A SharePoint administrator can restore a recently deleted SharePoint Online site through the SharePoint admin center. Microsoft retains deleted sites for 93 days before permanently deleting the site and its contents.
What the restoration includes
Restoring a site recovers its associated SharePoint content and settings, including:
- Document libraries
- Lists
- Pages
- Permissions
- Site settings
- Subsites, where applicable
You need SharePoint Administrator permissions or a higher Microsoft 365 administrative role.
Restore the site
- Sign in to the SharePoint admin center.
- Open Sites.
- Select Deleted sites.
- Find the site using its name, URL, or deletion date.
- Select only the site you want to recover.
- Select Restore.
The Restore button might not appear if multiple sites are selected. The restoration can take time. After it finishes, the site should return to the Active sites list.
Verify the restored site
- Open Active sites in the SharePoint admin center.
- Search for the restored site.
- Open its URL in a private browser window.
- Confirm that document libraries, lists, and pages are present.
- Review owners, members, and site permissions.
- Test access with a standard user account.
Check any applications, Teams tabs, Power Automate flows, or other services that depend on the site URL.
Understand the Microsoft 365 group limitation
If the site was connected to a Microsoft 365 group, restoring the SharePoint site can also restore the group and its resources.
- A deleted SharePoint site is retained for 93 days.
- Other Microsoft 365 group resources are retained for only 30 days.
If more than 30 days have passed, the SharePoint site might still be recoverable even though some associated group resources are no longer available.
Restore with SharePoint Online PowerShell
Administrators can also restore a site through SharePoint Online Management Shell:
Restore-SPODeletedSite -Identity "https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/project-site"Replace the example URL with the complete URL of the deleted site. PowerShell is useful when the administrator already knows the site URL or needs to include restoration in an administrative workflow.
If the site is not listed
- Confirm that fewer than 93 days have passed.
- Make sure you are viewing the correct Microsoft 365 tenant.
- Confirm that your account has SharePoint administrative permissions.
- Check whether the site itself was deleted or only a page, library, folder, or file.
- Review the Microsoft 365 service health dashboard for relevant incidents.
Items deleted from within an active site must be recovered through that site’s recycle bin rather than the Deleted sites page.
After recovery
Record why the deletion occurred and review administrative access. For important sites, consider Microsoft Purview retention policies and an independent Microsoft 365 backup strategy.
