The SharePoint second-stage recycle bin is the safety net beneath the safety net. When a user "permanently deletes" items from the first-stage bin, those items do not vanish: they move to the second stage, where they sit for the remainder of the original 93-day retention window. The catch is that only site collection administrators can open this bin. Everyone else, including site owners with Full Control, gets no link and no error, just a first-stage bin with no trace of the missing content.
What is the SharePoint second-stage recycle bin?
SharePoint Online maintains two recycle bin stages for every site collection:
- First-stage bin: items appear here immediately after deletion. Site members can see and restore items from this stage. A user can also empty their own deleted items, moving them forward to the second stage.
- Second-stage bin: items land here when a user explicitly empties the first-stage bin. Only site collection administrators can see or restore from this stage.
Both stages share a single 93-day clock that starts at the moment of original deletion. A file deleted on June 1 and emptied from the first-stage bin on June 10 sits in the second stage from June 10 until August 3 (93 days from deletion). The second stage does not extend the clock; it gives admins a recovery path for content users have prematurely purged.
Who can access the second-stage recycle bin?
| SharePoint role | First-stage access | Second-stage access |
|---|---|---|
| Regular contributor or visitor | Own deleted items only | No |
| Site member (Edit) | All items in the bin | No |
| Site owner (Full Control) | All items in the bin | No, unless also a site collection admin |
| Site collection administrator | All items in the bin | Yes |
| SharePoint administrator (tenant-level) | All items in the bin | Yes (must add themselves to the site first) |
| Global administrator | All items in the bin | Yes (must add themselves to the site first) |
The site collection admin role is distinct from the site owner role. A user can have Full Control over every list and library on a site and still not be a site collection admin. Site collection admins are managed per site in the SharePoint admin center under Active sites.
If you are a SharePoint or global administrator and need access to the second-stage bin for a site you do not currently administer, you can add yourself as a site collection admin through the admin center, complete the recovery, then remove yourself.
How to access the second-stage recycle bin
Confirm you are a site collection administrator for the target site before proceeding. If you are not, grant yourself the role in the SharePoint admin center first.
- Navigate to the SharePoint site where the deleted file originally lived.
- Click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner of the page.
- Select Site contents from the dropdown.
- In the top-right area of the Site contents page, click Recycle bin. The first-stage bin opens.
- Scroll to the very bottom of the first-stage bin page.
- Click the Second-stage recycle bin link. If this link is absent, the signed-in account does not have site collection admin rights for this site.
- Sort or browse the second-stage bin by Name, Date Deleted, or Original Location to locate the item.
- Check the box next to the item (or select multiple items), then click Restore. The item returns to its original document library or list.
https://<tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/<sitename>/_layouts/15/AdminRecycleBin.aspx?View=1.
Replace <tenant> and <sitename> with your values.
This URL only works when signed in as a site collection admin for that site.
Restoring items in bulk from the second-stage bin
The native second-stage bin supports multi-select restore. Check the header checkbox to select all visible items on the current page, then click Restore. For bins with hundreds or thousands of items, the interface paginates, so large restores require working through one page at a time.
Items restored from the second-stage bin return to their original location in the document library or list. If that library has since been deleted, the restore will either fail outright or deposit the item into the site root - SharePoint does not automatically redirect files to a new path. Test with one file first.
When the item is not in the second-stage bin
If you have site collection admin access but cannot find the item in the second-stage bin, two scenarios are most common:
- The 93-day window has expired. Once an item's retention clock runs out, SharePoint purges it from both stages permanently. Recovery at that point requires a Microsoft 365 Backup subscription, a third-party backup product, or a full-site restore from the SharePoint admin center (which rolls back the entire site, not individual files).
- An admin manually deleted it from the second-stage bin. Site collection admins can permanently delete items directly from the second-stage bin. If the item is gone and the 93-day window has not yet expired, check whether another admin cleared the bin intentionally.
For a full walkthrough of every recovery option, including what to do after the 93-day window has passed, see the SharePoint file recovery guide.
Find items faster with Recycle Master
The native second-stage bin has no keyword search. You can sort by name, date, size, or location, but when the bin holds thousands of entries, locating a single file by scrolling is slow. In a tenant where users actively empty the first-stage bin, the second-stage can fill quickly.
ShareMaster's Recycle Master indexes both recycle bin stages and provides a real search interface. From within Recycle Master you can:
- Search by full or partial file name
- Filter by original library path or folder
- Filter by the user who deleted the item
- Set a deletion date range
- Filter by file type or size band
- Run the search across all connected sites simultaneously, without opening each second-stage bin separately
Once the filter returns the files you need, run a bulk restore in one operation. For tenants managing dozens of active sites, this is the difference between a five-minute recovery and a two-hour scrolling session across multiple browser tabs.
Try Recycle Master free for 14 days
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can access the SharePoint second-stage recycle bin?
Only site collection administrators can open the second-stage recycle bin. Site owners with Full Control permission cannot see it unless they have also been granted the site collection administrator role in the SharePoint admin center. Tenant-level SharePoint administrators and global administrators can reach it by first adding themselves as site collection admins on the relevant site.
How long does the second-stage recycle bin keep deleted items?
SharePoint Online has a combined 93-day retention window across both stages. The second stage does not add extra time. It holds items for whatever days remain of the 93-day window after they were moved out of the first-stage bin. An item deleted on day 1 and emptied by a user on day 10 stays in the second stage until day 93, then it is permanently purged.
Can I search the second-stage recycle bin by filename?
The native second-stage bin has no search field. You can sort the list by name, deletion date, original location, or size, but a keyword query is not available in the standard interface. ShareMaster's Recycle Master adds full keyword search and multi-criteria filtering across both stages and all connected sites simultaneously.
What happens if I delete items from the second-stage recycle bin?
Deleting items from the second-stage recycle bin permanently removes them from SharePoint Online. There is no third-stage bin. Recovery after this point requires a Microsoft 365 Backup subscription, a third-party backup product that was active before the deletion, or a site-level restore from the SharePoint admin center if a restore point covering the relevant date exists.