How to restore a deleted OneDrive or OneDrive files

For users: the recycle bin and Restore your OneDrive

Most lost OneDrive files can be recovered by the user without an admin:

To use Restore your OneDrive, open OneDrive on the web, go to Settings, choose Restore your OneDrive, pick a date (or a custom time from the activity chart) and select Restore. It rolls back every change after that point, so tell the user that legitimate work done since then is undone too; they can save copies of recent files first.

If ransomware or a bad sync caused the problem, stop the OneDrive sync client on the affected device before restoring, or the damage can be synced straight back. Our Microsoft 365 ransomware recovery page covers that order of events.

For admins: restore a deleted user's OneDrive

When a user account is deleted, Microsoft keeps their OneDrive for a retention period that starts when the account is deleted from Microsoft Entra ID:

1. For the first 30 days the deleted user appears in Deleted users in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Restoring the user restores their OneDrive and data
2. The OneDrive retention period for deleted users is 30 days by default. Admins can change it in the SharePoint admin centre or with Set-SPOTenant -OrphanedPersonalSitesRetentionPeriod. During this time the user's manager, or a secondary owner you set, can be given access to copy what they need
3. Seven days before the retention period ends, Microsoft emails the manager or secondary owner a reminder
4. When the period ends the OneDrive moves to a deleted state for a further 93 days. Shared content is no longer accessible, and only a SharePoint Administrator can restore it, using PowerShell
5. After that, it is permanently deleted

Two details often catch people out. Blocking sign-in or removing the licence does not start this deleted-user process; only deleting the account does. Removing the licence does start a separate unlicensed-account clock, covered below. And retention policies take precedence over the standard process, so content can be kept longer, or deleted sooner, than the defaults suggest.

PowerShell steps to restore a OneDrive after 30 days

If the user was deleted more than 30 days ago they no longer appear in the admin centre. Microsoft's steps for a SharePoint Administrator are:

1. Install the latest SharePoint Online Management Shell and connect to SharePoint as a SharePoint Administrator
2. Check the OneDrive can be restored with Get-SPODeletedSite -Identity followed by the OneDrive URL (based on the username, for example a /personal/ address on your -my.sharepoint.com domain). If you do not know the URL, list deleted OneDrives with Get-SPODeletedSite -IncludeOnlyPersonalSite
3. Restore it with Restore-SPODeletedSite -Identity and the URL
4. Give an administrator access with Set-SPOUser and the -IsSiteCollectionAdmin parameter, then copy the data that needs keeping
5. Once you have what you need, Microsoft recommends permanently deleting the OneDrive again, because a restored OneDrive stays available until it is explicitly deleted

Note also Microsoft's rules for OneDrive accounts left without a licence: they become read-only after 60 unlicensed days and are archived after 93. Since 1 July 2026, an unlicensed account that is not covered by Microsoft's paid billing option for unlicensed accounts is at risk of deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days, and Microsoft says this applies even if retention policies, retention settings or holds exist on the account. Leaving leavers' OneDrives unlicensed is therefore not a safe long-term archive.

Restoring OneDrive from a backup

Once the native windows have closed, or when you need a point further back than 30 days, a backup is the remaining route. A third-party OneDrive backup is held outside your tenant, so it survives the user being deleted, and depending on the product lets you:

• Restore single files, folders or a whole OneDrive to a chosen point in time
• Restore into a different user's OneDrive, such as the leaver's manager, rather than reviving the old account
• Keep a leaver's OneDrive backup for as long as you decide, rather than Microsoft's defaults
• Search across backed-up files to find what someone is asking for

Microsoft 365 Backup, Microsoft's own service, also covers OneDrive accounts and can roll an account back to an earlier restore point, to the same URL or a new one. Microsoft says OneDrive restore points are taken every 10 minutes for the first two weeks and then weekly back to 52 weeks, within the recovery window you set, and that the backups of removed or deleted users are retained for one year from creation. A rollback overwrites changes made since the chosen point unless you restore to a new URL. Our OneDrive for Business backup guide compares the options, and NinjaOne SaaS Backup, Axcient x360Cloud, Redstor, Acronis and Commvault all list OneDrive among the data they protect. Acronis can also back up OneNote notebooks stored in OneDrive as an option, and Redstor lists OneNote, including Class and Staff Notebooks.

Mistakes that make OneDrive restores harder

A few common habits close off recovery routes without anyone noticing:

• Restoring before stopping sync. After ransomware or a bad sync, restoring while the affected device is still syncing can upload the damage again
• Emptying the recycle bin to save space. Once items leave the second-stage recycle bin, the native tools cannot get them back
• Deleting leavers straight away. The 30-day admin centre window starts at deletion, and the manager may not look for files until weeks later
• No manager or secondary owner set. Without one, nobody is given automatic access to a deleted user's OneDrive or warned that it will be deleted
• Relying on unlicensed accounts. Unlicensed OneDrives become read-only at day 60, are archived at day 93 and, unless billing for them is enabled, are at risk of deletion after 365 cumulative unpaid days
• Assuming the backup covers leavers. Check what your product does with a leaver's backup when their seat or licence is removed, and set retention to match what you need

Each of these is easy to fix in advance, and a short review of your OneDrive settings usually finds them.

A simple leaver process for OneDrive

Most OneDrive restore requests come from leavers. A short, written process avoids them:

1. Make sure every user has a manager set in Microsoft Entra ID, or set a secondary owner in the SharePoint admin centre
2. Before deleting an account, check whether any files need to move to a SharePoint site or a colleague's OneDrive
3. Set the deleted-user OneDrive retention period to suit your organisation
4. Confirm the leaver's OneDrive is covered by your backup and that the backup keeps leavers for as long as you need
5. Delete the account only after these checks, and record when you did it

For mailboxes, the matching guide is restore a deleted mailbox, and our sister site covers leavers' mailboxes for email retention.

How we help

We can review your OneDrive retention settings and leaver process, recommend a backup that covers OneDrive and the rest of Microsoft 365, set it up with sensible leaver retention and run a test OneDrive restore with you before handover. Pricing depends on users, data and retention, so ask us for a quote.

Contact us about protecting OneDrive.