How to Recover Deleted Files and Folders from OneDrive?

Microsoft OneDrive is a good service to back up, share, and sync files among different devices. If some important files in OneDrive get lost for some reason, you must want to rescue them. In this post, MiniTool Software will show you how to recover deleted files from OneDrive using different methods.

Files Get Lost in OneDrive/OneDrive Deleted My Files

Microsoft OneDrive, which is previously known as SkyDrive, is Microsoft’s file hosting service and synchronization service. You can use it to store files, share files, and sync files across computers, mobile devices, and the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles. You can even upload your Microsoft Office documents to OneDrive.

In a word, there are a lot of important files in your OneDrive. However, accidents always happen accidentally. You may delete files in OneDrive by mistake. Some users also report that OneDrive deleted their files for no reason.

The following is a real case of “OneDrive deleted my files” from Microsoft Community:

Your situation may be different. However, you just want to recover deleted OneDrive files. To help you solve the issue, we will introduce multiple methods to recover deleted files from OneDrive focusing on different situations.

How to Recover Deleted Files from OneDrive?

Recover from OneDrive Recycle bin
Restore from Recycle Bin or Trash on your computer
Restore your OneDrive to a previous time
Use data recovery software

Method 1: Recover from OneDrive Recycle Bin

Like Windows, there is a Recycle bin in OneDrive. After you delete files or folders in OneDrive, they will be first removed to the Recycle bin and stay there for a period unless you delete them permanently. Before that, you can go to the Recycle bin to restore them.

Tip: If you are using a Microsoft account, the files and folders in the Recycle bin can stay there for 30 days unless you delete them manually or empty the Recycle bin. If you are using a work or school account, they can be there for 93 days.

How to Recover Deleted Files from OneDrive Recycle Bin?

Go to the OneDrive website and sign in with your account.
Click the Recycle bin option from the left menu.
You will see the deleted files and folders. Next, you can select the items you want to recover and click the Restore button to restore the selected files to their original location.

Tip: If you are using a personal account, the Restore all items option is available for you to restore all files in the Recycle bin when necessary. But this option is not available if you are using a work or a school account.

Method 2: Restore from Recycle Bin or Trash on Your Computer

You can also restore your deleted OneDrive files and folder from the Recycle Bin on Windows or Trash on Mac. However, you will not find the deleted online-only files in your computer’s Recycle Bin or Trash.

Recover Deleted OneDrive Files from Windows Recycle Bin

To restore files from the Recycle Bin on your Windows computer, you can click Recycle Bin on the desktop to show all the deleted files and then find the files you want to recover. Then, you can right-click on them and then select Restore. These files will be restored to their original folder.

Recover Deleted OneDrive Files from Mac Trash

To recover deleted files from Trash on your Mac computer, you can open Trash and find the files or folders you want to recover. Then, you can right-click on them and select Put Back to restore them to their original folder.

Method 3: Restore Your OneDrive to a Previous Time

If you are a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can also recover your deleted files in OneDrive by restoring the entire OneDrive to a previous time when the files are still existing. Here, you need to know that this Files Restore feature can undo all the actions that are made on both files and folders within the last 30 days.

Tip: If your OneDrive files are overwritten, corrupted, or infected by malware, you can also use this method to recover your files.

You can follow this guide to restore your OneDrive to a previous time:

Go to the OneDrive website and sign in with your account.
If you are using a personal account, you need to go to Settings > Options and then select Restore your OneDrive from the left menu; If you are using a work or a school account, you need to go to Settings > Restore your OneDrive. (The Restore your OneDrive option is not available in the classic experience of OneDrive for work or school or you don’t subscribe to Microsoft 365.)
You will see the Restore your OneDrive Then, you need to open the dropdown list for Select a date and select a date when the files or folders are normal. You can also click Custom date and time when necessary.
Drag the slider to a specific date and then click the Restore button.
Click Restore on the pop-up interface and OneDrive will start the restore process. When the process ends, you can go to check whether you can find your needed files or folders in OneDrive.

If your OneDrive files or folders are not deleted permanently, you can use these 3 methods mentioned in this post to restore them.Click to tweet

Method 4: Use Data Recovery Software

You can see that the above three methods can only work when the files or folders are not permanently deleted from OneDrive Recycle bin or computer Recycle Bin/Trash, or the OneDrive restore time is not out of date. If the files or folders in OneDrive are deleted permanently and the aforementioned methods can’t help you, what should you do next to recover deleted OneDrive files?

Don’t worry. In this part, we will show you how to recover permanently deleted files from OneDrive using professional data recovery software.

In most cases, you just upload files and folders from your Windows or Mac or a removable drive or Xbox console to OneDrive. Thus, you try to rescue the deleted OneDrive files by using file recovery tools.

If you are a Windows user, you can try MiniTool Power Data Recovery, a free file recovery tool for Windows.
If you are a Mac user, you can try Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, a free Mac data recovery software.

Next, we will introduce how to recover permanently deleted files from OneDrive using these two programs.

Use MiniTool Power Data Recovery to Recover Deleted OneDrive Files on Windows

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a professional data recovery program that is designed to retrieve all kinds of files from different data storage devices like hard drives, SD cards, memory cards, and more.

This software has a trial edition. You can first use it to scan the drive where the deleted files were previously saved and then check whether you can find your needed files from the scan results. If yes, you can use a full edition to recover them without limits.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

1. Download and install the trial edition on your computer.

2. Open the software and it will enter This PC by default. Stay at this module and then select the drive you want to scan. Next, click the Scan button to start the scanning process.

3. It will take a while to finish the whole scanning process. You’d better wait patiently until the whole process ends. Then, you can see the scan results. By default, the scan results are sorted by the path. You can find your needed files after opening each path.

On the other hand, you can also search for your files using their names via the Find feature. If you click the Show Lost Files button, this software will only show you the lost files. This can also help you easily find your needed files. Besides, this software allows you to preview 70 types of files by using the Preview feature. If you want to make a confirmation, you can try it.

4. If you are sure this software can find your deleted files, you can upgrade it to an advanced version, select the desired files, and click the Save button to recover them.

Use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to Recover Deleted OneDrive Files on Mac

If you are a Mac user, you can use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to recover deleted files. This software also has a trial edition. You can go to the MiniTool download center to get this free tool.

This is a guide on how to use this software to recover deleted files on Mac:

1. Open Stellar Data Recovery for Mac.

2. Select the files’ types you want to recover according to your requirements and click Next to continue.

3. When you see the following interface, you need to select the location you want to scan and then click the Scan button to scan the selected drive.

4. After scanning, you can go to find your needed files from the scan result. You can even double-click the files to preview them and make a further confirmation.

Since you are using the trial edition of this software, you are not allowed to recover any files finally. But you can use a full edition to perform an effective Mac data recovery. You can go to the MiniTool official site to select a suitable version as per your situation.

Bottom Line

Want to recover deleted OneDrive files? After reading this article, you can find what you want. You even find methods to recover the permanently deleted files in your OneDrive. We hope these solutions can help you out.

Should you have any related issues, you can let us know in the comment. You can also send an email to [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.

How to Recover Deleted Files from OneDrive FAQ

Can you recover OneDrive files from the deleted user?

It is possible for SharePoint in Microsoft 365 Office for business. If the user was deleted within 30 days, you can recover the user and the data in it from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Where do deleted files go on Windows?

The deleted files on your Windows will be first removed to the Recycle Bin. Unless you delete them permanently, you still have the choice to restore them from the Recycle Bin to their original locations.

What happens when files are deleted from the OneDrive folder in File Explorer?

When you delete files from the OneDrive folder in File Explorer, you will not find these files on any other device in OneDrive that is using the same account. But you can still find these files in your Windows Recycle Bin, or the OneDrive Recycle bin. When needed, you can restore them from the Recycle bin.

Does OneDrive delete files?

Normally, OneDrive will not delete any files and folder in it. But the deleted files in the OneDrive Recycle bin will be deleted after 30 days (for a Microsoft account) or 93 days (for a work or school account).

About The Author

Stella Follow Us

Position: Columnist

Stella has been working in MiniTool Software as an English Editor for more than 7 years. Her articles mainly cover the fields of data recovery including storage media data recovery and phone data recovery, YouTube videos download, partition management, and video conversions.