Recovering a deleted email or file yourself
Updated 9 November 2026 · How-to
Most deleted items can be brought back in a minute or two without waiting for us. Where to look in Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint.
Deleted something by mistake? Do not panic. Microsoft 365 keeps deleted items for a while before they are gone for good, and for clients on a managed plan we keep a separate backup on top of that. Most of the time you can get the item back yourself in a minute or two.
An email in Outlook
First look in the Deleted Items folder. If it is there, right-click it and move it back to your inbox. If you have emptied Deleted Items, right-click the folder and choose Recover deleted items (in Outlook on the web, open Deleted Items and click the recover link at the top). Select the messages you want and restore them. This works for items deleted in roughly the last couple of weeks.
A file in OneDrive
Open OneDrive in your browser (sign in at office.com and choose OneDrive, or click the OneDrive cloud icon and choose View online), and open the Recycle bin on the left. Select the file and choose Restore. It goes back to where it was, on every device. OneDrive keeps deleted files here for about three months before they are removed for good.
A file in SharePoint or Teams
Open the SharePoint site, or in Teams the channel's Files tab and then Open in SharePoint. Choose Recycle bin from the site menu or the settings icon and restore the file from there.
An older version of a file
If a file was changed rather than deleted, for example someone saved over a spreadsheet, right-click it in OneDrive or SharePoint and choose Version history. You can open or restore any earlier version.
When to ask us
If the item is not in any recycle bin, or a large number of files or a whole mailbox is affected, contact us at hello@bitnode.tech or 855-248-2637. Tell us what is missing, where it was and roughly when it was last seen. We restore it from our backup, which keeps daily copies for 30 days and monthly copies for a year; see How your Microsoft 365 backup works.
If lots of files changed at once
If many files suddenly will not open, have strange names, or a note appears asking for payment, do not try to restore anything yourself. That can be ransomware. Follow Ransomware: what to do in the first ten minutes.
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