SharePoint Online: Delete Site Collection from Recycle Bin using PowerShell

Requirement: Delete Site Collection from the recycle bin in SharePoint Online.

How to Delete SharePoint Online Site from recycle bin?

In this article, we will show you how to delete a site collection from the recycle bin in SharePoint Online. Deleting a site collection from the recycle bin permanently deletes a site collection, and the site cannot be restored without the help of Microsoft support. So, Before deleting a site collection from the recycle bin, make sure that you are absolutely certain that you want to delete it.

When we delete a SharePoint Online site collection, it goes to the Recycle Bin and stays there for 93 days. However, at times we may want to completely delete the site from the recycle bin as well, for reasons such as:

• We ran a shortage of storage quota and want to delete the site collection to obtain the space.
• We need to create a new site collection with the same URL as the deleted site (Otherwise, It gives the error: New-SPOSite : A site already exists at URL https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com)

Permanently Delete Site Collection from the Recycle bin

My other article, How to Delete a SharePoint Site, explains the easier ways to delete modern sites/communication site/team site/classic sites in SharePoint. In short, if you are a site owner, you can delete any unnecessary SharePoint sites with these steps: Open the Modern SharePoint site >> Click on the site settings gear icon >> Choose Site Information >> Click on Delete Site >> Confirm the deletion by checking the box and clicking Delete. When you delete a site, it goes to the tenant recycle bin.

To delete a site permanently from the recycle bin in SharePoint Online, follow these steps:

1. Login to Office 365 Admin >> “SharePoint Admin Center” as SharePoint Administrator.
2. Click on the “Sites” >> “Deleted Sites” link from the left navigation to get a list of all deleted SharePoint sites.
3. Select the site from the list by clicking the checkbox and clicking on the Permanently Delete button in the toolbar.
4. Confirm the delete operation in the warning message prompt!

   

Remember, deleting a SharePoint site is a permanent action, so it’s essential to carefully consider the implications and have a proper backup strategy in place before proceeding with site deletions.

Let’s see the SharePoint Online PowerShell to delete site collection from the recycle bin.

SharePoint Online: Delete Site Collection from Recycle Bin using PowerShell

You can delete a SharePoint Online site from the recycle bin with the Remove-SPODeletedSite PowerShell cmdlet:

Remove-SPODeletedSite
      [-Confirm]
      -Identity <SpoSitePipeBind>
      [-NoWait]
      [-WhatIf]
      [<CommonParameters>]

Here is an example of how to delete a site permanently:

#Define Parameter values
$AdminSiteURL = "https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com"
$DeletedSiteCollURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/DeletedSite"
 
#Connect to SharePoint Online
Connect-SPOService -url $AdminSiteURL -Credential (Get-Credential)

#Remove Deleted SharePoint Online Site Collection permanently
Remove-SPODeletedSite -identity $DeletedSiteCollURL -Confirm:$false

The deletion process may take a while, depending on the size of the site.

Permanently Delete All Site Collections from Recycle Bin in SharePoint Online:

Want to delete all sites from the recycle bin permanently? Here is the Windows PowerShell script to remove all deleted sites:

#Define Parameter values
$AdminSiteURL = "https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com"
 
#Connect to SharePoint Online
Connect-SPOService -url $AdminSiteURL -Credential (Get-Credential)

#Permanently Remove all Deleted Sites
Get-SPODeletedSite | ForEach {
   Write-host "Deleting Site " $_.Url
   #sharepoint online powershell delete site from recycle bin
   Remove-SPODeletedSite -Identity $_.Url -Confirm:$False
}

This empties the tenant recycle bin in SharePoint Online. Here is another post on deleting SharePoint Online site collections: How to Delete a Site Collection in SharePoint Online using PowerShell?

SharePoint Online: Delete Site Collection from Recycle bin using PnP PowerShell

Let’s delete site collection from the recycle bin SharePoint Online using PnP PowerShell:

#Config Variables
$TenantURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com"
$SiteURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Customers"

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $TenantURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)

#Get the Deleted Site from Recycle Bin
$DeletedSite = Get-PnPTenantRecycleBinItem | Where {$_.URL -eq $SiteURL}

#Check if site exists in recycle bin
If($DeletedSite)
{
    #sharepoint online powershell delete site collection from recycle bin
    Clear-PnPTenantRecycleBinItem -Url $SiteURL -Force
    Write-host -f Green "Site '$SiteURL' Deleted from Recycle Bin Successfully!"
}
Else
{
    Write-host -f Yellow "Could not find Site '$SiteURL' in Recycle Bin!"
} 

Conclusion:

In this article, we’ve shown how to delete a site collection from the recycle bin in SharePoint Online using the SharePoint Online Admin Center and PowerShell. Following these steps, you can permanently delete a site collection from the recycle bin to free up storage space or for other reasons. It is important to note that permanently deleting a site collection is irreversible, so it should be done cautiously!

• SharePoint Online: Search Recycle Bin using PowerShell
• SharePoint Online: PowerShell to List Deleted Sites