Microsoft 365 recycle bin: how long deleted data is kept

Microsoft 365's safety nets at a glance

These are the native recovery periods in Microsoft 365, taken from Microsoft's own documentation. They apply when no retention policy or hold is keeping the content.

The details sit on our Microsoft 365 data backup pages for each workload.

How long does Microsoft 365 keep deleted emails?

Email deletion in Exchange Online happens in stages. A deleted email first goes to the Deleted Items folder. Microsoft says the Default MRM Policy applied to new mailboxes has no tag that empties Deleted Items automatically, so mail can stay there until the user empties the folder, unless your organisation has added a retention tag that does.

Once an item leaves Deleted Items (or is removed with Shift+Delete), it is soft deleted into the hidden Recoverable Items folder. It stays there for the deleted item retention period: 14 days by default, which an admin can extend to a maximum of 30 days. Calendar items are kept for 120 days. When the period expires, the item is removed from Exchange Online.

There is also a size limit. The Recoverable Items folder has its own quota, 20 GB before warnings and 30 GB maximum by default, raised to 90 GB and 100 GB when the mailbox is on hold or covered by a retention policy. If the warning quota is reached first, Exchange purges the oldest items, first in, first out. Microsoft also notes that when a user deletes a folder they created with Shift+Delete, the folder itself is hard deleted and cannot be recovered even on hold, although the items inside are kept for the retention period.

For a whole mailbox, see restore a deleted mailbox.

How long does SharePoint keep deleted files?

SharePoint and OneDrive use a two-stage recycle bin. When a file is deleted it goes to the site recycle bin, where users can restore it. If it is deleted from there, it moves to the second-stage, or site collection, recycle bin, which only a site collection administrator can restore from.

The important detail is that the clock does not restart between stages. Microsoft says the retention time for SharePoint is 93 days, counted from when the item was deleted from its original location. An item that sits in the first stage for 60 days and is then deleted from it has 33 days left in the second stage, then it is permanently deleted.

OneDrive works the same way for individual files. For a whole OneDrive, Files Restore lets a user roll everything back to an earlier point in the last 30 days, which is useful after a bad sync or a ransomware infection on one device. For a deleted user's OneDrive, the retention period set in the SharePoint admin centre applies first (30 days by default), followed by 93 days in the site collection recycle bin. Step-by-step guides are on restore a deleted OneDrive and restore a deleted SharePoint site.

Teams, groups and Entra ID

Deleting a team deletes the Microsoft 365 group behind it. Microsoft says you cannot directly restore a deleted team; instead you restore its Microsoft 365 group, which stays soft deleted for 30 days, and the team comes back with it. Microsoft suggests archiving teams you no longer need rather than deleting them.

For Teams chat and channel messages, Microsoft's long-term mechanism is a Purview retention policy. If one covers them, deleted or edited messages are kept in a hidden folder for compliance search, but that is a compliance copy, not something users can restore from. Our Microsoft Teams backup page explains what each backup platform can and cannot protect.

In Entra ID, deleted users, Microsoft 365 groups, cloud security groups, app registrations and service principals are soft deleted and can be restored for 30 days. Microsoft Entra Backup and Recovery, for tenants with Entra ID P1 or P2, adds up to seven days of daily backups of supported objects. Both are covered on Entra ID backup.

What happens when the time runs out

When a recycle bin or soft-delete period ends, Microsoft 365 permanently removes the data. Unless a retention policy, litigation hold or eDiscovery hold was already keeping it, there is no admin setting or support request that brings it back.

That is the gap that catches organisations out. Common examples:

• Late discovery: a deleted folder or site is only missed at month end, year end or during an audit, well after 93 days
• Leavers: a former employee's mailbox or OneDrive is needed for a dispute months after their licence was removed
• Slow-burn damage: a script, sync error or attacker deletes or alters data gradually, and good versions age out before anyone notices
• Quota limits: a busy mailbox's Recoverable Items folder fills up and older deleted items are purged early

Retention policies can keep more for longer, but as our Microsoft 365 backup vs retention guide explains, they are built for compliance search rather than restoring a mailbox or site to how it was.

Why a backup closes the gap

A backup takes the time limit out of the decision. It keeps point-in-time copies of mailboxes, OneDrive accounts, SharePoint sites and, depending on the platform, Teams and Entra ID, for as long as your backup policy says. You can restore a single email from last year, a whole site from before an attack, or a leaver's files after their account has gone.

The five platforms we supply, Acronis, Axcient x360Cloud, NinjaOne SaaS Backup, Redstor and Commvault, all do this, with different storage, retention and licensing models; Microsoft 365 backup solutions introduces them. If you want to see what recovery looks like in practice, our Microsoft 365 backup and restore guide walks through the common scenarios.

Contact us to find out how far back you could recover today, and what it would take to go further.