File restore is always a vital feature to have. You can never be prepared for that moment when an important document is accidentally deleted, overwritten or even worse, infected by malware.

A common misconception is that by storing your documents in the cloud, you relieve yourself of any responsibility for backing these documents up. That fact is, this simply isn’t true.

Your cloud provider i.e. Microsoft, AWS, Dropbox etc. are responsible for keeping their service online within their SLAs but if you accidentally delete a document, it is generally up to you to get it back.

I say “generally,” because Microsoft have now brought in some additional features in Office 365 to help you out.

The first of these is the recycle bin. This isn’t a new feature but it’s one that many people aren’t aware of. Just like the recycle bin on your Windows desktop, if you accidentally delete a file, you can go in there and restore it.

How to restore a file from SharePoint recycle bin

If you delete a file in SharePoint, you can restore this from the recycle bin by following these steps:

  1. Browse to the Document Library that contained the file you accidentally deleted.
  2. From the left-hand menu, select Recycle Bin.
  3. Choose the file in the list and then click on the restore button in the main bar.
SharePoint File Restore Image 1
SharePoint File Restore Image 2

How to restore a SharePoint Document Library

Microsoft have recently extended this functionality to be able to restore an entire document library to an earlier date. This was announced by Microsoft earlier in 2019 and has now been rolled out to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 tenancies.

This feature would be particularly useful in situations where the entire library had become compromised, such as with a malware infection.

Here is how you restore a Document Library:

  1. Browse to the Document Library that you wish to restore to an earlier time.
  2. Click on the cog icon in the top-right to bring up the settings menu.
  3. Select ‘Restore this library’. Note – this option will only appear if you are logged in with an account that has owner permission over the document library.
  4. From the drop-down ‘Select a date’ menu, choose an option of when you want to restore from. If you need to specify an exact date, choose ‘Custom date and time’.
  5. You can then use the slider to choose the date you require.
  6. Finally, choose the exact point you wish to restore from by ticking the relevant time from the list.
  7. Click ‘Restore’.
SharePoint Library Restore Image 1
SharePoint Library Restore Image 2

Conclusion

So there you have it. A couple of ways to restore files in SharePoint that you may not have previously been aware of. Happy restoring!