How to recover deleted files in SharePoint

Question

Is there a way to recover a file that has been deleted from SharePoint? I can't find a recycle bin.

Answer 1

Hi J. Ichiyen,

Thanks for posting in the community. We are happy to help you.

Regarding your query, yes, SharePoint has online recycle bins to store deleted items.

Please try the following steps to access the SharePoint site recycle bin.

Go to the SharePoint site> go to Site contents> click Recycle bin. If you don't see Site contents, you can click Setting  in the upper-right corner (the Gear icon)> Site contents

Additionally, if you don't see the Recycle bin button on the Site contents page, please try to modify the URL, and then access it.

a. Go to the site

For example, the URL is https://<tenantname>.sharepoint.com/sites/<sitename>/SitePages/CollabHome.aspx

b. Remove the bold part and add "/_layouts/15/RecycleBin.aspx".

https://<tenantname>.sharepoint.com/sites/<sitename>/_layouts/15/RecycleBin.aspx

c. Access the edited URL.

If you access the SharePoint recycle bin successfully, but don't see the deleted files, please go to the Second-stage recycle bin by clicking the link at the bottom of the Recycle bin page, then look for these files.

If you have checked both recycle bins and still do not see these deleted files, please report this situation to your tenant admin or IT department.

We look forward to your response. Thanks for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 2

Hi Steven,

Regarding your query, there is no built-in feature to search for specific files or filter files in the SharePoint recycle bin. If you are the SharePoint admin, you can use the PowerShell script to search for files.

PowerShell script to Search SharePoint Online Recycle bin

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 3

How can I search for specific files in the recycle bin? Or, how can I filter the contents of the recycle bin? Our recycle bin has hundreds of thousands of files, and I have a user who needs to recover all files that were deleted in a specific folder from a particular document library.