Quick Start
- Open the site recycle bin (Recycle bin in the left navigation, Site contents > Recycle bin, or append
/_layouts/15/RecycleBin.aspxto the site URL). - Check the top checkbox to select all visible items, or use individual checkboxes for a specific selection.
- Click Restore. Items return to their original location, with all metadata and version history intact.
For restoring hundreds of items across multiple sites, see the limitations section and the Recycle Master section below.
What Is the SharePoint Recycle Bin Retention Period?
SharePoint Online retains deleted items for 93 days across both stages of its two-stage recycle bin, counted from the moment the item was deleted from its original location. Items deleted from a document library or list first go to the site-level first-stage bin, where anyone with edit permissions on the site can restore them without admin involvement. An item only moves to the second-stage site collection recycle bin when someone deletes it from (or empties) the first-stage bin; it then stays there for the remainder of the 93 days.
Understanding the Two-Stage Recycle Bin
Knowing which stage holds the items you need is the first diagnostic step in any restore operation.
| Stage | Location | Who can restore | Capacity limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-stage (site recycle bin) | Site Settings > Recycle bin, or /RecycleBin.aspx |
The person who deleted the item, plus anyone with edit permissions on the site | Counts toward the site's storage quota; items stay until deleted from the bin or the 93 days run out |
| Second-stage (site collection recycle bin) | "Second-stage recycle bin" link at the bottom of the recycle bin page, or Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Recycle bin | Site collection administrators and site owners | Does not count toward the site's storage quota; holds up to 200% of the site quota and purges the oldest items first when full |
Before you can restore anything in bulk you have to find it, and the bin's search box matches on item name only. How to search the SharePoint recycle bin sets out what that box does and does not match, how to search the second stage separately, and how to narrow by deletion date when there is no date filter.
How to Bulk Restore Files from the SharePoint Recycle Bin
The native SharePoint Online browser interface supports selecting and restoring multiple items in a single operation.
-
Open the recycle bin for the affected site. Navigate to the SharePoint site where items were deleted. Click the gear icon (Settings) in the top right, then choose Site contents. From site contents, you will see a Recycle bin link in the top toolbar. Alternatively, append
/_layouts/15/RecycleBin.aspxdirectly to the site URL. - Filter and sort to isolate the items you need. Use the column headers to sort by Deleted date, Deleted By, or Original Location. If you are restoring everything deleted by a specific user or from a specific folder, sorting by these columns first makes selection faster and reduces the chance of restoring items you did not intend to recover.
- Select the items. Check the box in the column header row to select all items currently loaded. The bin loads more items as you scroll, and the "select all" checkbox does not extend to items that have not loaded yet, so a large bin means repeating this step. For a targeted restore, use individual row checkboxes.
- Click Restore. The toolbar button appears when one or more items are checked. SharePoint begins restoring items to their original locations. If an original folder was also deleted, SharePoint recreates the folder structure before placing the file into it. If a file with the same name already exists at the destination, SharePoint renames the restored copy with a suffix rather than overwriting.
- Verify the restore. Navigate to the library or folder where the files lived. Confirm the items appear and open correctly. For critical business documents, spot-check version history to confirm the full version list was restored alongside the current file.
Restoring from the Second-Stage Recycle Bin
If the items you need were deleted from the site-level first-stage bin, or the bin was emptied, check the second-stage bin as a site collection administrator or site owner.
- Go to Site Settings for the site collection root. Navigate to the top-level site of the site collection (not a subsite). From the gear icon, choose Site settings.
- Under Site Collection Administration, click Recycle bin. On a modern site you can instead open the site recycle bin and select Second-stage recycle bin at the bottom of the page.
- Select and restore as normal. The selection and Restore process is identical to the first-stage bin.
Limitations of Native Bulk Restore in SharePoint Online
The native browser-based recycle bin works well for restoring a manageable number of items within a single site. It becomes impractical in several scenarios that SharePoint admins encounter regularly:
- Large item counts. The UI loads items in batches as you scroll, and select-all only covers what has loaded. Restoring 2,000 items means scrolling and repeating the select-and-restore operation many times, with no progress indicator and no ability to resume if the browser session is interrupted.
- Cross-site restores. The native bin operates within a single site collection. If deletions span multiple sites (for example, folders that were incorrectly deleted across a project hub and several associated sites), each site must be handled individually.
- Filtering by date range or location. The native UI can sort by date but cannot filter to show only items deleted within a specific date range, or only items of a specific file type, without manual scrolling and visual inspection.
- Audit and reporting. The native bin provides no export of what was restored, by whom, and when. For scenarios requiring a documented restore record (incident response, compliance verification), the native interface gives you no audit trail beyond the SharePoint audit log, which requires separate querying.
See how Recycle Master handles large-scale bulk restores
Bulk Restoring a Large Recycle Bin with Recycle Master
ShareMaster's Recycle Master connects to a site collection and pages its whole recycle bin down before you filter it. Rather than scrolling through the native UI batch by batch, you filter the loaded bin and act on everything that matched. Recovering items needs a Recycle Master or Clone Master licence; the 14-day trial lets you load and filter a bin but not restore from it. Scope is one site collection, the same as the bin itself, so a restore spanning several sites means repeating the operation per site.
The key differences from the native approach:
- Filter by free text, original location, list ID, item type, deleted-before and deleted-after dates, author, or deleted-by user, rather than sorting columns and reading down.
- Restore every item that matches the filters with Recover All Items, however many there are, and choose what happens on a name clash: skip existing folders and rename existing files (the default), rename both, or skip both.
- Switch between first-stage and second-stage items from the same screen instead of navigating to a separate site collection page.
- Retry failed items one at a time automatically, so one bad item does not stop the rest of the batch.
For a comparison of what Recycle Master provides versus the native SharePoint recycle bin for admin use cases, see Recycle Master vs SharePoint native recycle bin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I restore SharePoint items deleted more than 93 days ago?
No. SharePoint Online permanently removes items after 93 days in the recycle bin (across both stages combined). After that point, native SharePoint restore is not possible. Recovery options are limited to Microsoft 365 Backup (if configured) or a third-party backup solution that captured the content before the deletion date.
Does bulk restoring from the recycle bin preserve version history and metadata?
Yes. Restoring from the SharePoint recycle bin returns the file exactly as it was at the point of deletion, including all version history, metadata column values, and content type assignment. The restore does not create a new version; it reinstates the complete prior state.
Can I restore deleted items to a different location than the original?
Native SharePoint recycle bin restore returns items to their original location only. If you need to recover content to a different library or site, restore to the original location first, then use SharePoint's Move To function (or the guide to moving files between SharePoint sites) to relocate it afterwards.
What is the maximum number of items I can restore at once from the SharePoint recycle bin?
The native UI loads items in batches as you scroll, and "select all" applies only to the items loaded so far. Restoring a large bin means repeating the operation as you go. PowerShell (via PnP PowerShell) can automate this for IT-confident admins. Recycle Master loads the whole bin and restores everything that matches your filters in one operation.