Advice on restoring deleted video recording of Teams Meeting (not in recycle bin or 2nd stage recycle bin)

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Advice on restoring deleted video recording of Teams Meeting (not in recycle bin or 2nd stage recycle bin)

Matilda Fuller 20

I have just realised I've deleted a video recording of a Microsoft teams meeting from 27/8/25. I saved it to a onedrive folder and then I think because I deleted the meeting in Microsoft Teams I have deleted the video everywhere. I have checked the recycling bin on my Onedrive/ Teams and the second stage recycling bin. Does anyone have any advice on anything else I can do to try and recover the recording?

Many thanks

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Answer 1

Tina L 12,435 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello @Matilda Fuller,

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A forum!

To support you better, please provide me more detail:

1.You mentioned that you deleted the recording from Microsoft Teams: Could you explain how you deleted it?

For example, did you delete the meeting event from the calendar, or did you delete a message or link in the meeting chat?

2.Was this recording created using the Teams recording feature (i.e., by clicking “Record” during the meeting)?

3.And were you the person who initiated the recording, or was it someone else?

4.Was the meeting held in a private meeting (outside of a Teams channel), or was it part of a channel meeting?

Note: If it was a channel meeting, the recording would have been saved to the SharePoint site associated with that channel.

You can infer this article: Teams meeting recording and transcript storage and permissions in OneDrive and SharePoint.

5.You mentioned that the recording was saved to OneDrive: Do you mean it was automatically saved there by Teams, or did you manually download and upload it to OneDrive yourself?

6.Are you using school account (managed by your organization)?

In the meantime, here’s another option you can try: Restore your OneDrive

This feature allows you to roll back your entire OneDrive to a previous state.

Note:

Restoring your OneDrive will revert the entire file structure to the selected date. This means you may lose recent changes or newly added files after that date.
Please make sure to back up any important current files before proceeding.

You can follow these steps:

You can access OneDrive through your web browser
Click the gear icon => Options => Restore your OneDrive

User's image

Then, you select a date before the deletion (e.g., August 27 or 28, 2025)

Follow the prompts to restore your OneDrive to that point in time.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Matilda Fuller 20 Reputation points

2025-09-22T13:54:05.3766667+00:00
Hi Tina,

Thank you for your response!

When the recording and meeting had finished I manually saved the recording to a folder in my OneDrive account and then I think I deleted the recording within the teams chat or teams chat files within OneDrive. I can still access the video recording file but it has no sound or video (I don't know if this is because I accidently clicked transcribe only or because this was deleted when I deleted the video elsewhere)

Yes, I normally click record and transcribe (I still have the transcription)

Yes I initiated the recording.

Yes it was a private meeting I created

I think I manually downloaded it and uploaded it to OneDrive myself/ but I think I may have also found the recordings automatically saved in my Recording file in OneDrive

Yes my account is managed by an organisation - I have contacted them and the IT services already but unfortunately they cannot restore anything for me.

I assume the best option for me now is to restore my OneDrive within 30 days of the 1st recording. Is it best to save all files to my desktop/PC before I do this?

Many thanks
Tina L 12,435 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-23T07:38:01.34+00:00
Hello @Matilda Fuller,

Thank you for responding.

For your concern, I will explain detail for you:

This is not really the best option but rather suggesting it as the most suitable option at this point, especially if the recording is important to you; since you’ve already checked the three main locations (Teams chat, OneDrive Recycle Bin, and Second stage Recycle Bin) and the file is still not recoverable.

At this stage, there are two remaining options before we can conclude that the file is permanently lost:

Option 1: Restore your OneDrive

As mentioned earlier, this allows you to roll back your entire OneDrive to a previous state (e.g., August 27 or 28).

However, as I noted before, this method is risky and should be done with caution.

Note:

Before restoring, I highly recommend that you:

Back up any important files that were added or changed after that date. You can download them to your desktop or copy them to another cloud folder.

Make a note of any folder structure changes you’ve made recently, as the restore will revert your entire OneDrive to the selected date.

Also, since you mentioned that the file was deleted via Teams, there’s still a chance that the recording may not be recoverable; even after restoring OneDrive. However, this is still one of the necessary steps to try before fully accepting that the file has been permanently deleted.

If the restored file still doesn’t play correctly (e.g., no video or audio), it’s possible that the recording was either corrupted during the manual upload or incomplete from the start.

In that case, unfortunately, recovery may not be possible, unless someone else in the meeting has a copy.

Option 2: Ask your IT admin to raise a Microsoft support ticket

Since your account is managed by an organization, your IT admin can submit a support request directly to Microsoft via Microsoft 365 Admin Center:

You can refer this link: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Sometimes, Microsoft support can retrieve deleted files that are no longer accessible through the user interface; especially if the deletion was recent.

I hope this detailed explanation helps clarify the situation and gives you a clearer path forward.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Matilda Fuller 20 Reputation points

2025-09-23T09:14:15.4866667+00:00

Hi Tina,

Thank you very much for this advice. This is a really helpful explanation thank you. I have one more question if that's okay:

As I am trying to retrieve 2 separate recordings (recorded and deleted on different dates) e.g. Recording 1 was completed on 27/8/25 and then deleted on 29/8/25 and Recording 2 was completed on 31/8/25 and then deleted on 1/9/25.

Is it possible to restore my OneDrive twice, once to try and recover the second recording and then again to recover the first recording - or do I need to choose which is most important to recover and only try and restore the OneDrive once?

Thank you for signposting me to the admin support ticket too.

Many thanks
Tina L 12,435 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-24T14:43:06.6866667+00:00
Hello @Matilda Fuller,

Thank you for your responding.

I will explain for you to clarify:

The Restore your OneDrive feature allows you to roll back your entire OneDrive to a previous point in time. However:

It restores the entire OneDrive to the selected date, not just individual files.

You can only perform one restore at a time; meaning if you restore to 1/9/25 to recover Recording 2, you’ll lose any changes made after that date (including potentially recovering Recording 1 if it was deleted before that).

Once restored, you can’t immediately restore again to an earlier date unless you manually re-save or back up the recovered files elsewhere first.

For that reason, you can recover both recordings by:

You restore to 1/9/25 to recover Recording 2.

Note: You need to download or move Recording 2 to your device or move it to a location outside of OneDrive to recover Recording 1 before proceeding with the second restore.

Then, you can restore again to 29/8/25 to recover Recording 1.

Important:

This process works best if you act quickly and avoid making many changes to OneDrive between restores, as those changes could be lost.

Please make sure your IT admin are aware that you're performing this restore action to avoid any potential data conflicts or retention policy issues.

I hope you remember the notes and risks I mentioned earlier, and please try using this method to see if you're able to recover the recordings through the OneDrive restore process.

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Matilda Fuller 20 Reputation points

2025-09-24T15:16:54.01+00:00

Hi Tina, thank you so much for this advice, it has been really helpful!
Tina L 12,435 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-09-25T07:15:27.1133333+00:00

Hello @Matilda Fuller,

Thank you for your responding.

I am glad to see my information is useful to you. Your valuable voice will definitely help other users who have similar questions to find the right channel and useful information faster.

If you need further assistance, feel free to post a question in this forum. It's not just me; the entire community is always here and happy to help!