Restore a deleted SharePoint list item or list

Short answer: open the site's recycle bin, tick the deleted items, and select Restore. If the items are not there, look in the site collection (second-stage) recycle bin, which a site owner or admin can use. Microsoft's page says: "For SharePoint, the retention time is 93 days." Act before then.

What "deleted" means in SharePoint

When you delete a list item, SharePoint does not erase it at once. It moves the item to the site recycle bin. The same is true for a whole list. The recycle bin is a safety net. It is not a back-up, because items leave it after a set time.

There are four different cases, and each one has a different fix:

A row was deleted. Restore it from the recycle bin.
A whole list was deleted. Restore the list from the recycle bin.
A row still exists, but someone changed or cleared the values. This is not a delete. Use version history for that row.
A column was deleted. This one is the hardest. See the limits section below.

Step 1. Find the recycle bin

Microsoft's page gives two places to look. It says: "In the Quick Launch bar navigation on the bottom left of the screen, click Recycle bin." If the link is not on the Quick Launch bar, the page says: "The recycle bin is in the top right portion of the Site Contents page." Exact names and places may differ in your site.

Open the help page for the full steps: Microsoft's guide "Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams".

Step 2. Restore the item or the list

In the recycle bin, tick the box to the left of each item you want back. Microsoft's page says: "On the Recycle bin page, click the box to the left of the items or files you want to restore."
Select Restore. The page says: "Click Restore."
Open the list and check that the rows are back, in the same place as before.

Items go back to where they were. Microsoft's page says you can restore "a list, list item, library, file, or a version of a file to its original location," as long as you have not already deleted its parent. In plain words: if the whole list was deleted, restore the list first. Rows and files cannot come back into a list that no longer exists.

Step 3. Restore many items at once

If you deleted many rows, tick all of them before you select Restore. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: restore a small group first, open the list, and check the result before you restore the rest.

Who can restore

Microsoft's page says: "You can restore items that you delete and items other people delete (as long as you have edit permissions)." If you cannot see an item you think was deleted, ask the person who deleted it to check the recycle bin, or ask a site owner.

Step 4. If it is not in the recycle bin, check the second stage

When someone deletes an item from the site recycle bin, it moves again. Microsoft's page says: "When you delete the item from the site recycle bin, it goes into the site collection recycle bin."

Microsoft's page on the site collection recycle bin says: "You need administrator or owner permissions to use the site collection Recycle Bin." Its steps are:

Open Site settings. Under Site Collection Administration, select Recycle bin.
At the bottom of the page, select second-stage recycle bin.
Select the box next to each item you want, then select Restore.

Microsoft's page on the recycle bin also says: "It stays there for the remainder of the 93 days, and then is permanently deleted." If you do not own the site, send your site owner the item name and the date it was deleted. Names of menus may differ.

How long do I have

Microsoft's page says: "For SharePoint, the retention time is 93 days." The same page says the time begins when the item is deleted from its original place. Microsoft's pages do not describe a way to get an item back after that time passes. Settings for your site may differ, so check with your admin.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: do not wait. Restore the same day and write down what you restored.

When the row is there but the data is wrong

Sometimes nothing was deleted. Someone cleared a cell, or pasted over many rows. The recycle bin cannot help here. A Microsoft Q&A answer says the version history of a list "doesn't support restoring the whole list to a previous date, but only supports restoring individual list items to a previous version." That means you fix each row one at a time. See "See who changed a row: SharePoint version history". If the history is blank, see "SharePoint list version history is blank or missing".

Limits to know

The same Q&A answer says that when columns are deleted, "the columns and all data stored in them will be permanently deleted. There is no way to restore them." Treat that as one person's answer on a Microsoft Q&A page, and check with your admin for your own site.
After the retention time ends, the recycle bin cannot bring an item back.
Restoring does not undo the cause. If a flow or a person deleted the rows, find out why before it happens again.

Make the next one easier

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule:

Keep a back-up. See "How to back up a SharePoint list before someone wrecks it".
Give edit rights to fewer people. Views do not stop deletes; permissions do.
Before you do a large clean-up, read "Delete all items in a SharePoint list without clicking one by one".
Give every row a clear name in the Title column, so you can find it by name in the recycle bin.

What to avoid

Waiting weeks. The clock runs from the day of deletion.
Emptying the recycle bin to "clean up" while you still look for an item. It sends items to the second stage.
Restoring a row before its list is back. Restore the list first.
Restoring everything at once with no check. Start with a few items.
Expecting the recycle bin to undo edits. Use version history for that.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Where is the recycle bin in SharePoint?

Microsoft's page says: "In the Quick Launch bar navigation on the bottom left of the screen, click Recycle bin." If it is not there, the page says it is in the top right of the Site Contents page. Exact names may differ.

Can I recover a SharePoint item after 93 days?

Microsoft's page says the second-stage bin keeps an item "for the remainder of the 93 days, and then is permanently deleted." Microsoft's pages do not describe a way back after that, so ask your admin.

Can I restore an item someone else deleted?

Yes, if you have the right rights. Microsoft's page says: "You can restore items that you delete and items other people delete (as long as you have edit permissions)."

How do I restore a whole deleted SharePoint list?

Restore it from the recycle bin. The parent site must still exist. Then check that the rows came back with the list.

What if the item is not in the recycle bin?

Check the second-stage recycle bin. Microsoft's page says you need "administrator or owner permissions" to use it.