Forum Discussion
Extending the default restoration time period in SharePoint Online more than 14 days
Hi All,
As we all know , the default restoration time period to restore a deleted content in SharePoint Online ( i.e. Office 365 ) is 14 days . Is there any possibility for extending that ? If yes , how can I achieve that ? I read somewhere that you need to run a Powershell command to increase the time period for upto 30 days . Can someone let me know how to achieve that ? Thanks in advance .
The info you've read most probably concerned the Exchange Online single-item recovery window, it's not applicable to SharePoint Online. The restoration process is entirely driven via support requests, we dont have any options to control it.
The self-service options are detailed in the information Cian Allner posted above.
To add to Vasil's point, the default retention time for deleted items is 14 days in Exchange Online. You can amend this to a maximum of 30 days:
Set-Mailbox -Id "Some Mailbox" -RetainDeletedItemsFor 30
You can also use the Set-MailboxPlan cmdlet to change the default from 14 days to anything up to 30 days.
This setting controls the time deleted items spend in the Recoverable Items folder before they are permanently removed from the database (unless on hold).
TonyRedmond....Thanks for the update
I think that 14 days could be misleading, though I can see it mentioned in the SharePoint Online Service Description:
"Data protection services are provided to prevent the loss of SharePoint Online data. Backups are performed every 12 hours and retained for 14 days. This describes the data backup services as offered when SharePoint Online is generally available."
Restorations can only be completed for site collections or sub-sites, not for specific files, lists, or libraries. If you need to recover a specific item, find it in the Recycle Bin, right-click it, and choose Restore.
This is more when a site collection has been damaged beyond repair and needs a complete restore I believe.
Elsewhere, in Restore a deleted site collection, for when a site collection is deleted:
"The Recycle Bin in SharePoint Online in Office 365 for business provides a safety net when an entire site collection is deleted. When a SharePoint Online administrator deletes a site collection, it is placed in the Recycle Bin, where it is kept for 90 days before it is automatically permanently deleted."
For items that are deleted it says in Restore deleted items from the site collection recycle bin:
"When you delete content from a SharePoint site, it’s sent to the site's Recycle Bin or first-stage Recycle Bin, where you can restore the deleted content if needed."
"In SharePoint Online, the default retention time is 93 days for both site recycle bin (first stage) and site collection recycle bin (second stage)."
"The site collection recycle bin retention starts at the same time for both recycle bins when the item is first deleted, so the total maximum retention time is 93 days for both recycle bins."
These recycle bins don't stack and offer at most 93-day retention that is discussed here as well in this discussion - Recycle Bin Duration.
