Recover a deleted file, or go back to an earlier version

Two different accidents need two different fixes. If the file has vanished, you want the recycle bin. If the file is still sitting there but the contents are wrong, because you or a colleague saved over something good, you want version history. Both are built into OneDrive, and you can use them yourself.

Getting a deleted file back

A work or school OneDrive keeps deleted items for 93 days before removing them for good, unless your administrator has shortened that. The recycle bin only exists online, so this one has to be done in a browser rather than in File Explorer.

1. Open OneDrive in a browser. Go to onedrive.com and sign in with your work account. If you are already signed in to Microsoft 365, the app launcher at the top left will take you there.
2. Open the recycle bin. In the list down the left hand side, click Recycle bin.
3. Find the file. The list is newest first. If you are not sure of the name, sort by the date deleted and work back to roughly when you last had it. Items deleted from your Personal Vault only show once you tick Show Personal Vault items.
4. Select it. Point at the file and click the circle that appears to the left of its name. You can tick several at once and restore them together.
5. Click Restore. The file goes back to the folder it was deleted from, not to the top of your OneDrive. If that folder has also been deleted, restore the folder first.

Going back to an earlier version

OneDrive keeps previous versions of a file for 30 days by default. This is the one that saves you when a spreadsheet has been overwritten, or when a document has been edited into something worse.

1. Find the file. Either in OneDrive in the browser, or in File Explorer if you have the sync app. The steps are the same in both.
2. Open version history. Right-click the file and choose Version history.
3. Look through the list. Versions are newest first, with the date, the time and who saved each one. Click a version to preview it before you commit to anything.
4. Restore the one you want. Click the ellipses, the three dots, next to that version, then Restore. The old version becomes the current one.

When it does not go smoothly

The file was in a shared folder or on a Teams or SharePoint site.

Then it is not in your recycle bin, it is in that site’s. Open the site and look for Recycle bin in the same place down the left. If it is not there either, ask us: site administrators have a second bin that staff cannot see.

You emptied the recycle bin too.

Ring us on 03333 22 11 00 rather than carrying on. There is sometimes more that can be done from the administrator side while the retention window is still open, and the sooner we start the better the odds.

Version history is not in the menu.

Either the file is not really in OneDrive or SharePoint, so check the folder path, or versioning has been switched off for that library. Tell us which file and we will look.

You need something older than 30 days.

Version history will not reach it. If we run a Microsoft 365 backup for you then we probably can, so ask.

If you get stuck

Call the service desk on 03333 22 11 00 or email support@easylifeit.com. Tell us the file name, roughly when it went missing and which folder it lived in, and we will take it from there.

Steps and retention periods checked against Microsoft’s documentation, Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive and Restore a previous version of a file stored in OneDrive, September 2026. The 93 day and 30 day figures are Microsoft’s defaults and your administrator can change them.