Recover Deleted SharePoint Data in SharePoint Online

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SharePoint Online is a cloud service like OneDrive for Business, Skype for Business, Exchange Online, Delve, Microsoft Teams, Office Online, etc., and is available as stand-alone subscription or as a part of Office 365.

SharePoint architecture comprises of sites, site collections, lists/libraries, etc. In organizations, the overall size of data is quite large in general. Many times, the user may delete any data unintentionally from any site or list, which is quite vital for the business. It is very important to recover the data as soon as possible because of the maximum retention period of a deleted site is 93 days in SharePoint Online.

There are two recycle bins in the SharePoint Online. When an item is deleted from a site, it reaches the site Recycle Bin (first-stage Recycle Bin). When you delete an item from the site Recycle Bin, then it reaches the site collection Recycle Bin (second-stage Recycle Bin). When the retention period of 93 days expires, the item gets deleted permanently from the Recycle Bin automatically.

Read Also: SharePoint Document Management Best Practices

Restore a deleted item from the site collection Recycle Bin

Here is the process to restore a deleted item from the site collection Recycle Bin

1. Login to SharePoint Online and go to the SharePoint admin center. On the left-hand side, there are all the features of the account. In the Sites category, go to Active Sites and select the site where any item is in the recycle bin. In the URL section and click the URL.
   
2. Go to Recycle Bin.
   
3. At the Recycle Bin, find and check the required item and click Restore.
   
4. If you are unable to find any item, then go to the bottom of the page and click the option second-stage recycle bin.
   
5. Here you will find the deleted items, and you can select the item and restore it.
   

If you do not find the recycle bin on the Admin page, then you can use the following method:

1. Select Settings>>Site Settings. If there is no Site Settings option, then click site information>>view all site settings.
2. Select Recycle Bin at the Site Collection Administration.

• Securable objects restore all the objects in them. When you restore the securable objects, then all its items will be restored along with them.
• Container objects are not recoverable in the absence of containers. When any object is deleted from the container, and you want to restore it, then you must be aware that the container should also be there for restoration.
• An object is recoverable without restoring the folder. If an object in a folder and gets deleted, then you can restore the object without restoring the folder (if it is deleted) because it will be created again automatically.

If you have deleted the complete site and want to restore them, then you can complete the process at SharePoint Admin Center. Here is the process –

1. Sign-in to the SharePoint Admin Center as the Administrator. If there is a message which depicts that you do not have permissions, then it means that you do not have Office 365 Administrative permissions.
2. Go to Admin Centers and click SharePoint.
3. At the SharePoint Admin Center, go to Sites and then Deleted sites.
4. Select the site which is deleted and click the Restore button.

If you are not aware of the deletion of data and are unable to find the data, then there is another way to retrieve the data.

Conclusion

There are multiple methods to recover the data from the SharePoint Online, and you can use these methods quite easily. However, it is always safe to have a backup for SharePoint data in case you are not able to recover the deleted data. You can use SharePoint Migration tool to back up your SharePoint Online data securely.