Using the SharePoint Online site Recycle Bin
Introduction
The recycle bin is a catch-all place for any user-created content that was deleted. That includes documents, folders, whole document libraries, SharePoint lists and even complete sites! So in other words, whether you delete a document from a document library, an event from a calendar, task from a task list, contact from a contacts list or even the whole SharePoint Site – they will all end up in SharePoint Recycle Bin.
One Drive for Business sync and Recycle Bin
If you are deleting items from a SharePoint Document Library synced to your OneDrive for Business, they also end up in Recycle Bin (just as if you were to delete them from SharePoint Online). This is a great safety feature for those who accidentally wipe out whole folders with a click of a (delete) button.
All documents or sites that are manually deleted (by a user) are sent to a recycle bin where they reside for a specified period before being permanently deleted. During this time, they can be recovered/ restored by the site administrator. If needed, documents can be manually deleted from the recycle bins, otherwise they will be emptied after the specified number of days. In SharePoint Online, documents are kept in the recycle bin (first or second) for a total of 93 days. In SharePoint Online this is not customizable.
Units using the retention policy feature have the option to move files to the recycle bin or to permanently delete immediately.
Key considerations
- You cannot hide the Recycle bin link (without customizing page-not recommended) however non-admin users will only see documents they have access to. Security trimming still applies.
- Items in the recycle bin are not searchable (will not show up in search results)
- Items in the first stage recycle bin count against site quota
Permissions on the recycle bin
Users will only have access to the End-User recycle bin (first stage) and can only see items they had access to.
The SharePoint System Administrator (ITS) does not see content in the recycle bin, unless they have been granted SCA access to a particular site. The SharePoint System Administrator (ITS) only sees site collections that have been deleted. See Deleting a site.
End-User Recycle Bin (first stage)
End-user recycle bin is security trimmed (meaning, you will not see items you don’t have permissions to).
Only site collection admins will see all users’s items regardless of permissions.
For non-admin/owner users the Recycle bin link will take them to the End-User Recycle Bin (first stage) where they will see only items they have access to. If the user only has view permissions, they won’t see anything.
Users with Contribute or above, can manually empty the recycle bin if needed either by selecting a single document or by selecting the ‘Empty Recycle Bin’ option. When this happens, the document(s) will move to the second-stage recycle bin.
Figure 1: Deleting a single document from the first stage bin as a regular user
When you delete from end user recycle bin, the document moves to Second-stage bin
Read more: http://www.sharepointdiary.com/2011/09/sharepoint-recycle-bins-lets-get-it-clear.html#ixzz4ccm3Voia
Figure 2: Recycle Bin with View access (nothing shows up as View access does not permit user to delete)
Figure 3: Recycle Bin with SCA access. Shows all users's deleted documents
Second stage recycle bin
When the content is deleted from the first-stage recycle bin, it’s moved to second stage recycle bin. Therefore a regular end user cannot totally purge a document from the site.
Here items are not counted on Site quota. This Recycle bin acts at site collection level, and can be accessed only to site collection admins.
It is indicated by the url /AdminRecycleBin.aspx?view=13
The second stage bin can be manually emptied as well but only by administrators. Once deleted from here, it will be permanently deleted.
Figure 4: Deleting a single document from the second-stage recycle bin. The document will be permanently deleted.
Read more: http://www.sharepointdiary.com/2011/09/sharepoint-recycle-bins-lets-get-it-clear.html#ixzz4ccpPYBiS
Avoiding the Recycle Bin
Some units may have concerns about documents residing in the recycle bin for so long. There are only 2 options for handling this in SharePoint online.
1) Set reminders to manually empty recycle bins on a more frequent basis. Currently this cannot be automated. Make sure to empty both stages of recycle bins.
2) Use Information policies to schedule deletions.
Items deleted using a retention policy will not go to the recycle bin (if the Permanent Delete option is used):
Deleting a site or subsite
Deleting a subsite operates the same way as any content. It will be stored in the site collection recycle bin and recoverable for the allotted period.
When an entire site collection is deleted, it goes into a SharePoint Admin recycle bin which can only be accessed by a SharePoint Administrator. It can either be restored or manually deleted.