In this article

Introduction to Office 365 SharePoint Restore
Recover Deleted SharePoint Data Without Having a Backup
Recover Deleted Office 365 SharePoint Data When You Have a Backup

Tools

SharePoint Recovery Wizard

How to Recover Deleted SharePoint Files in Microsoft Office 365?

10 Sept 2024

8 min read

Jeena

Blog Articles

Article at a glance

SharePoint has limited recovery options for deleted files, which can lead to the risk of permanent data loss:

Deleted files are retained in the Recycle Bin for only 93 days, after which they are permanently deleted.

Files moved to the second-stage Recycle Bin remain for the remainder of the 93-day period but can only be restored by global or SharePoint admins.

Introduction

SharePoint is a web-based collaboration and document management solution with over 200 million active monthly users. It is primarily used as a data storage location for the other Microsoft 365 apps and as a platform for communicating information and publishing files for everyone in the organization. With so many people using SharePoint to store their business data, SharePoint data loss due to user errors and other reasons has become inevitable.

This article explores how to recover permanently deleted SharePoint files using Microsoft 365 native features and other third-party tools.

Don't have time to read the whole article? Use our SharePoint Recovery Wizard to quickly navigate to the section that answers your questions!

Launch wizard

How can you recover deleted SharePoint files?

Microsoft does not provide any native features for the backup and recovery of SharePoint files. However, there are some indirect ways to recover or preserve SharePoint data.

Here is a diagram that illustrates all the data recovery options for deleted SharePoint files.

Flowchart showing different ways to recover your SharePoint data using Microsoft 365 native features and third-party apps.

Recovering deleted SharePoint data depends on two factors:

1. There is a SharePoint backup already in place, or
2. There is no SharePoint backup available

How to recover deleted SharePoint data without a backup?

If you don’t have a backup of your deleted SharePoint files, you can recover them from one of the following options:

1. Restore deleted SharePoint files from the Recycle Bin
2. Restore deleted SharePoint files from the second stage Recycle Bin

Recovering deleted SharePoint files from the Recycle Bin

The easiest way to recover your deleted SharePoint files is by recovering them from the Recycle Bin. The deleted files in SharePoint will be retained in the recycle bin for 93 days from the date of deletion.

Step 1: Open the site whose content has to be restored.

Step 2: Click on the‘ Recycle bin’ to view the recently deleted items.

SharePoint Site with the recycle bin folder highlighted.

Step 3: Once you find the document that has to be restored, click the "Restore” button

File selected in the SharePoint recycle bin folder and the restore button highlighted.

Limitations of recovering SharePoint files using Recycle Bin:

The deleted file stays in the Recycle Bin only for 93 days after which it gets deleted.
If you delete a site that was shared with you, it won’t be available in your trash.

Recovering deleted SharePoint files from second- stage Recycle Bin

The files that are deleted from the first-stage Recycle Bin will automatically go to the second-stage recycle Bin, where they will be retained for the remainder of the 93 days.

Note: Only a global administrator or a SharePoint administrator can restore deleted SharePoint files from the second-stage Recycle bin.

Here is how an admin can restore a deleted file from the second-stage recycle bin:

Step 1: Navigate to Recycle bin and click on the link ‘Second-stage recycle Bin’ at the bottom.

Second stage recycle in highlighted in the SharePoint recycle bin folder.

Step 2: Select the file and click on the ‘Restore’ button.

Second stage recycle bin with the restore option highlighted.

Limitations of recovering SharePoint files using second- stage Recycle Bin:

Only administrators will have access to this Recycle Bin.
The deleted files will stay here for the remainder of the 93 days after which they are deleted permanently.

How to Recover Deleted Office 365 SharePoint Data When You Have a Backup?

If you have a backup of your deleted SharePoint sites, you can recover them using the following options:

Using eDiscovery
Using third-party backup tools like SysCloud

Recover SharePoint files using eDiscovery

eDiscovery in Microsoft 365 preserves and exports electronic data which can be presented as potential evidence in legal proceedings. Data of interest can be placed on a legal hold indefinitely (hence, this is technically not a recovery). Once a hold is placed, the data cannot be deleted or modified, and the data will be only accessible to the administrator.

The native eDiscovery feature of Microsoft 365 helps in identifying and preserving the data, but it does not serve as a backup solution. It is only meant for archiving and retrieving business data.

Learn more about Microsoft 365 eDiscovery features here.

Limitations of using eDiscovery to recover SharePoint files:

Sharing permissions are not retained when files are recovered.
Once an account gets deleted, you won’t be able to restore the data associated with that account.

Recovering SharePoint files using third-party backup application

Third-party applications like SysCloud offer a fully automated cloud- to- backup and restore service. SysCloud uses industry-standard cloud storage solutions with military-grade security.

With SysCloud, IT administrators can backup and restore data in just a few clicks. Moreover, administrators can define retention rules that allow you to back up data for an unlimited period.

Why should you use third-party tools to recover permanently deleted SharePoint data?

Restore permanently deleted data: Restore specific or all sites back to the user account in just a few clicks without the trouble of importing and exporting.
Point-in-time restore: Directly restore data back to its previous location with all sharing permissions and folder structure still intact.
Cross-user restore: Restore data to another user’s account.
Self-user restore: Permit employees to restore their own files to facilitate faster recovery.
Usage reports: Receive regular reports on the status of your backup, restore, and usage reports.

Here is how you can recover deleted SharePoint files using SysCloud:

Step 1: Log in to the SysCloud backup application using your admin credentials.
Step 2: Navigate to the “Archives” in the menu bar and select the user account from the user archives whose data you want to recover.

SysCloud dashboard with the cursor on the "Archives" tab on the menu bar.

Step 3: Select SharePoint from the "App archives" tab.

SysCloud backup archives that shows the list of apps backed up under Microsoft 365 account.

Step 4: Select the site name to be restored and click on the Restore button.

Screenshot of restoring a SharePoint Site from the SysCloud backup archives.

In this article

Introduction to Office 365 SharePoint Restore
Recover Deleted SharePoint Data Without Having a Backup
Recover Deleted Office 365 SharePoint Data When You Have a Backup

Tools

SharePoint Recovery Wizard