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IT Leggi in italiano

Automatic translation from Italian. The Italian version is the reference text.

guide

How do I recover a file deleted from OneDrive?

A file deleted from OneDrive can be recovered from the online Recycle bin within 93 days. You can also go back to an earlier version if needed.

In short

Open onedrive.com, go to Recycle bin and press Restore: you have 93 days with a work account, 30 with a personal one.

Where does a file deleted from OneDrive go?

When you delete a file or folder from OneDrive, it does not vanish straight away. It lands in the OneDrive Recycle bin, a sort of online waiting room. As long as it is there, you can put it back where it was in a few clicks.

How long you have depends on the type of account. With a work or school account, the kind a company usually has with Microsoft 365, items can be restored for 93 days, unless the administrator has changed that setting. With a personal Microsoft account it is 30 days. After that, or once the Recycle bin has been emptied, the file cannot be recovered.

How do I bring a file back from the Recycle bin?

Your computer's own bin is not enough: the OneDrive one is opened from the website.

  1. Go to onedrive.com and sign in with your work account.
  2. In the left-hand menu choose Recycle bin.
  3. Point at the file or folder and tick the circle that appears next to its name.
  4. Select more items if you need to, then press Restore.

Each item returns to the folder it was deleted from. If you do not remember the name, sort the list by deletion date and look at the items from the day you noticed the problem.

If files you remember keeping in the protected Personal Vault are missing from the Recycle bin, they are hidden for security. Use the Show Personal Vault items command in the Recycle bin and unlock the vault with your identity check.

What if the file is still there but was damaged or overwritten?

If someone saved the wrong version by mistake, or deleted half of a document, the file is not in the Recycle bin because it was never deleted. You need version history.

  1. On onedrive.com, right-click the file and choose Version history.
  2. In the pane that opens, find the version you need by looking at the date and time.
  3. Press the three dots next to that version and choose Restore.

You can restore one file at a time. Versions remain available for a limited period and, with a work account, the administrator may have turned versioning off. In that case the command is missing or does not work, and you will need to ask whoever manages Microsoft 365.

What do I do if many files have disappeared at once?

This happens after a folder is dragged elsewhere by mistake, a sync goes wrong, or a virus encrypts your documents. Restoring one item at a time would take forever, so OneDrive lets you roll the whole library back to a precise moment within the last 30 days. You need a Microsoft 365 subscription.

  1. On onedrive.com open Settings (the gear icon).
  2. With a work account choose Restore your OneDrive. With a personal account that has Microsoft 365, go to Options and then Restore your OneDrive in the left-hand menu.
  3. Pick a date from the list, for example Yesterday, or Custom date and time. If OneDrive has detected a ransomware attack, it suggests a suitable date by itself.
  4. Look at the chart and the activity feed: they show what changed day by day, from newest to oldest.
  5. With a custom date, select the earliest activity you want to undo: the later ones are selected automatically.
  6. Check at the top what is going to be undone and press Restore.

Files created after the chosen moment are not lost: they go to the OneDrive Recycle bin. If the result is not what you hoped for, you can run the operation again and undo the restore itself.

How do I avoid losing files again?

A couple of habits are enough. Before emptying the OneDrive Recycle bin, check that nothing you need is in it: it is the last recovery point, and after that there is no way back. Also, if you work in a folder shared with colleagues, remember that you can only restore what sits in your own OneDrive, not files that others have shared with you: ask whoever created them to look in their own Recycle bin.

Finally, for files kept in Teams or in a SharePoint site the Recycle bin is a different one, with its own rules. If you cannot find a file in the OneDrive one, try looking there before searching elsewhere.

Sources

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Guide written with AI assistance and checked by me before publication.