SharePoint Online: How to Restore a Deleted Site Collection using PowerShell?

Requirement: Restore a Deleted Site Collection in SharePoint Online.

How to Restore a Deleted Site Collection in SharePoint Online?

If you are a SharePoint Online administrator or an Office 365 global Admin, you may know that site deletions can happen accidentally, and you may need to restore them as quickly as possible. This blog post will teach you how to restore a deleted SharePoint Online site. We will also share how to restore the deleted site using PowerShell. Let’s get started!

SharePoint Online recycle bin provides the ability to recover even when an entire site collection is deleted. To restore a deleted site collection in SharePoint Online, follow these steps:

• Login to SharePoint Online Admin Center at https://YourTenant-Admin.sharepoint.com >> Expand Sites >> Deleted Sites. This page lists all deleted site collections.
• Pick the one you want to restore and click on the “Restore” button from the ribbon. 
• You’ll get a message “Site Restored” once the restore operation completes.

Restore a deleted site in SharePoint Online from the classic admin center:

Similarly, to restore a SharePoint Online site in the classic admin center:

• Click on the “Site Collection” link in the left navigation.
• On the ribbon, click on the “Recycle Bin” button. You’ll see the list of all Site Collections, along with when they were deleted and how many days are remaining before they disappear from the recycle bin.
• To restore deleted site collection, select the site collection you want to restore on the Recycle Bin page, and click on the “Restore Deleted Items” button in the Ribbon.

  

• Click on the “Restore” button in the Popup window to restore the selected site collection.

  

SharePoint Online: PowerShell to Restore a Deleted Site Collection

When a SharePoint Online site collection is deleted, it is placed in the recycle bin, and then it is permanently deleted after the retention period. Recovering a SharePoint Online site is relatively easy, and here is the PowerShell to restore the deleted site collection.

Step 1: Connect to SharePoint Online from SharePoint Online Management Shell

#Config Parameters
$AdminSiteURL="https://crescent-admin.sharepoint.com"

#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential

#Connect to SharePoint Online Tenant Admin
Connect-SPOService -URL $AdminSiteURL -Credential $Cred

Step 2: Get a List of All Deleted Site Collections

#Get All Deleted Sites
Get-SPODeletedSite

Step 3: Restore the Site collection from Recycle bin

#sharepoint online restore deleted site powershell
Restore-SPODeletedSite -Identity "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Vendors"

That’s it. Your site should be back! We’ve restored the SharePoint Online site collection using PowerShell.

Restore Deleted SharePoint Online Site using PnP PowerShell

Let’s recover deleted site in SharePoint Online using the PnP PowerShell cmdlet Restore-PnPTenantRecycleBinItem.

#Config Variables
$TenantURL = "https://Crescent.sharepoint.com"
$DeletedSiteURL ="https://Crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/Purchase"

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $TenantURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)
 
#Get Deleted Site from Recycle Bin
$DeletedSite = Get-PnPTenantRecycleBinItem | Where {$_.URL -eq $DeletedSiteURL}

If($DeletedSite)
{
    #restore site collection sharepoint online powershell
    Restore-PnPTenantRecycleBinItem -Url $DeletedSiteURL -Force -ErrorAction Stop
    Write-Host -f Green "Site Collection '$DeletedSiteURL' Restored Successfully!"
}
Else
{
    Write-host -f Yellow "Could not Find Deleted site:"$DeletedSiteURL
}

This PowerShell restores the deleted site in SharePoint Online!

If you want to delete a site collection permanently, you have to delete it from the recycle bin as in SharePoint Online: Delete Site Collection from Recycle bin using PowerShell