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The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting documents, list items, lists, folders and files. When you or site visitors delete any of these items from a Web site, the items are placed in the Recycle Bin.

Overview

View items in the Recycle Bin

Delete items in the Recycle Bin

Restore items in the Recycle Bin

Overview

Items in the Recycle Bin remain there until you decide to permanently delete them from your Web site, or until the items are permanently deleted after a set number of days, which is based on a schedule defined in Central Administration. When you delete an item from a Web site, the item is sent to the site's Recycle Bin. If you click Recycle Bin on the Quick Launch, you can see all of the items that you’ve deleted from your site. You can either restore or delete the item from the Recycle Bin. When you delete an item from the Recycle Bin, the item is sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin.

End-user deletes the Agenda document from a document library.

The document is moved to the Recycle Bin for the site, where people can restore it or delete it.

If the file is deleted from the site Recycle Bin, it is sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, where an administrator can restore it or delete it permanently.

The Site Collection Recycle Bin gives the administrator of a site collection (site collection: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.) greater control over deleted items by providing you with a second stage safety net before an item is permanently deleted from a site. By default, a second stage Recycle Bin stores items that you delete from your Recycle Bin. When you delete an item from your Recycle Bin, the item is sent to a second stage Recycle Bin that the administrator of the site collection manages.

The Recycle Bin is enabled in a site collection by default, and is configured in Central Administration at the site collection Web application level. When enabled at this level, the central administrator can specify how long items remain in the Recycle Bin before the items are emptied. The central administrator can also disable the second stage Recycle Bin, or disable the Recycle Bin in a site collection altogether.

As a site collection administrator, you can view and manage deleted items across a site collection from the Site Collection Recycle Bin page. From this page, you can view items that are currently in a users' Recycle Bin and items that a user has deleted from his or her Recycle Bin (which is the second stage Recycle Bin). Users who delete an item in the Recycle Bin can contact you to restore the item back to its original location as long as the item hasn't exceeded the original deleted date that the central administrator set. By default, items in the Recycle Bin are deleted automatically after 30 days. Regardless of whether or not an item is sent to the users' Recycle Bin or to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, items are deleted automatically after the number of days that the central administrator specified.

View items in the Recycle Bin

1. On the top-level site, click the Site Actions menu , and then click Site Settings.

    Note    On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

2. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Recycle bin.
3. On the Site Collection Recycle Bin page, in the Select a View section, do one of the following:
• To view items that the user has sent to the Recycle Bin, click End user Recycle Bin items.
• To view items that the user has deleted from the Recycle Bin and has sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, click Deleted from end user Recycle Bin.

Delete items in the Recycle Bin

1. On the top-level site, click the Site Actions menu , and then click Site Settings.

    Note    On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

2. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Recycle bin.
3. On the Site Collection Recycle Bin page, in the Select a View section, do one of the following:
   • To view items that the user has sent to the Recycle Bin, click End user Recycle Bin items.
   • To view items that the user has deleted from the Recycle Bin and sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, click Deleted from end user Recycle Bin.
4. Select the check box next to the items that you want to delete. To select all of the items at once, select the check box next to Type.
5. Click Delete Selection.

 Note    When you view items in End user Recycle Bin Items, the items that you delete are sent to Deleted from end user Recycle Bin.

Restore items in the Recycle Bin

1. On the top-level site, click the Site Actions menu , and then click Site Settings.

    Note    On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

2. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Recycle bin.
3. On the Site Collection Recycle Bin page, in the Select a View section, do one of the following:
   • To view items that the user has sent to the Recycle Bin, click End user Recycle Bin items.
   • To view items that the user has deleted from the Recycle Bin and sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin, click Deleted from end user Recycle Bin.
4. Select the check box next to the items that you want to restore. To select all of the items at once, select the check box next to Type.
5. Click Restore Selection.

If you restore an item that was originally located in a deleted folder, the folder is recreated in its original location, and then the item is restored in that folder.