleting a Site and its entire contents is a swift process that could become a nightmare for any organization, especially if data backups haven’t been made. Fortunately, Microsoft, being a tech giant for valid reasons, has anticipated such scenarios. Consequently, your data isn’t instantly wiped out but remains secure for a specific period post-deletion. The ability to promptly restore a deleted SharePoint Site will be explored in detail here.

What happens when you delete a Site in SharePoint?

As they say, “Half knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge.” You must know about all the critical factors related to restore and delete a SharePoint Site–

• After pressing the delete button, there’s a window to recover deleted SharePoint content, but the clock is ticking. Classic Sites get a 93-day grace period, while Modern Sites only get 30 days. Once this timeframe expires, the Site bids farewell permanently, unless you’ve backed up your data externally.
• Two Recycle Bins are in place: one for primary contents and another for secondary items. Upon deleting a site, it directly enters the Second-stage Recycle Bin, while remaining contents find their way to the First-stage Recycle Bin.
• Restoring a deleted SharePoint Site from the Second-stage Recycle Bin is a task reserved for Global or SharePoint Administrators, who possess the necessary permissions.
• The deleted Sites and the content remain in the Recycle Bin for 93 days unless-
  • The Recycle Bin exceeds its storage quota and begins to remove the oldest items.
  • The Site Collection Administrator manually deletes items from the Bin.
• The recovery process of a large-sized deleted Site can take some time.

After securing the Admin credentials, recovering a deleted SharePoint Site, whether it’s Modern or Classic, becomes a breeze. Find the step-by-step methods right here.

Effortlessly revive communication and team sites with your expertise as a SharePoint Administrator. Also, recovering a team Site would restore its associated Microsoft 365 Group and its content.

1. Launch Office 365, and from the App launch, select Admin.
2. Choose SharePoint from the Admin Centers.
3. In the SharePoint admin center, expand Sites and select Deleted Sites.
4. A list of all the deleted Sites will appear. Check the box against the Site you need to recover and select Restore.

Note: You can apply the ‘Time deleted’ filter to sort and filter the deleted Sites.

5. A confirmation message will appear. Select Restore to confirm the recovery of the Site.

A SharePoint Site Collection is essentially a bunch of Sites, each hosting its own set of subsites. Deleting a subsite sends it directly to the Second-stage Recycle Bin. To recover a deleted SharePoint Site, follow these steps:

1. Head straight to the root of the Site Collection, the highest-level site.
2. Log in using the Site Collection Administrator credentials.
3. In the upper-right corner, simply tap on the gear-shaped Settings icon, then opt for Site Settings in the ensuing drop-down menu.
4. Under the Site Collection Administrator section, choose Recycle Bin.
5. Click on the Second-stage Recycle Bin option at the bottom of the page.

Note: The First-stage Recycle Bin can be empty.

6. Tick the box next to the desired Site for recovery, then select the Restore option located at the top.
7. This chosen site will no longer be visible here, but you can confirm its absence in the source site collection.

A SharePoint Admin juggles various responsibilities, one of which involves overseeing multiple Sites. Detecting an unintended deletion may require a significant time investment. However, the window for identifying and restoring deleted SharePoint Sites is limited to 93 days. Beyond this timeframe, the organization risks saying goodbye to valuable data.

To shield yourself from potential disasters, it’s crucial to consistently back up your data. Alternatively, you can opt to transfer the data to an alternative SharePoint account. Consider leveraging the capabilities of Kernel Migration for SharePoint, a robust migration tool that adeptly handles the seamless transfer of all data—be it site collections, lists, libraries, metadata, and more—across different SharePoint versions.

Being ready for the worst scenarios is the wise approach, especially when it involves safeguarding your valuable data. Don’t overlook any detail in ensuring its security. We have given you a best approach for safekeeping the data through our SharePoint migration software that is well prepared to migrate all types of data between the accounts.

Conclusion

Accidental deletion stands out as the main culprit behind data loss in cloud platforms, as indicated by various prominent surveys. However, the good part is that a Global or SharePoint Administrator can recover deleted SharePoint Sites within a few clicks, provided it is still under a retention period of 93 days. Making regular backups of your data is a smart move, putting you in a win-win scenario. This practice equips you to guard against human errors and potential malicious activities.