Share via

Recycle Bin Retention time confusion

Anonymous
2016-10-04T22:20:36+00:00

I have read many conflicting information articles about how the Recycle Bin and Secondary Recycle bin works in OneDrive for Business.

Articles indicate retention time to be 93 days but official onedrive videos and articles show 30 days.  Which is correct?

such as https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Delete-or-restore-files-and-folders-in-OneDrive-949ada80-0026-4db3-a953-c99083e6a84f

such as: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/restoring-files-onedrive-business-larry-saytee

Also articles and misinformation seems to be abundant with the secondary recycle bin.

Some articles indicate that:

  1. Items that are deleted goes into the recycle bin for (30 or 93) days.
  2. the items are either a) deleted from existance or b) moved into the secondary recycle bin for another (30 or 93) days. making a total of 60 or 186 days for recovery.

Which is correct?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-05T01:45:01+00:00

    Hi Mr.Tangman,

    There is some misunderstanding here. Please understand OneDrive for Business is different from OneDrive. The first article you mentioned applies to OneDrive (personal use), which the second applies to OneDrive for Business.

    In SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, when some documents are deleted, they will be sent to the first-level (Site) Recycle Bin, and be kept there for approximately 90 days. Then, they will be moved to the Second-Stage Recycle Bin for another 90 days before permanently deleted. So we have a total of approximately 180 days for recovery. You can find the detailed behaviors from the article below:

    Restore deleted content in the Recycle Bin of a SharePoint site

    Note: Second-Stage Recycle Bin is only available for site collection administrators.

    When documents are moved to the Second-Stage Recycle Bin, they’re only visible for site collection administrators. For normal users, they look as if they’re deleted.

    Regards,

    Jiaxing

    7 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

11 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-11T23:28:18+00:00

    Thanks for the clarification Jiaxing.  I have one further clarification needed. In your note you say it's approximately 90 day retention for First-stage recycle bin, and approximately 90 day retention for Second-Stage recycle bin, thus equally up to 180 days total.

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Restore-deleted-content-in-the-Recycle-Bin-of-a-SharePoint-site-5fa924ee-16d7-487b-9a0a-021b9062d14b

    However as I read the article you point to it says:

    For First-stage Recycle bin:

    All items are automatically deleted approximately 90 days after they were originally recycled.

    For Second-Stage Recycle bin:

    All items re automatically deleted approximately 90 days after they were originally recycled.

    So according to the article, the 90 days is from the originally recycled date for both.  This would seem to indicate that you get approximately 90 days total. Not 180 days total.

    So I'm afraid with the wording of the official article, it's still a bit confusing.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-05T16:41:11+00:00

    I am not well versed in Sharepoint. 

    I can confirm users can access the Secondary recycle bin now, although you JUST noted that for normal users they look as if they are deleted which is NOT true.

    So just to make sure I am clear on this:

    1. OneDrive for business is part of Sharepoint Online, which is different from OneDrive Personal.
    2. When a user deletes files OneDrive for Business it goes to the Recycle bin of the Site. 
    3. The Site is the user's personal OneDrive for Business Site and therefore the administrator.
    4. When user deletes the file from the Recycle Bin (or is aged out after 90days), it goes into the Second stage Recycle Bin for another 90 days.
    5. Since the user is the administrator of their own OneDrive for Business site, they have access to the secondary recycle bin.

    Is this correct?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-12T15:26:35+00:00

    Hi Scott,

    I’d like to explain the time range of 90 days starts from the day they were recycled to the Recycle bin of each stage. So there are 180 days in total before a document is completely deleted.

    Regards,

    Jiaxing

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-06T07:57:38+00:00

    Hi Mr.Tangman,

    Yes, you’re right.

    Feel free to post back if you need further assistance.

    Regards,

    Jiaxing

    0 comments