OneDrive Recycle Bin: How It Works & Restore Files

Updated 14 November 2026 · Standard formula, shown below

OneDrive’s recycle bin is a safety net that temporarily stores files you delete from your OneDrive, letting you restore them within a set time window. You access it from the OneDrive website, and files stay there for 30 days by default (or up to 93 days if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription and adjust the setting). This article explains how the recycle bin works, how to recover files from it, what happens when items expire, and how it differs from your computer’s own recycle bin.

What Is the OneDrive Recycle Bin?

Every file you delete from OneDrive—whether via the website, the desktop sync app, or the mobile app—is moved to a recycle bin instead of being permanently erased immediately. This gives you a second chance to recover accidental deletions. The recycle bin is cloud-based, so it exists independently of your local computer’s Recycle Bin or Trash. Even if you empty your PC’s recycle bin, the files in your OneDrive recycle bin remain until they expire or you manually delete them.

There are actually two recycle bins in OneDrive:

First-stage recycle bin: Holds files you delete from OneDrive. Items stay here for 30 days by default.
Second-stage recycle bin: Holds files deleted from the first-stage bin (when you “empty” it). These items stay for an additional 30 days, but only for work or school accounts with a SharePoint admin setting enabled. Personal Microsoft accounts do not have a second-stage bin.

How to Access and Restore Files

To open the recycle bin, go to onedrive.com and sign in. In the left navigation pane, click Recycle bin. You’ll see a list of deleted files and folders, each showing the original location and deletion date. To restore an item, select it (or check the box next to it) and click Restore at the top. The file returns to its original folder. If that folder no longer exists, OneDrive recreates it.

To restore multiple items at once, hold the Ctrl key (Windows) or Cmd key (Mac) while clicking each item, then click Restore. If you want to recover everything, click the circle at the top of the list to select all, then Restore.

If you’re using the OneDrive desktop app, you can also access the recycle bin by right-clicking the OneDrive icon in the system tray (Windows) or menu bar (Mac), selecting View online, and then navigating to the recycle bin in the web interface.

How Long Do Files Stay? (Retention Periods)

By default, files in the first-stage recycle bin are kept for 30 days from the date you delete them. After that, they are automatically purged and cannot be recovered. For Microsoft 365 subscribers, you can extend this period to up to 93 days by changing the retention setting in the SharePoint admin center (for work/school accounts) or the OneDrive settings (for personal accounts).

Here’s a quick breakdown:

Personal Microsoft accounts (free or Microsoft 365 Personal/Family): 30 days, no option to extend.
Work or school accounts (Microsoft 365 Business/Enterprise): 30 days by default, but an administrator can set it to 14, 30, 60, or 93 days. The second-stage bin, if enabled, adds another 30 days after the first-stage bin is emptied.

Note that the countdown starts on the day you delete the file, not the day you empty the recycle bin. If you delete a file on March 1, it will be permanently removed on March 31 (if the retention is 30 days), even if you never open the recycle bin.

Emptying the Recycle Bin and Permanent Deletion

You can manually empty the recycle bin at any time. Click Empty recycle bin at the top of the page, then confirm. This permanently deletes all items in the first-stage bin. For work/school accounts, those items then move to the second-stage bin (if enabled), where they remain for another 30 days. For personal accounts, emptying the recycle bin is final—there is no second chance.

If you want to delete a single item permanently without emptying the whole bin, select it and click Delete (the trash icon) in the toolbar. That moves it to the second-stage bin (if available) or permanently deletes it.

Important: Files that expire automatically (after 30 or 93 days) are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered by any means, including Microsoft support. There is no “undo” for expired items.

Common Problems and Misconceptions

Many users think that deleting a file from their computer’s local OneDrive folder also deletes it from the cloud recycle bin—that’s true, but the file still appears in the OneDrive recycle bin. The local Recycle Bin on your PC is separate; if you delete a file from the OneDrive folder on your PC, it goes to both your local Recycle Bin and the OneDrive recycle bin, but only the local one is visible in Windows. To recover it, you need to go to the OneDrive website.

Another common issue: you delete a file, but it doesn’t show up in the recycle bin. This can happen if the file was never actually synced to OneDrive (e.g., it was only on your local device). Check that the file appears in your OneDrive folder online before assuming it’s in the recycle bin.

If you can’t find a file in the recycle bin, try these steps:

Search for the file name in the recycle bin search box.
Check if the file was in a shared folder—deleting from a shared folder may bypass the recycle bin if you don’t have edit permissions.
Look in the second-stage recycle bin (if available).
If you’re using a work/school account, ask your administrator if they have a legal hold or eDiscovery that might preserve the file.

OneDrive Recycle Bin vs. Computer Recycle Bin

It’s easy to confuse the two, but they are completely independent:

Computer Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac): Stores files deleted from local drives. It has its own size limit (usually a percentage of your hard drive) and files stay until you empty it or it fills up.
OneDrive Recycle Bin: Stores files deleted from your OneDrive cloud storage. It’s not limited by your local disk space, and retention is based on time (30 days by default), not size.

When you delete a file from the OneDrive folder on your PC, it goes to both recycle bins. If you restore it from the OneDrive recycle bin, it will reappear in your OneDrive folder on all your devices. If you restore it from your local Recycle Bin, it only comes back to that specific computer and will sync back to OneDrive if the file still exists in the cloud recycle bin.

How to Change the Retention Period (Work/School Accounts)

If you’re an administrator for a Microsoft 365 organization, you can adjust the retention period for OneDrive recycle bins:

Go to the SharePoint admin center (admin.microsoft.com → Admin centers → SharePoint).
In the left menu, select Policies → Sharing (or directly Recycle Bin if available).
Under Recycle Bin, you’ll see the “Retention time for items in the Recycle Bin” setting. Choose 14, 30, 60, or 93 days.
Save the change. It applies to all OneDrive and SharePoint sites in your organization.

For personal Microsoft 365 accounts, there is no user-facing setting to change the retention period—it’s fixed at 30 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I recover files after 30 days?

Once the 30-day (or your configured) retention period passes, the files are permanently deleted from OneDrive and cannot be recovered through the recycle bin. Microsoft support cannot restore them either. Your only hope is a local backup or a previous version if you had versioning enabled (which keeps older versions of files for up to 500 versions, but only if the file still exists).

Does emptying the OneDrive recycle bin also delete files from my computer?

No. Emptying the OneDrive recycle bin only removes the deleted files from the cloud recycle bin. It does not affect files on your local computer, including those in your local Recycle Bin. However, if you empty the OneDrive recycle bin, you lose the ability to restore those files to your computer via OneDrive.

Why is my OneDrive recycle bin empty when I deleted files?

Possible reasons: the files were deleted more than 30 days ago, you’re looking at the wrong OneDrive account (e.g., personal vs. work), the files were never synced to the cloud, or they were deleted from a shared folder where you don’t have owner permissions. Also, if you used the “delete” command on a file that was already in the recycle bin, it may have been permanently deleted.

Can I restore a file to a different location?

No. The OneDrive recycle bin always restores files to their original folder. If that folder was deleted, OneDrive recreates it. You cannot choose an alternative destination during restoration. After restoring, you can manually move the file to a new location.

Does the OneDrive recycle bin count against my storage quota?

No. Files in the recycle bin do not count toward your OneDrive storage limit. This is true for both personal and business accounts. Once a file is permanently deleted, it also doesn’t count, of course.

What happens to shared files when I delete them?

If you delete a file that you own, it goes to your recycle bin and is no longer accessible to anyone you shared it with. If you delete a file that someone else shared with you, it is removed from your OneDrive but remains in the owner’s account—it does not go into your recycle bin. The owner can still restore it if they delete it themselves.

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