SharePoint Online, as part of Office 365, is an awesome cloud-based alternative to deploying and maintaining on-prem infrastructure. Companies can offset the cost of additional hardware, electricity, licensing, and support, and simply use Office 365. This is just one of the reasons why Office 365 is so popular among businesses large and small. Businesses will store important company communications and plans on this platform. SharePoint Online is a great choice for mobile workers, as it allows access internal sites, documents, and other information from anywhere. You can work at the office, at home, or from a mobile device.
But how can you save this treasure trove of information from human error? Accidental file deletion has happened to nearly all of us. Below we discuss Sharepoint recovery options and some retention policy issues that sysadmins need to be aware of.
First and Second Stage Recycle Bin
Sharepoint relies on a first and second stage recycle bin, for when you have misplaced or deleted some files.- You can find deleted files in the Recycle Bin (first stage);
- If you have emptied the Recycle Bin, the files are saved in the Site Collection Recycle Bin (second stage). They will be there for a period of 90 days;
- File are saved for this period, regardless of whether the file is in the Recycle Bin or the Site Collection Recycle Bin.
SharePoint File Recovery
If you need a restore for a SharePoint Online file and for some reason you can't restore it via the interface, you can submit a service request to Microsoft support. Microsoft makes backups daily, but if you lost a file you need to be quick to log the support request up to 14 days after the incident occurs. If your service request comes more than 14 days after the deletion incident, it will be hard to recover your file.